So my GPA is a 3.7…weighted. IK that is really bad but I really didn’t care about school freshmen year and have been struggling to bring it up since then, although I do have a very strong upward trend in my GPA. I’m a rising senior and I just got back my last ACT and I scored a 33 composite. If I’m looking to apply to schools such as Vanderbilt or UPenn would a 33 ACT be high enough to almost make up for my GPA, furthermore is there any ACT score that I could get that would achieve aforementioned? Thanks.
Google the Common Data Set for each and look at section C. I think for both you fall in the middle 50%ile so no, that won’t make up.
Unfortuantely no. Very high test score, low GPA basically makes a student look either lucky or lazy neither of which is helpful. 3.7 weighted is quite low for these schools. 3.7 unweighted would be borderline. Having a 35 or 36 would not change the picture appreciably in my opinion
A 33 is not high enough especially with a poor GPA for Vanderbilt and UPenn. There are plenty of excellents schools that you can get into. Try to find some schools that do not look at freshmen year. I think the UC’s do not.
If your lower gpa is only because of freshman year then your upward trend will be noted. But you need both. What is your UW gpa and what is your gpa for 10+11 only?
@BrownParent my school foolishly decides not to calc unweighted gpa but thus far I have only taken 6 honors/ap classes so I couldn’t imagine it would be less than a 3.55, my god that sounds abysmal. Anyway I would imagine my weighted gpa for 10+11 would be 4.00+
The short answer is no. The long answer is that it doesn’t work like that in holistic admissions where one negates the other. However, if you have done consistently well since your freshman year, that is something that will be noted and taken into consideration with your great ACT score. Keep working hard.
It won’t make up for your GPA.
If you have a 33 ACT you should have the skills to calculate your unweighted GPA on your own…If your school uses normal weighting and you’ve had “6 honors/ap classes”, you took 6 courses each year and your schools uses a weighting of +1 for honors and AP (so an A is a 5.0 B is a 4.0, etc) then your unweighted GPA looks to be about a 3.36.
Of course, that’s kind of moot as for Vandy and UPenn a 3.7 UNweighted would be iffy so a 3.7 weighted is very problematic.
Frankly, your only shot, unless you have some sort of hook you haven’t mentioned, is to do exceptionally well (all A’s or A+s) in extremely rigorous courses in the fall term. If you can then turn it into a story of “I’ve seen the light and am now a hard worker” you have an outside chance.
While I strongly encourage doing that for it’s own sake, my advice would be to adjust your sights and focus on schools that you are more of a match for. Still apply to Vandy and UPenn, but don’t count on them coming through.
@Troyus A few things I forgot to mention that might assist me in my application: My father is a Penn grad, my grandfather and uncle both went to Vandy, next year I’m taking 7 AP classes. Assuming I do well in those classes next year(maybe 1 B+ a semester, everything else A) do you think that would provide any hope? Also I think the strong upward trend in my GPA sort of lays out that “I’m a hard worker now” story.
This should be a simple math problem for you to solve in a few minutes.
@Troyus also I’m not sure about Vandy, but I know my father has given money to Penn, now not an amount substantial enough to get a building or anything like that but I would imagine it is upward of 50k
All of those things help. If you do very well in the Fall you have a chance.
3.7 weighted and 33 ACT with no hook isn’t enough.
An athletics or family hook would be different.
@rhandco As I stated in my previous post, my father went to penn and my grandfather and uncle went to Vandy. Is that what you mean by family hook?
Then consider applying to Penn ED, that is your best chance to get in there - Penn legacies get a huge ED bump.
Sorry I missed that.
ONLY if you really want to go to Penn of course, and you can check about Vanderbilt legacy rules. Penn includes parents and grandparents; some schools are only parents, some are much more.
Subject scores and rigor matter as well - are you taking the toughest classes at your school? Also one thing that drove my son away from Penn is that they use an academic GPA, and my son had a tough time with a few math courses. Calculate your core academic GPA and see if it is better or worse than your overall GPA.
@rhandco do you think the ED bump would be enough to ameliorate the abysmality(not a real word but you get the point) of my GPA? Also my father went there for Grad school(wharton) and I would be applying to Wharton. I don’t know if the fact he went there for grad and not undergrad takes away the legacy bump but I think I read somewhere that it doesn’t
Possibly. My son had the same GPA, but had horrible 1st quarter senior year grades - if he did do well 1st quarter senior year, he probably would have had a good chance to get in.
Wharton is tough to get into though, but I do believe that Penn considers grad and undergrad alumni parents for legacies.
Do you have any grades tied to business - AP Econ, math - that would be very strong to show your interest level and ability?
@rhandco I have always been pretty good at math however my freshmen year I got a C in it ,which I attribute to my teacher leaving midway through the first semester and the school bringing in a new teacher with a very different teaching style that I couldn’t adapt to. But I digress, this year I got an A in math both semesters and next year I’m taking AB Calculus. Also on my ACT i got a 35 on math. In terms of economics classes no I have not taken any yet, however next year I am taking AP Macro and AP Micro. In addition, something that might kind of make up for my lack of business oriented classes thus far is that this year I founded and am the president of my schools student managed investment fund where we invest real money in the stock market. Hope this helps