I am a junior, just about to finish up the year. I have a cumulative unweighted GPA of about 3.4 and weighted at around 4.00 flat. I’ve taken 1 ACT test and 1 SAT test with scores of 26 (I got a 32 i math if that affects anything) and a 1840 (nothing really stands out there, I basically just hovered around 600 per) respectively. I’ve played several sports every year, and I’m co-captain of my tennis team. I have some volunteering and extracurricular activities to go with that. I just wanted an honest opinion from people with more knowledge than me about this or from previous graduates who have applied to these colleges in the past. Please tell me if I have bad, decent, or great (With possibility of scholarship?) chances at getting into these colleges:
UCSB, University of Oregon, University of Washington, University of Colorado, University of Northern Carolina, UVA
These are all the schools that I am interested in and I feel are somewhat reasonable as of right now.
Thanks!
UCSB will be a Low Reach. Your unweighted GPA and SAT/ACT scores are below the 50th percentile.
Here are the averages:
UW GPA: 3.88 UC GPA: 4.03
SAT: 1925
ACT: 28
Link to calculate UC GPA: roger hub uc calculator
Also, UCSB does not have much merit aid other than Regents which is usually given to the top 1% of applicants. Are you a CA Resident? If not, then do not expect to get any FA from any of the UC’s as an OOS student. You would be close to full pay at $55K/year.
I’m not sure what state you live in but the rule of thumb I’ve learned on here is that out of state (OOS) publics are generally an expensive full pay choice unless you have super star grades and test scores. If you live in VA I’d say your scores and GPA are more in line with VA Tech or GMU or VCU, but UVA is not out of the question. Maybe 25% of those admitted had similar scores. But they might have been VA residents or recruited athletes.
UNC takes only 25% from out of state. The OOS students they take are generally high profile. We are in VA and our valedictorian is going there with all A’s all her life.
You can get an idea of your own chances by checking the “Common Data Set” for each school that interests you. Also find out what your parents will pay and do the estimated financial aid calculator. Here’s the Common Data for UVA. You usually have to google to find it for other schools:
http://avillage.web.virginia.edu/iaas/cds/cds1415all.shtm
Good luck!
I live in California, and UVA and UCSB are my reach schools, I honestly won’t care if I don’t get in, I’m just interested. As for the Percentile you said, My SAT and ACT scores said i was in the top 80% around 85% I think. Was the thing I was looking at wrong?
And anyways, I’m more concerned about Oregon, Washington, and Colorado Boulder, I know they are all very expensive Out of State, but do you think I can get any money? I’m not sure but I thought Oregon had 16k at around a 3.8 GPA
@ADubss1: I gave you the averages from the UCSB Freshman profile from 2014. 2015 are not published yet, but expect to them to a bit higher. 50th percentile would be the average for the school. The percentages you are quoting, are how you compare across the US from all SAT and ACT test takers. Each school will have different ranges for the admitted students SAT/ACT and GPA, so these are what you need to use for comparison. Like stated above, use the common datasets for each school and the GPA listed is unweighted. I am only familar with California schools, so I cannot give you any advice about Oregon, Washington and Colorado Boulder. Here are the common dataset links if you want to check:
http://ir.uoregon.edu/sites/ir.uoregon.edu/files/CDS20142015ForWEB.pdf
http://opb.washington.edu/content/common-data-set
http://www.colorado.edu/pba/cds/cds15/index.htm