Do I have any shot at Pepperdine

Applying to College
1

<p>I really wanna go out of state and Pepperdine and the University of Delaware are the only schools I haven't heard back from.</p>

<p>-3.25 GPA unweighted (upward trend)
-4.0 GPA weighted on a 6.0 scale (6.0 for "A" in AP course, 5.0 for "A" in honors course..etc)
-13 of 62 class rank
SAT:
CR 650 MATH 630 WRITING 550 TOTAL: 1830</p>

<p>-Presbyterian
-Have documented hundreds of hours of community service
-Played 1 varsity sport 1 JV sport
-Attended 3 different high schools which is why my GPA is so bad
-resident of NC
-Accounting Major (does this even effect my decision at all?)</p>

2

<p>Very little chance.</p>

3

<p>50/50 on Pepperdine. <a href=“http://www.collegedata.com/cs/admissions/admissions_tracker_result.jhtml?schoolId=1121&classYear=2014[/url]”>http://www.collegedata.com/cs/admissions/admissions_tracker_result.jhtml?schoolId=1121&classYear=2014&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>basically saying that I should apply. I wouldn’t have even applied if it hadn’t been for that letter, but then I realized they probably sent me the letter because they need to fill a certain number of applicants from my state. Does that better my chance at getting in?</p>

5

<p>

your suspicion is partially correct. The job of admissions is to get the maximum number of people to apply as possible. They buy lists of names from collegeboard and the ACT people, then send letters encouraging the acceptable scorers to consider their school.</p>

<p>One of the results is that they attract very good students who would not otherwise have applied, which is good. The other result is that the total # of applicants goes way up (artificially, through their sales efforts), with a relatively fixed number of FAT envelopes to go out, which causes their SELECTIVITY number to go down. Selectivity is an important metric to USNWR rankings, so every school is trying to get 50,000 people to apply so that they become more “selective” in the end – boost the denominator (applications) with a fixed numerator (acceptances). </p>

<p>If admissions “clerks” can cut out 20,000 of the 50,000 applications before they even reach the readers for proper review, based solely on low SAT/GPA combination, it’s no sweat off their brow. It’s a total win for admissions, and a mostly lose for applicants who had no real chance to begin with. The school will have collected $60 * 20,000 with no real work on their part other than posting on the website the rejection form letter (most schools don’t even bother with the courtesy of a letter and stamp anymore for rejections). That’s a cool $1.2 million in applications fees at a cost of about $50,000.</p>