Still wondering if my extracurricular activities are good enough or not so I can work on them.
@SirEdan yeah… because you were on a gap year and because you made the best of it, im sure if you were to explain your situation, colleges will have a bit of leeway on your gpa (not completely though), so I’m sure you could get into better schools that you would have in high school, but I’m not too sure if you can get into many ivy’s though. Just try berkeley, ucla, u mich, ut austin, and the likes. they are all good schools, but not as competative as the ivy’s.
@iamjack With a “2.7 - 3.1 weighted”? Are you serious? I go to Penn State, often cited as a party school not quite on the level of Berkeley or UMass, and that kind of GPA (plus an ACT at the national average) would get one sent to a branch campus. I think OP is absolutely aiming too high, and applying to too many reaches is probably going to result in a second wasted year out of school.
@bodangles Maybe I wasn’t being to clear… I also would say that berkeley and umich are reaches, but I would still encourage him to apply because being on a gap year is an unusual circumstance. If he can prove them that he matured, maybe he can get some sort of deferred acceptance and be asked to transfer in from CC. OP, if you get rejected, I would advise you to go to community college and get a 3.7+ gpa there, and I think you would have pretty good chances and berkeley and the other schools i’ve mentioned with your EC’s. I think the CC route may be a better option.
Also… is UMass good? Or did you mean to say U Mich?
@bodangles Are you reading my post correctly ? I said “I’ve pretty much gave up on Ivy schools.” My high school was a small public one that didn’t offer great opportunities that would make me a good candidate for Ivies. My 4 years at that school as mostly spent watching videos to get a grade. To be honest with you, I’m pretty dam surprised I scored the national average on the ACT for just watching videos for 4 years in HS and not studying for it.
Also, to get an INTERVIEW for asset management firms (mind you I’m working at the best one), you would need to have around a 3.5 GPA. So, my 2.7 - 3.1 weighted GPA truly doesn’t show what I can truly do–thanks to my high school.
@iamjack I just might go with the CC route. Thank you for the advice.
@iamjack Might be UMich that everyone fawns over, yeah. My bad – don’t know much about either of them.
@SirEdan I’m not even talking about Ivies anymore. Some of those top public schools iamjack mentioned (which might cost a lot, if you’re out of state – check out in-state options too) are almost as selective as Ivies. There are Ivy-caliber students there, too.
Just as something to think about: if your hs didn’t prepare you well for college, what has changed? What makes you a qualified candidate now? Whatever that is (might be the internship, but I’d be surprised if an internship taught you how to study and take tests?), that’s probably a good thing to highlight on your app.
@bodangles Well, you guessed right. 1 of my managers bought me the “Cracking the ACT” book and my other manager bought me a book called “Fundamentals of fund administration”–it seems they both want me to work here.
I apologize for getting Penn state and university of Pennsylvania mixed up.
Edit: I also didn’t not ask for either books and my manager wants to study with me for the ACT.
@SirEdan It sounds like you have an excellent opportunity during your gap year, and are making the most of it. That is great.
In my opinion, it is extremely important to improve your ACT score. Getting into a better college is good, but an asset management employees have advanced skill sets. To be a skilled employee in that environment you need to develop the reading, writing and math skills hat the ACT is testing. By preparing for the test, you will be improving those skills. I would challenge you to improve to at least a 25, if you can. If you are motivated, it can be done.
- I love your username
- I’m planning on getting around a 30 on the test at least
- I thank you for the advice.
Great job, @SirEdan. It is always better to set a high goal and miss it by a little, than to set a low goal and achieve it.
If you can afford it, you might consider a weekly skype with a tutor. Many are not very expensive and having someone to explain issues and answer questions for an hour or hour and 1/2 on weekends can save a lot of time when you are working toward a significant improvement.
Good luck!
It sounds like you are surrounded by Ivy graduates at your internship. Good that they want to help you, and definitely take advantage of that. They can probably help you boost your ACT, which will help with admissions. But given the long stretch to Ivies, you are still going to have to target a lower tier. But you may be able to get into a solid second or third tier school, and that can give you a great education. You will still want to clear that college credit question with any college you apply to (freshman or transfer student status?).
Can you describe what your internship at Blackrock entails? What exactly are they having you do?
@Falcon1 I’m doing a mix of front and back office–mostly back office/operations–here at BlackRock.
@intparent By the way, could you tell me how you got that 93/100 is a 3.84 GPA ? I just wanna see which method you used. Thank you.
I Googled for a translation table. Don’t remember the exact search I used now. But almost all the time, 90-100 is the A range, 80-90 is the B range, etc. So that translation makes sense. Occasionally a school does something goofy and that isn’t what their numbers mean. But nearly all the time, it is.
iamjack, et al - re: post #21 - I implore you to refrain from posting irresponsible, uninformed suggestions such as recommending that the OP apply to Berkeley or Michigan. ALL UC campuses require a MINIMUM GPA of 3.4 in order for an out-of-state applicant to be eligible for consideration. The OP will waste $70 by submitting an application which will be rejected immediately. Berkeley and UCLA generally need a UC-weighted GPA of over 4.0 for an applicant to be remotely competitive. Michigan is also very GPA-centered in admissions. No internship will compensate for the OP’s low GPA at those huge public universities. The UCs do not accept sophomore transfers, furthermore; they only accept junior transfers, who draw overwhelmingly from CCs in CA. If the OP is interested in realistic suggestions, I’m sure many people here are willing to offer them. Nobody is helping by injecting more unrealistic ones.
@intparent If that’s true, then I guess I’m a B student–not happy about it.
@woogzmama I don’t know what you mean by saying “UCs do not accept sophomore transfers”. I’m not even in college yet.
Did you say the GPA you have was weighted? Colleges look at unweighted GPAs – so you may be even lower than a B student, depending on what classes you took.
The reason people keep suggesting you may be a transfer student is that you said you earned college credits from a program AFTER you official high school graduation date. In most cases, colleges will then consider you a transfer student instead of an incoming freshman. But you need to validate this with the admissions offices at.colleges you plan to apply to. They probably make exceptions at some schools in some situations. Read their websites and call to check.
@SirEdan, It’s important to find put if your current credits make you a transfer student. The best merit grants go to freshmen, so if you’re not yet considered a transfer, don’t take classes at a cc or you’ll become one. Transfers generally don’t get much financial aid. Retake the ACT and apply to a good range of safeties, matches, and reaches. Good luck.
As others have stated, you’re probably better off applying to state universities. There’s nothing wrong with going to a state university; what you put into your education is what you’ll get out.