I am currently a junior student at a top 30 Florida public school. My current weighted GPA is a 3.96 or 3.98 (depending on how my finals went). My plan was to take 5 AP Classes on FLVS (sounds crazy, but I can do it) over the summer to bring my weighted GPA up to a 4.1. By the end of my first semester of my senior year, my unweighted GPA will be a 3.5 with a weighted GPA of 4.2. However, my class rank is pretty bad (top 33% right now; top 25% after virtual school classes). My ACT score is currently a 35 composite with a 30 on the essay. I will most likely be at least a National Merit Commended Scholar. I have done a lot of meaningful extracurriculars that I can list on a separate reply. I have, however, had some dire circumstances. During eighth grade, I suffered a concussion and missed a week of school to go to a funeral. I also had to face the repercussions of a falsely accused domestic violence case.This caused me to get C’s in both semesters of biology honors and geometry honors. In ninth grade, I got a serious case of strep throat that caused me to miss a lot of school. This caused me to get two semester A’s and four semester B’s for the second semester. During my sophomore year, I got mono, the flu, and strep throat. This caused me to get C’s for both semesters of AP European History and Spanish 4 Honors. Over last summer, my dad got relocated to a town 2.5 hours away from where I live. I had to look around the house and struggled a bit for the first semester by pulling off three A’s and three B’s in all AP’s. I am also currently receiving treatment for Crohn’s disease. This semester, I hopefully improved a bit by pulling off four semester A’s and two semester B’s. I am projected to graduate with over 40 high school credits, the highest ever in the history of my school. Are my chances for these schools even plausible at this point?
Volunteer: 300 hours over the summers at a migrant clinic in a rural town 20 minutes away (I tested the patients for their hearing)
800 on Math 2, 800 on Chemistry, and 800 on Biology M
AP’s: Chemistry(5), Euro(4), Physics 1(5), Calc AB(5)
I am taking AP Bio, AP English Lang, AP Psych, AP US History, AP Physics 2, AP Calc BC, and AP Statistics this year as a junior.
Senior year schedule: Physical chemistry 1 for first semester (Thermodynamics and kinetics) at local college, Organic Chemistry 1 and 2 for two semesters at local college, Ordinary differential equations first semester/ Biochem 1 second semester, AP World History, AP English Lit, and AP Physics C (both classes)
Extracurriculars: Envirothon team member junior year and next year for the number one team in my region and top 10 in state
Founder of a National Science Bowl Chapter at my school
Math tutor in Algebra 2 through Calc
Chem tutor in Chem honors, Ap Chem, and first semester organic chemistry
Mock trial team member for a team that is top 3 in the state
Investment club board member who gives lectures and presentations on the basis of investing
Key club member freshman year and senior year
Olympiad training group founder(works with various teachers to incorporate practice sessions for the amc10/12, aime, USNCO(Local and national rounds), F=ma, and USAPHO)
Brain bowl member
Mu alpha theta member
(Became a second team member for the calculus division in my junior year and first team member for the calculus division in my senior year; I have also gotten top 30 in nearly every single competition in my junior year season)
Regional soccer champion freshman year
Second place in regional chemistry lab team round
While you have great scored and ECs, your GPA is what is going to limit you. Although your weighted GPA is close to a 4.0 and may move up beyond a 4.0, most schools look at your unweighted GPA to have a more level playing field for all of the applicants. In that case, a 3.5 is pretty low for UChicago and Northwestern. Most applicants to these schools have have close to a 4.0 UW GPA. Other than UChicago and Northwestern, I think you have a pretty good chance at getting into the schools you listed. Just make sure to emphasize what makes you stand out in your essays.
Good luck.
Really? I have a good chance at UNC and UVa, despite being out of state? Isn’t my GPA going to get me rejected at nearly any top 30 school that I apply to? @ap012199
I don’t think your GPA will be the end-all at those schools, but I could be wrong. I’m not too familiar with how important GPA is to those bigger schools, but both those schools have an acceptance rate of around 30%. Although your GPA is a little low for those schools, you have an amazing ACT score which I think could get you in (as long as your essays are good). However, in not too familiar with UVA and UNC, so I could be wrong.
Your chances for UVA and UNC as an OOS student are low, because of your GPA.
First, if you apply Early Action to both UVA and UNC, they will be making an admissions determination based on the grades at the end of your junior year (or perhaps the summer if you take the class you reference). Your current GPA won’t be competitive for UVA or UNC; and even if you have a 4.1 weighted GPA by summer’s end, I still don’t think that it’s enough. Second, it’s hard to predict just how well you will do in your classes over the summer and next year; and you might not do as well as you think you will. “There’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip.”
Insofar as your ECs go, you have lots of memberships but the overall impression is one of resume building.
Low chances for Emory, U Chicago, and Northwestern, also, for the same reasons above. You should not have too much trouble getting into school in Gainesville as an IS student, however.
In order to maintain geographic diversity, UF sometimes limits the number of acceptances from one high school. It also tends to place more emphasis on GPA vs test scores. If the OP has a low class rank and lots of kids from the high school apply there, Gainesville should not be considered a safety.
The OP should be looking for schools that place more emphasis on test scores than GPA. Schools like Vanderbilt have this reputation. The following thread might be helpful.
^ My response about the OP’s chances at UF was somewhat imprecise; I didn’t mean to suggest that it was necessarily a safety school.
I can say that Emory is more sensitive to course rigor and the unweighted GPA so may actually like you going maxing out and going beyond HS offerings (though if admitted, I would honestly retake most of those courses at Emory…as in forfeit those credits because you can’t bring in but so many). A legacy with the same stats 2 years ago (like 3.5UW and 34 or 35 ACT) was waitlisted there unfortunately. Vanderbilt “may” consider you, but this girl was wait-listed there as well. All I can say is it is more stats sensitive than many of its peers. The others may care less and just get too distracted by the UW GPA.
I don’t mean to pry, but your “dire circumstances” seem a little… dramatized? I’m not sure why missing a week of school in eighth grade would at all affect your high school transcript, or why your apparently severe illnesses only caused poor grades in some of your classes. My sincere apologies if these are more severe than I understand or than you are letting on, but it seems like you’re making excuses at this point quite frankly. If you include these circumstances in applications, I highly recommend asking your GC to do so so it doesn’t come off as such.
What concerns me is that the top/elite schools generally consider “extreme circumstances” to be cases of where the student demonstrated excellent grades, EC’s, promise, etc. before AND after a very traumatizing event. For example: a student with generally amazing grades who is an outstanding tennis player and quiz bowl captain has a particularly bad semester in sophomore year, receiving a string of C’s due to the death of a parent or a bout of a potentially life-threatening disease. This happens only in the one semester, and after that is generally back to the same level of achievement. In your case, there seems to be no period which you can point to and say “that was a result of my best effort!”- you have circumstances for everything, most of which are mild to moderate illnesses (many people get the flu or strep throat yearly and don’t suffer academically). How are colleges supposed to know what you are capable of if you’ve never been able to demonstrate it? I really am not trying to come off as mean, but I hope you understand what I’m getting at.
The OP might take a look at the following link which displays the acceptances and rejections for UF graphed by GPA and ACT test score. Applicants with GPA’s below an unweighted 3.5 had a very hard time getting accepted despite the strength of the ACT, while those with a GPA greater than 3.5 generally got in despite poor ACT scores.
If the OP spends some time searching for schools that give a preference to the ACT, I am sure they can find some.