<p>When your GPA is not that great, like a 3.4, but your SAT is okay, 1810, do you look at schools that match your GPA or your SAT? GPA went from 3.28 freshman year to 3.35 sophomore year to 3.49 junior year. My daughter has medical issues, so she missed a lot of school, which brought her GPA down. Anyway, when we look at schools where she matches the SAT, she is way below the GPA. When we look at schools that match her GPA, her SAT is way above. How do we know which schools are matches?</p>
<p>I don’t see anything wrong with that combination of SAT and GPA.</p>
<p>It depends on the college. The Common Data Set of each school will tell you which they value more, GPA or scores. Most public Us tend to give more weight to the scores than private schools (though YMMV).</p>
<p>GPA can be very different from school to school, and by itself doesn’t say much.</p>
<p>GPA and SAT are generally pretty subjective, but in general it seems that public schools weight GPA a little more than privates tend to.</p>
<p>First, many schools give less weight to 9th grade gpa, especially if there is an upward trend as is the case for your daughter. Second, an illness may be viewed as an extenuating circumstance, especially if she has recovered and her junior year reflects the strong performance that a school would like to see going forward. Third, her grades are not seriously out of alignment with her test scores. There a lots of good schools for kids with her stats. And finally, for someone who may have ongoing health challenges, it might be a good thing to attend a school where he or she is not constantly under severe academic pressure-a school where the current high school gpa puts her in the middle of the pack rather than at the lower end.</p>
<p>Also, most applications have a space where you can explain things that have affected grades like your daughter’s health problems</p>
<p>if the 3.4 is unweighted, your daughter’s GPA and SAT are not lopsided at all. She is a b+ student with an above average SAT score. the colleges that change lives schools would be full of matches.</p>
<p>I agree, at most high schools this is a B+ student with a B+ score. Are we missing something, is her rank low?</p>
<p>Does your high school have Naviance available? There are scattergrams in Naviance that plot GPA vs SAT and show which students have been accepted to various colleges and which have not. It’s a great way to see how your daughter’s particular stats compare her with prior applicants to those schools.</p>
<p>I don’t know either, but my sons GPA is a little lower, and his SAT a little higher, and college boards “how do I stack up” feature puts him at the bottom GPA wise for most of the schools he’s looking at, and in the 50th to 75th percentile or better for his SAT’s.</p>
<p>BTW, he went from a 2.2 first semester 10th grade, to a 4.0 second semester 11 th grade.</p>
<p>I’m in a pretty similar predicament–3.2 weighted with a 1910. It’s too bad my grades haven’t started improving until now.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/939933-3-0-3-3-gpa-parents-thread-2011-hs-graduation.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/939933-3-0-3-3-gpa-parents-thread-2011-hs-graduation.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/907349-western-schools-3-0-3-3-kid.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/907349-western-schools-3-0-3-3-kid.html</a></p>
<p>And if you think “YOU” don’t match, check THIS out</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/988009-underachievers-3-3-gpa-less-2000-sats.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/988009-underachievers-3-3-gpa-less-2000-sats.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/988253-high-sat-low-gpa.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/988253-high-sat-low-gpa.html</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/992643-great-sats-horrible-grades-what-can-we-expect.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/992643-great-sats-horrible-grades-what-can-we-expect.html</a></p>
<p>You don’t have a mis-match of GPA and SAT. </p>
<p>I thought you were going to write something like…has a 3.3 GPA and a 2280 SAT…now that is a mismatch.</p>
<p>Okay, here’s an interesting question: would a college prefer a kid with mismatched stats, or consistently average stats (think 3.3 and 2000 versus 3.3 and 1800.)</p>
<p>Her rank is top half…GPA is unweighted, she has not been able to take Honors or AP classes because of all the school she misses. Also, I did look at Naviance, which is why I got confused. It appears that most people with 1800 SAT have 3.7 GPA. And most with a 3.4 GPA had SAT score of 1500. Anyway, good point that with her medical issues it might be better to set the bar lower. It looks like she has 4 reaches and 4 safeties. I was just wondering if we should be trying to match her GPA or her SAT when figuring out what was what.</p>
<p>S has an even worse mismatch: 2180 SAT/32 ACT with a 3.2 GPA. Because of the mismatch he was advised by GC to apply to a higher number of schools than normal. GC said she cannot predict how schools will view S’s GPA. His SAT is above the 75% for all the schools he is applying to so we are using his GPA to determine safety/match/reach. </p>
<p>S is addressing the mismatch in his essay where he discusses his love of learning. He has two teachers in whose classes he got B’s but who know know him as a smart/intellectual kid who greatly adds to class discussion. Hopefully, those two things will tip the odds in his favor. </p>
<p>Your D should address the medical issue on the app and ask her GC to make note of it also.</p>
<p>mamom… I will be curious to see how this all turns out for your S, have the same problem at our house. My S is only a Junior, got 210 last year on the PSAT but GPA 3.1. He is pretty much a B student with a few B+'s thrown in. Teacher’s always rave about him though, and comment on how much he adds to class discussions and his intellectual curiosity. That’s interesting about him deciding to write about it in his essays. My S is also a 'love to learn for learning sake" type of guy who could care less about grades. He has just started researching schools, and it is of course difficult. How did you guys find schools? Is he happy with his choices so far? My S is at a top private prep that has Naviance but hard to find mis-matched stats kids.</p>
<p>5boys - S’s list was developed based on his predicted major. He looked for schools that offered the courses and programs he wanted. He allowed us to add a few other types of schools and ended up really liking those schools even though they do not offer all the things he wanted pertaining to his major. And last we added safeties (both GPA and SAT wise) that had a good program in his major and we felt would also offer him some merit money. He tells us he would be happy at any of the 12+ schools on the list, although he does have a favorite. </p>
<p>We also had him take the ACT in addition to the SAT and will submit both scores to all the schools. We have been told that the ACT tests “what you know” while the SAT is more of an intellegence type test. We feel like having the good ACT score will show the admissions folks the SAT wasn’t a fluke and he is a smart kid. </p>
<p>Based on the naviance data he should get into at least some of the schools, but I am trying to not count our eggs before they are hatched.</p>
<p>mamom… Sounds like a good plan and I’m sure he will have a lot of success this year. It is really good for me to hear about other kids with the same situation as my S’s and be able to get good advice and support. My S wants to go to med school, but wants to major in Philosophy/religion. Almost any school will foot the bill there. His beginning criteria, based on some school visits we did last Spring, is small LAC under 2000, with discussion based classes, a quirky, laid-back but intellectual student body. and hopefully close to some sort of outdoor opportunities. Would prefer no huge emphasis on sports or greek life. It sounds easy enough, but most of the schools he seems to be drawn to are very reachy for him with his GPA. That’s one of the problems with these smart kids that don’t get A’s in high school, the student body that they are attracted to is sometimes at the top schools. I’m thinking our net is going to be cast wide as well. We also have to take into account financial aid so looking at some schools with good merit aid for his stats. My S will also take the ACT along with the SAT and SAT II’s this year. I think your right about showing the admission folks that they are bright, just may struggle with organization, attention to detail or whatever it may be, that is required to get those A’s.</p>