Groan, quite low GPA, quite high scores....

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Alright, so I'm an ex-slacker/underachiever... but on the way up</p>

<p>Looking to major in political science or international relations/affairs, possibly abroad.</p>

<p>Stats..here</p>

<p>Unweighted GPA: 3.231 (ouch)
Weighted GPA: 3.407
Unweighted class rank: 226/502
Weighted class rank: 200/502 </p>

<p>Taken most difficult possible classes</p>

<p>IB Diploma candidate</p>

<p>Took
IB Economics SL,
IB History of the Americas HL,
IB English I HL
IB Physics SL junior year</p>

<p>taking IB 20th Century Topics HL,
IB Calc SL,
IB English II HL,
IB Physics HL,
IB French SL
IB Theory of Knowledge next year.</p>

<p>AP Macroeconomics: 5
AP Microeconomics: 5</p>

<p>ACT: 33</p>

<p>SAT: 2210 (CR - 800, M - 700, W - 710)</p>

<p>Currently taking an undergraduate level class in International Affairs (IA 100) at Lewis & Clark College over the summer</p>

<p>Will have excellent recs from History and Econ teachers (passion for social sciences)</p>

<p>ECs:
JV soccer Captain, played for three years
Mock Trial team Captain, advanced to state after winning regionals
Vice President of school Young Democrats
VP of French Club
Founded MTB club
MUN delegate
Volunteered at local science museum for ~20 hours (not much I know)
Had job at local pizza store last summer</p>

<p>(born in) Serbian citizen, have a Green Card in the US
Fluent in Serbian and English</p>

<p>Schools:
Grinnell (visited and loved it) (ED?)
LSE <-- definitely the dream
Macalester
Tufts
UChicago
University of St Andrews
Bates
Colby
Hamilton
Wesleyan (?)</p>

<p>Danke schoen!</p>

2

<p>Ouch. First off, what was your freshman, sophmore, and junior GPAs? If your junior and sophmore GPAs were high then you are in luck because some schools discount freshman year. I have to be honest, that GPA and rank pretty much cuts your chances at any top school in half (to say the least). As for your chances:</p>

<p>Grinnell (visited and loved it) (ED?)-Reach
LSE-What's LSE?
Macalester-Low Reach
Tufts-Reach
UChicago-Reach
University of St Andrews-Never heard of..I'm assuming safety
Bates-High Match
Colby-High Match
Hamilton-Never heard of
Wesleyan-Reach</p>

<p>Please chance me at:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=361246%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=361246&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

3

<p>LSE is the London School of Economics..</p>

<p>I wish you the best of luck with Grinnell! It's a great school.. my advice would be to write a very interesting and unique essay.. also bring your GPA up as much as possible the beginning of senior year. </p>

<p>Most ED schools ask for your first quarter senior grades..</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

<p>The other schools kind of borderline between Reach & Match.. except for LSE & Chicago, both definite reaches!</p>

<p>NOTE: Not a counselor.. just someone who graduated high school last month.</p>

4

<p>frosh gpa - 3.143
soph gpa - 3.200
junior gpa - 3.333 (didn't do too well first semester, much better second)
(all above unweighted)</p>

<p>LSE = london school of economics</p>

<p>I would chance you but it would just be wild estimates, I have no expertise whatsoever</p>

<p>oh and if you're responding and you're a current HS student/not a counselor, say so</p>

5

<p>try claremont mckenna</p>

6

<p>Apply to some backup UCs and some CSUs. Try to improve your GPA in your senior year. I had bad SAT reasoning test scores, but I have a good GPA. I have the opposite problem. My subject test scores were good.</p>

7

<p>You need match and safety schools as almost all of the schools you list will be a reach because of your class rank.</p>

8

<p>St Andrews is a huge reach.</p>

<p>LSE is also a huge reach.</p>

<p>And it's kind of funny that someone hasn't heard of LSE or St Andrews.</p>

9

<p>A strategy that any (former) underachiever should consider is to attend a state university, achieve a high GPA, and transfer after a year or two if not satisfied with the educational quality.</p>

10

<p>i'll rank them in order of admission selectivity;
Tufts
UChicago
Wesleyan
Grinnell
Macalester
Hamilton
Colby
Bates
LSE -you can actually get their 'real' undergrad degree online.
<a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/LSEExternalStudy/aboutLSEandTheUniversityOfLondonExternalProgramme.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/LSEExternalStudy/aboutLSEandTheUniversityOfLondonExternalProgramme.htm&lt;/a>
University of St Andrews</p>

11

<p>Well based on that "ranking" all those lesser-known schools (grinnell, wesleyan, macalester, hamilton, colby, bates) must be extremely selective then. Because the OP will have a very difficult time getting into St Andrews for International Relations with those stats, making the entire list reaches if St Andrews IR is the least selective one.</p>

12

<p>That ranking has no grounding in reality, and it's completely out of order. Anyway, nauru is right that St. Andrews and LSE are reaches BUT British schools look more at test scores and less at high school records (because they are so subjective). Your SAT scores are solid and they put emphasis on AP, so they will love the two 5's. The other schools you listed look like they are good for you, but they are all pretty selective...just keep working on that "upward trend" and you should be fine.</p>

13

<p>My guess:</p>

<p>Reaches: Grinnell (will help if you apply ED), LSE, Tufts, UChicago, University of St Andrews, Wesleyan</p>

<p>MAtches: Macalester, Bates, Colby, Hamilton</p>

<p>But most of the matches are kind of high because of your GPA (OTOH, your international background might make you interesting to some of these schools and yor SATs are really good). Definitly find some safties.</p>

14

<p>Umm, according to collegeboard.com, Grinnell accepts 45% while Bates, Colby, and Hamilton accept around 30%. Am I missing something?</p>

15

<p>You have some high SAT scores.. I wish I had good SAT scores! I did horrible on those things</p>

16

<p>The caliber of applicant at a Grinnell is stronger than at Bates and Colby.</p>