Hello, I’m a high school senior - residing in Virginia, looking to go to GMU. I applied in August for early action (for Fall 2017).
I finished junior year with a 3.35 cumulative GPA and it has dropped down to a 3.2 due to grading scale changes.
I have applied to 5 schools (including Mason) and have gotten into 3 so far.
Unfortunately, I’m not the best test taker and only scored about a 990 on my SAT, out of 1600. I scored a 530 in CR and a 460 in math. I also took the ACT and scored a 17.
As far as EC’s go, I’ve done two years of a high school sport and have volunteered various places. I also wrote a rather insightful essay and sent in two letters of recommendation.
Do I stand a chance?
You should become accustomed pulling data off of schools’ “Common Data Sets”
Here’s GMU’s https://irr2.gmu.edu/cds/cds_new/index.cfm
Go to the most recent one and go to section C where you see the data on incoming freshmen. Your scores place you well below the 25th percentile. I’d say your chances are slim to none unfortunately.
While it appears that way, GMU has an 80% acceptance rate. They’d have to take lower tier students at some point.
According to the CDS, they accepted at a 68% rate. But you have my thoughts on it. If you can’t look at the section C data and determine your chances you probably will have bigger problems ahead for you. Do what you want. You seem already to have decided that whatever “chance” you have, you’ll still apply. Good luck
The CDS is outdated. If you google it, GMU had an 80% acceptance rate in 2015.
It really depends on what major you have applied for. Nursing and Engineering school has selective admissions meaning you need to meet certain gpa and SAT/ACT score requirements. Your test scores especially math are low. GMU is not a safety school. Good students have been known to get rejected simply because of the number of strong applications the college receives.
OP: I ggogled it and the first hit is the USNWR report. IT"S outdated.
I looked at the 2015-2016 CDS, section C. It says 21,981 ppl applied. They accepted 15,138. That’s 68.8%. This is what GMU reports.
you realize your test scores are about the 30th percentile nationwide, right? That means 70% of your peers scored better than you. Scores aren’t everything but for someone w/o a great GPA, they add to the hurt. Congrats on the three acceptances.
At this point it is good to keep your options open. You have three acceptances and should hear from GMU by end of the month since you applied early action. I do agree with @T26E4 that the acceptance rate is around 68% and maybe even lower this year because GMU is getting recognition for its academics and research opportunities available to students. That and the fact it is close to the DC area where students have great opportunities for internships make it a good choice for students.
Thanks to all for the advice & information. I was wait listed.
I’m sorry to hear that. When did you find out? I still haven’t heard anything.
Everything was up at around midnight on December 15th on the portal, I applied way in advance though. A couple of my friends had done the same but their test scores weren’t received by the deadline so they’ll hear back regular decision round.