Is there any chance that a 1560 SAT will trump a 3.2 GPA? This is at the end of junior year.
In state or OOS? URM or not? other hooks? IF OOS and no hooks, odds are against you. The AOs I have conversed all these years pretty much told me the same things - kids with high test scores and low GPA (unless there is a valid case - sickness- or a concentration in one particular area - B/Cs in foreign lang. vs all As in core classes) is a big red flag and problematic. JMHO.
Thank you. This is in state. What is URM?
Also, parent has masters degree from UVa, but that doesn’t matter, does it?
How does the GPA stack up against your peers in your school and how was your class rigor? You need to look at everything in context. I agree that a low GPA and high test scores makes it seem like you could have done better in class. Do you go to a school with grade deflation but are still in the top 25% of your class? Are you at a magnet school like TJ where courses are challenging and even the lower 50% of students would be the tops anywhere else? Getting in with a 3.2 is not impossible but only you know the story before the 3.2.
The 3.2 is due to laziness and not caring, especially the first two years. Junior year was better with mostly As. Not TJ, and not AP courses, but several honors. Next year will be several AP courses.
I’m wondering if the grades are great in the first quarter of senior year (next year) with challenging classes if that will have an effect? The SAT math portion was 790, and this was with no preparation. Part of me hopes that would count for something, but I know I’m just dreaming and not being realistic. It’s all about GPA, isn’t it?
Thank you for your responses.
SAT scores are based on performance on one day. You gpa is based on your performance over a period of time so it is equally important. It is good to develop good study habits and time management now because you will need those skills in college where the academics will be even more rigorous. Admissions is looking to see if you will be able to handle college level academics.
No chance. The average GPA for admitted students is over a 4.1
So uva really does weigh gpa more that sat, but you really did excellent in the test and that will be hard for any college to ignore. Do you have any extra curriculars that will sweeten the deal? Imo your gpa and sat makes you an average uva applicant, you’ll need something that makes you above average somewhere.
Did you check Naviance for your school? I have a rising junior at a VA public high school. In the last 8 years, UVA has accepted exactly 3 students from his school with a weighted GPA below 3.5 (Their test scores were so low they had to be recruited athletes). I didn’t see any really lopsided applicants, but I did see plenty of denials for students with 1500+ SAT scores and GPAs even slightly below 4.0. This is a competitive northern VA HS. Things might look less bleak in other parts of the state.
Honestly, I considered my kid disqualified from UVA once he accumulated 4 or 5 B/B+ grades in 8th and 9th grade. He has a weighted 3.83 after sophomore year.
It isn’t! Context, course section, and grades over the course of the entire high school career are important. Take at a look at your high school profile (it’s on the school website and it’s also in the career center) and see what admission officers use to assess your transcript.
I’m going to be picky here. The SAT and academic performance aren’t equally important and academic performance isn’t measured by GPA in our process. You all have to stop thinking about your selves purely in terms of GPA. GPAs do not tell the story that the transcript does.
Your transcript is the most important piece of the puzzle. It shows 3 or 3.5 years of academic development. That is far more important than the test scores.
[Remember that Naviance is plotting the results of an elaborate review process using just two variables](Notes from Peabody: The UVA Application Process: UVA Admission's Holistic Review and GPA). It doesn’t tell you how we make decisions, it just shows correlation between a college’s decisions and those variables.
I think where some of the confusion about the importance of class rank and gpa derives a little from UVa’s own publications. UVa’s common data set lists the “Basis of Selection” and their relative importance. Class Rank and GPA are considered “Very Important”…Standardized tests, essay, EC’s are all in the “important” column while volunteer work and work experience are in the “considered” column.
Plus, UVa routinely touts the percentage of admitted kids in the top 10% of their class. It might be the stat I heard the most during our visits to UVa, so students are definitely given the impression, intentional or not, that if you are not in the 10% of your class, your chances of admittance goes down dramatically. And at least in my children’s school, to be in top 10%, you pretty much have to have straight A’s because although they do weight classes, it is not an extreme weighting system.
@uvadadtobe I know this isn’t my thread but I have a question. First Generation is also listed under very important which I am also told is a hook. How much do these things like legacy and first generation really help?
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@sj3412 I certainly have no inside knowledge but I would take the Common Set Data info as definitely indicating that if you are First Generation, that would be something that adds weight to your application. I also believe Dean J when she talks about the holistic approach of the admissions decision. There is no one or two things that will put someone over the top.
I think we as fretting parents picture this sliding scale approach to admission where each factor goes in one direction or the other resulting in some magic number that indicates acceptance vs denial. But I don’t think that’s how it works. I really think an admissions officer after a few years really gets a good feel for a potential student based on their application… They see the courses, the grades, the test scores, they hope to hear a voice in the essay and find a dedicated, inquisitive student in the teacher’s recommendation. They say to themselves, is this a UVa student? Can they handle the academics, will they contribute to the college community?
I would think that things like first generation and ethnicity, while labeled very important, are still secondary to whether or not the admission officer feels in general that the applicant is worthy of UVa admission. Do they help? Sure, but I don’t think they necessarily leap-frog a student over other candidates.
The CDS is great for finding statistics about a school, but it doesn’t allow schools to explain their review processes. Respondents have to assign a value to each item on the application list ([see page 7](http://www.commondataset.org/docs/2016-2017/CDS_2016-2017.pdf)).
The statisticians in the Assessment office have to do their best. They are trying to convey that the entire academic record matters, not just rigor of courses.
@“Dean J” does that mean the importance of each category listed is not entirely accurate and it varies for different applicants? I sort of understand this because some categories do not apply to all students. Also, since this thread is about having a low GPA, can having good everything else make up for an average GPA?
@“Dean J” There’s a lot of talk these days about high school “grade inflation”. How does UVA sort that out. I’m particularly curious about how UVA looks at kids from small, rigorous private and magnet schools with very strict grading?
@pantha33m The school profile submitted by the counselor gives us a lot of information about how students are assessed. Many schools provide grade distribution charts on these profiles.
You can see some examples here: http://uvaapplication.blogspot.com/2015/03/i-dont-care-about-your-gpa.html