My S has a 3.47 gpa (4.25 weighted) and 2340 SAT. Just got NMSF. Grades have obviously not been great, but he got a 4.0 second semester junior year. No ED because need merit aid. Does early action at Northeastern make sense or better to do RD with hope that mid year grades bring up GPA?
What other schools so you can best leverage early action
Are you asking what other schools he plans to apply to? Most don’t have EA option, or if they do, I think they are more clear matches or even safeties given his GPA.
The conventional wisdom is that if an applicant has the capacity to raise GPA through a fantastic first semester senior year, then wait for RD. It’ll definitely push him over 3.5UW. Obviously, he hit a homerun with his SATs so that should no longer be a concern.
If I were you, I’d advise him to only apply RD and maybe an early one to a sure-admit safety with rolling admissions just to get that feeling of confirmation before January.
With his SAT, I would say EA is fine. NEU deferres a lot of people. If the GPA boost (less than .1 UW) would make a difference, there’s no risk of rejection in EA but acceptance in RD. It just wouldn’t happen.
Frankly, with NMF and his SAT, I think NEU is verging on a safety. If there is any sort of advantage in hearing from NEU earlier, do EA.
I got in last year with a lower test score, no NMF, and the same GPA unweighted. I even got a scholarship.
Thanks for replies! If his chances are good for NEU, I guess the question is what impact applying EA vs RD might have on merit aid potential – assuming good grades this semester. (Of course, there’s always the risk grades will not be good…) He is pushing for EA.
If he gets NMF, that should be $30,000 in merit, which will be the highest you can get. His GPA won’t matter in that case. In the case that he doesn’t get NMF, I don’t suspect it would make much of a difference either. A .07 GPA boost won’t do much. They will like his upward trend as is and will be very happy with his SAT score. There’s even the chance they give out more scholarship EA, and in that case it could hurt to wait. No one can really be sure (I’m almost positive there’s no merit award stats comparing RD and EA).
Personally, knowing I was in EA was a huge relief for me. I was waiting on 2 high reaches after that, and didn’t feel anything when the rejections came. Having to wait 3 months to have that feeling would have been torture for me. If he wants to do EA, I don’t see any harm.