HI, i’m a current junior i high school with a 3.0 gpa. my sat scores are:
Math- 800
Reading-710
Writing- 750
Sat 2:
Math 1- 800
Math 2- 780
World History- 710
I have taken all honors courses, but no APs, and am the editor in chief, of three student publications (and have been an editor since sophomore year)as well as the Assistant captain of my Mock trial team (which made it to the top 32 round in the NYC division), President of my school’s pro- Zionist club, was a member of student council my freshman year and participated in a student exchange program with an Israeli High school my sophomore year. I spent my summers writing and editing for my community’s newspaper and I have been wrestling for 4 year (although no placing). Assuming my essay and letters of recommendation are outstanding what would my chances be of getting into Cornell, Columbia, Binghamton, Penn state, U of Penn, Macauley at Hunter College, and general Hunter college?
P.S. I may be able to bring up my gpa to 3.3 or 3.4 my mid senior year.
I agree with notjoe; all your test scores are good, but the GPA is an issue. Most highly selective schools are unwilling to overlook GPA, except for an incredibly outstanding candidate.
I’m not really sure if what @TheGreekClique and @notjoe is entirely true. I knew a kid who got into Chicago with an abnormally low GPA, decent ECs, but great essays. He was also Hispanic, but I’m not sure if that is enough to overlook GPA.
There are always exceptions. But this is a “chances” thread - as in “What are the chances?”: And the chances are in this case, low. Ivy League schools are pretty explicit - the first objective criterion at which they look is GPA. In fact, a high test score couple with a low GPA often signals an indifferent student - bright, but maybe doesn’t care enough to make it happen everyday. Schools really don’t want those students.
@notjoe I’d say it’s unfair to assume that because someone has high standardized tests and low grade they are lazy. There are plenty of factors that go into someone’s end grade (social issues, quality of teacher, the material covered). You wouldn’t say that because someone has high grades, but low standardized tests they just got lazy during the test. Plenty of people, with extremely great grades, can study hours standardized tests and still make a score that doesn’t reflect their academic ability. Overall, I just don’t see it fair for college admissions officers to make assumptions about students.
I’m not assuming anything. I’m telling you what admissions officers have told me that high scores / low grades makes them think. Can there be exceptions? Suire! But if there are reasons for low grades and high scores, they must be explicitly laid out. Else, the presumption is a student who has the brainpower, but not the effort.