<p>Only 1 B in all of high school??? That is almost impossible at my S’s school. The average W GPA is 3.6 and I know that 80% of the kids get into the top 20 schools. So, I just find it hard to believe that Whitman would be that choosy. I can hardly wait to get a look at Naviance and see who got into Whitman from our school. That may shed some light on the subject.
Rix- I live in San Diego… a long flight up to PNW.</p>
<p>mmaah- Is that data regarding GPA W or UW??? That is the 1 million dollar question</p>
<p>That data is from the Common Data Set (there is a link from the Whitman website or a thread here in the Whitman CC list on CDS). I don’t know if it is specificed there but you could email the department at Whitman that posts it or Admissions and I’m sure they’d know. I’m guessing they may use unweighted to equalize the difference between schools where APs are widely available vs those less privileged. They would then look for/weight the AP/level of difficulty in a different category. Ultimately, they are not driven by numbers but by the overall fit/presentation so I think your kid will do fine…</p>
<p>I agree, that is the key question. Given the CDS stats, we can only assume that 3.89 is weighted.</p>
<p>5boys - I’ll PM you about other PNW schools so as not to stray too far from the thread topic.</p>
<p>Thanks for posting the CDS info. I was going to do that AFTER I had my coffee, but you guys beat me to it! The GPA reported in the CDS should be unweighted, as the CDS question specifies that schools provide GPA on a 4.0 scale. </p>
<p>One thing to keep in mind is that the CDS is GPA of enrolled freshmen, not all admitted students. In general, GPA stats of admitted freshmen are somewhat higher, as many students admitted enroll elsewhere. So while about 11% of the enrolled class had a high school GPA below 3.5, it may be that the percent of admitted students with a GPA below 3.5 is lower. And maybe this is where the 3.89 comes from – the avg. GPA of enrolled students was 3.78, but for admitted students maybe it was 3.89? </p>
<p>The 2009-10 CDS is at
[Common</a> Data Set](<a href=“http://www.whitman.edu/content/institutional_research/factbook/cds]Common”>http://www.whitman.edu/content/institutional_research/factbook/cds)</p>
<p>If it’s at all helpful in illustrating the unpredictable stuff that can happen in admissions, aside from acceptance to Whitman and the crushing rejection at Oxy, my daughter was waitlisted at Kenyon and Scripps, rejected at Oberlin and Brandeis, and accepted at Denison, UC Davis, UCSB, UCSC, Willamette, UPS, and Oregon. BTW, Denison is a terrific school and offered her a sizeable scholarship. Until she “fell” for Whitman, that was her very distant 2nd choice after Oxy. I’m glad she’s not in Ohio. Walla Walla is a pain to get to, but at least it’s in the same time zone! </p>
<p>You can see some Naviance-ish results for a relatively small sample of kids applying to Whitman over the years at:
<a href=“https://www.collegedata.com/cs/admissions/admissions_tracker_result.jhtml?schoolId=741&classYear=2013[/url]”>https://www.collegedata.com/cs/admissions/admissions_tracker_result.jhtml?schoolId=741&classYear=2013</a></p>
<p>Okay, I’m back with some good news. I finally got on my S’s school naviance. 30 app’s total( 3 years). 16 accepted, 4 denied, the rest withdrawn. Average W GPA 4.01. Lowest W GPA accepted 3.15. Average SAT 2020. So, it looks like they do accept kids with lower GPA’s… at least from our school. We will definitely be visiting in April. I will post a review when we return. We will also be visiting Willamette, L&C and Reed.</p>
<p>5boys,
While in the Portland area visit Linfield College, could be more of a safety. My S is rd for both Linfield and Whitman.</p>
<p>I agree that Linfield is a school that is often “overlooked” but can be a great match for some kids (and probably with merit money options); Pacific University is another I’d categorize that way. They do not have the academic/ranking status of better known Portland area schools–but offer a great liberal arts tradition, good profs and a wonderful community. I think they are the kind of place where kids who have not been “stars” find themselves “shining” in all kinds of new ways</p>
<p>5boys - do you mind sharing what the lowest accepted SAT (or ACT) was?</p>
<p>BTW - I posted visit reports to both L&C and Whitman from our PNW tour last spring. You might want to check them out.</p>
<p>Lowest SAT… no ACT recorded, was 1690 early and 2065 Regular</p>
<p>My D’s SAT was only 1840 (different school of course). 4.0 unweighted GPA. class of 2013.</p>
<p>thanks for the info - that’s quite a range! I imagine GPA, rigor, and “fit” are more important. S2 is hoping for good news. He really likes Whitman.</p>