GPA and Admissions

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tufts University
1

<p>I've considered applying to Tufts next year but my GPA is probably a little lower than average for Tufts' students because the begining of high school was rather rough for me. I don't know what my GPA is exactly on a 4.0 scale but it's around an A-. Is it still worthwhile to apply if I have a high SAT score and success in extracirriculars?</p>

<p>I don't have SAT results yet but I'm expecting something in the 2250-2350 range. Will this make it look like I'm not working hard enough in class?</p>

2

<p>Hey there, its definitely worth applying. I was just accepted with a 3.33 on a 4.0 scale (basically exactly a B+) and a 35 on the ACT</p>

3

<p>Much depends on what kind of courses yielded the approximately A- average, exactly what you get on the SATs, what your ECs look like, and how your “voice” comes through in your essays (and teacher recs). You haven’t given much info. Obviously an A- average with strong SATs is a good start to the application picture.</p>

4

<p>Short answer: yes.</p>

<p>Long answer: Quantitative factors like GPA and test scores tend to put you into a pool. Below a certain cut-off (usually not a hard and fast line) your application won’t be seriously considered without something incredible to make up for it, but ABOVE the cut-off, you’re just sort of chucked into the large groups of students that are academically suitable but may or may not fit the spirit, mission, and character of the individual school. Admitted students are selected from this “qualified muddle” based on the qualitative soft aspects of your application: your personal statement, the way you answer the optional essays, your recommendations, and extracurriculars. So as long as you’re good enough to get into the qualified muddle (and excellent test scores can balance out a sub-par GPA, and vice versa) it’s really the soft factors that matter more for admission. Very roughly speaking (I am not an admissions officer), I would say a 3.5 and a 2200 on the SAT should put you in at the lower end of the qualified muddle (but still in it).</p>

<p>Dan@Admiss, please correct me if I’m way off-base.</p>

5

<p>My daughter was admitted in December, ED1, to Tufts, in the A- range, GPA-wise, unweighted (weighted, she had something like a 4.1 or 4.2), but I think that was immaterial; what mattered, I believe is that she comes from a known rigorous high school, with grade deflation, and took the most rigorous classes, there; e.g. she took two years of Chemistry and two years of Physics and Calc BC, for example.</p>

<p>My daughter’s “data” was a 2290 on the SAT and 700+ on her SAT IIs (Subject tests) or whatever you call them. </p>

<p>Additionally, and importantly (because it told the story of what my daughter could do on the college level), my daughter submitted transcripts (4 As and 1 A-) from two of the “top 10” colleges/universities in the country. I think a (respected) college transcript, for a high school student, can be especially telling because there are a percentage of valedictorians, for example, who are admitted to selective colleges and fall on their faces, performance-wise, the first semester/quarter of college or continue a downward spiral in college–not perpetuating their high school performance, by any means.</p>

<p>As well, my daughter had a very singular “hook” in terms of her college EC–she had the conventional ones of being a member of a “green organization”, Mock Court, Model UN, etc., and being team captain of two sports, but she had a memorable and sincere hook that I believe no admissions committee had seen before.</p>

<p>Finally, if there was any doubt about my daughter’s capabilities were she juxtaposed against the 4.0ers applying to Tufts, my daughter wrote essays that were articulate and heartfelt and thematically original. She also, and this is of PARAMOUNT importance, I believe, especially because Tufts does do their admissions, holistically, communicated “Why Tufts?” with the most intimate and nuanced of details. She had been, clearly, doing her homework about Tufts and listening closely to the Tufts rep who came to her high school and listening closely on her trip, back East, when she visited Tufts. She wrote about things that were peculiar to Tufts and nowhere else. She commented on things and observed things, in her essays, that said that she had looked at and taken measure of Tufts as if Tufts were a a slide under the lens of a microscope. Admissions really “got,” then, that she wasn’t going to be accepted and leave, eventually, because it was a mismatch, and admissions got that her sensitivity about the school probably meant that she was a good match for Tufts.</p>

<p>And, most importantly, Tufts understood, I like to believe, that she was a singularly nice kid with a lot of integrity, that she was not only going to be a happy camper at Tufts but also that she was going to enhance the Tufts community. </p>

<p>I have confidence in Tufts and the way they do their admissions, that they don’t merely accept the kid with a 4.0, whose personal mettle is questionable, over the kid with an A- GPA, who may have extraordinary things to recommend him/her that is not quantifiable by numbers.</p>

<p>I wish you luck; I think that Tufts is a very special and singular place and very deserving of its increasing popularity. Students are really, really happy there!</p>

6

<p>So I’m betting that an issue your daughter doesn’t have is feeling unappreciated by her parents.</p>

7

<p>Don’t know if you mean your remark, snidely or not, Snark, but my intention was to give as much info. regarding a Tufts admit who didn’t have a 4.0. Trying to be helpful, here, even if the result was, seemingly, not intentionally, a brag fest about my daughter.</p>

<p>Let me mollify: she is a profound @#$%*, of late. She is prickly and uses “tone” with us. She is intimate and close with us, but she can be profoundly narcissistic (in the house) and borderline rude. Do you feel better, now?</p>

<p>Oh, yes, she also has reflux and TMJ stuff–the stuff of high achievers we are told.</p>

<p>And, on top of all of this, she has the good sense to do a Gap year.</p>

<p>We appreciate her venerable qualities, and we despise some of her adolescent ones. Thank G-d we are not a species who eat their young.</p>

8

<p>Oh, I wasn’t being snide - I thought it was sweet.</p>

<p>On a side note, evolutionary biologists theorize that particularly gifted/ambitious youngsters are programmed to lash out against and have severe difficulty cooperating with the traditional authority structures they were raised in, because their genes are more likely to propagate if the successful individual strikes out on their own and starts a new population than if they remain within the currently existing social structure, where their status is likely to remain lower for longer.</p>

<p>EDIT: Oh, and my handle is “Snarf”, like the character from ThunderCats, not “Snark”, like I appreciate being a snarky @$$hole all the time. I can see how such a misreading would influence your understanding of my tone.</p>

9

<p>Sorry, Snark–oops, I mean Snarf. Glad to hear your weren’t being snide, thus the limitations of the printed word. Thank you for the evol. bio. input. </p>

<p>My daughter doesn’t lack cooperation–she is not really rebellious (and has no reason to be given that she has a lot of freedoms)–but, likely, her ability to be nasty is part and parcel of some Darwinian evolution, that she will be the last one standing because she is able to scare away her predator or opponent by rolling her eyes (which she does brilliantly!) or snarling.</p>

10

<p>Hi- I was admitted ED2 with a 1460 or 2160 and a GPA of a 3.7ish (around an A-).</p>

<p>Go for it.</p>

11

<p>If I apply, I will probably apply ED1. However, I do not want to waste that early decision if I am certain to be rejected on the basis of GPA. Not that I take the other aspects of admission lightly, but they are not paramount concerns by comparison. Provided my SAT score can keep me in the “qualified muddle” as Snarf put it, I should be in a decent position. Other students from my school have gotten in that weren’t Valedictorians but understand that I am very intent on not using my ED on a school that is out of reach.</p>

12

<p>I’m glad somebody finally called SWH out for talking about his/her daughter way too much. Especially that post they made talking about her being “courted by a prestigious school in California” or some pompous bull like that.</p>

13

<p>I think SWH provided some legit and helpful information there. no need to be judgmental.
although a bit more concise language would have helped <– haha that was judgmental…sorry for the irony here.</p>

14

<p>no they definitely did, but it seems like every time they post they manage to find a way to extol the greatness of their daughter.</p>

15

<p>Please try not to derail my thread by starting an argument. SWHarborfan provided me with useful information. I see no reason to respond negatively to this because even if you wish to interpret the tone as arrogant it is still both positive and harmless.</p>

16

<p>Getting the thread back on track, your profile is comfortably competitive for Tufts (particularly given that your GPA is trending up) so you would not be wasting an ED app. As Snarf recommended, work on the softer aspects of your application (which are very important to Tufts)—choose your references wisely and make sure your essays reveal aspects of yourself not evident from the numbers.</p>

17

<p>Focus on the essays for sure. Also, try to do well in your interview-many people say they aren’t very important, but it can’t hurt to impress an alum. I feel like my interview, which went very well, definitely didn’t hurt me and probably solidified my application.</p>

18

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<p>Sorry, skateboarder, my apologies–didn’t mean to make you feel inadequate.</p>

19

<p>Grape1,
My daughter was also admitted ED1 this year and she did not have all A’s (let’s not even discuss junior year – aka “Honey, D shrunk her GPA!”) But she took a rigorous courseload at a great high school, which showed, I guess, that she was willing to push herself and not take the easy way out. She had ECs that showed leadership qualities and wrote honest essays that reflected who she was. Tufts really does a holistic approach to college admissions. As long as your stats are in the running, they focus then on who you are and what you would bring to the school.</p>

20

<p>Hm, this thread may have convinced me to put Tufts back on my daughter’s list for serious consideration. I was scared away by a previous thread (or maybe a web posting?) wherein an admissions officer described reasons kids get deferred. He said something along the lines of “If you’re in the top 15% of your class, we might defer you so we can get a look at the rest of the applicants from your school and see if they are particularly strong, because maybe you have a really strong class and in another year you would have been top tenth.” This gave me the strong impression that being solidly in the second decile was going to put my daughter completely out of consideration.</p>

<p>If not, well, that’s very good to know.</p>