Well I got my junior year gpa back and it was less than expected. It’s for Compter ScienceEngineering
All unweighted:
Freshman: 3.8
Sophomore: 3.6
Junior: 3.3
My mom passed away in middle of sophomore year and I’ve asked my guidance counselor to write in her letter.
I’m taking the ACT soon and SAT Math Level II Subject test. What should my ideal scores be to have a chance of getting in?
I’m starting at TCD in the fall for physics and had an unconditional offer. Physics requires more points than comp sci so hopefully this can help you out a bit.
My school didn’t rank so I don’t know if that is something they heavily consider. What I know is that TCD, like most Irish and European universities in general, is very straight to the point and cares most about grades and test scores. They require a rec letter from your counselor and a teacher. My school is pretty small so compared to most schools my counselor knew me very well. My teacher rec letter came from my English teacher that I had for two years and in addition to that he was the faculty sponsor for a club that I was president of, the teacher in charge of my independent research project which I did on space policy, and just overall we were very close. But, I don’t know how heavily they consider your rec letters. You also write a short essay on why you want to study your topic (if you are applying to any UK schools you could use your UCAS essay) and there is an optional essay that you can write about anything (I heavily shortened my common app essay for this one)
I took 14 ap classes (but I got mainly 3s until my senior year APs) but they wouldn’t let me report all of them so I started with classes I was taking senior year then I did highest scores and went down from there until I ran out of space. My senior year course load was heavily math-focused which I think helped (the * is for ap classes). I took French, macroeconomics, us government, English lit, calc AB, physics mechanics*, an independent study English class which was a yearlong research project, a game theory class, and then I was a teaching assistant for freshman math.
I took AP Chem, AP Physics 1, and AP stats junior year. My other APs were humanities subjects.
I don’t know what kind of school you go to but if you have APs in comp sci or dual credit comp sci (I don’t know if IB has comp sci) then take them if you already haven’t. They really want to see that you are passionate about your major. They also wanted some form of senior year grades so I sent them my first quarter grades (they don’t have to be official which was nice)
My ACT was a 33 (not super scored) and I had a 1460 on the SAT (again not super scored) but I only sent that because I had a 760 on math. I took a few subject tests, but I did absolutely terrible on them, and I didn’t send them in (the negative points really screwed with my head).
I think my unweighted GPA was around a 3.6 (I can only access my weighted from junior year sorry) but I ended up with a 90 average. I had mostly Bs throughout high school and I always had at least one C until the second semester of junior year. I always had high Bs or As in math and physics which I think helped since that’s what I applied for even though I had some bad grades. I went to a very competitive high school, so I really didn’t stand out when compared to my classmates.
Some other colleges that I was accepted into were Texas A&M Honors (I am in state), Colorado School of Mines, Macalester, Franklin and Marshal, University of Glasgow, and University of Edinburgh (it was a conditional acceptance but I just found out that I met the conditions).
Some other things: there really is no financial aid besides loans so I am paying full international student tuition (which honestly could’ve helped me on getting in). It was slightly cheaper than me going to an out of state public school even with flights accounted for. I am also a female in physics which probably did help since TCD is very big on women in physics.
I’m so sorry for your loss and I wish you the best in your college journey.
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I’d refomm be aiming for 700+ on sat subject Physics and Math2, + probably chemistry.
What APs are you preparing?
I went to a Trinity College Dublin open house and they said they wanted a minimum SAT of 1290. Like the poster above said, they are focused on the grades that you earned in the subject you want to study. They aren’t as interested in all the other ec’s like American schools are. It seemed like a wonderful place to go to school, best of luck to you!
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The above posters have made some useful points- I am just going to add/tweak around the edges:
GPA: TCD only has GPA in b/c it is important to Americans- the Irish don’t use continuing assessment (school work) for university admissions (though that is changing slightly over the next couple of years). So, it’s an indicative number - get somewhere close & you will be fine, because:
International fees: TCD really likes those fees, and yes, it does help with admissions. However,
Subject mastery: really does matter. It’s not that they “really want to see that you are passionate about your major”, it’s that you will have no class choices your first two years- everybody takes all the same classes, and they want to be sure that you have enough background to be able for the work. Every Irish student doing CompSci will have taken the same math coursework, and sat the same “Leaving Certificate” math exam. You can take a look at past papers here- for CompSci they will have taken the Higher Level papers (it’s a 2 part exam- 2.5 hours on a Friday and another 2.5 hours on a Monday!): http://theleavingcert.com/exam-papers/mathematics/.
Because the Leaving Cert is the basis for:
College admissions in Ireland. For the vast majority of courses, acceptance is based entirely on the your cumulative score on the Leaving Cert*, and it is done by computer. No essays, no LoRs, no ECs. The computer doesn’t even know your gender- it’s a straight match system: the highest score gets the first place, and it keeps auto-filling until they run out of places or run out of qualified applicants, whichever comes first.
*You sit 6-8 exams, and the scores of the best 6 added up are the # of LC ‘points’; you apply for courses whose point requirements are estimated to be in the same range. Every student must take English, Irish and Math, plus 3-5 more in the area of interest.
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My son is graduating from Trinity we are from Virginia minus COVID it has been an amazing experience if you have questions please reach out it was hard having him so far away but worth it !!