Type of high school: Public, Fairfax County, IB school
Gender/Race/Ethnicity: White, female, American
Other special factors: Legacy to WM
Intended Major(s)
Psychology or government
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: n/a (school does not provide)
Weighted HS GPA: 4.450/4.0
Class Rank: n/a
ACT/SAT Scores: not submitted (but got 1330, still waiting for results on second try)
Coursework
IB Diploma, all IB classes when available, all honors for 9th and 10th grade when IB wasn’t an option (AP not offered)
IB Math applications HL
IB Spanish SL 1 & 2
IB Bio SL
IB Psychology SL
IB History of the Americas HL
IB History 2 World Topics HL
IB English Lit HL 1 & 2
IB Theory of Knowledge
IB Visual Arts SL
IB testing: have only taken two so far, got a 6 on IB Psych and a 4 on IB Bio
Done a language and math all four years of high school
Extracurriculars
National Honor Society
National English Honor Society
National Spanish Honor Society
President of Psychology Club
Creative director of public art club that installs sculptures
Volunteer in school library every other week
Tutor at school writing center
Summer job as desk attendant for pool
Member of community service club
100+ hours of service
MYP Program Certificate
TA for IB Psych teacher
Did CTY program over the summer where I stayed at the Johns Hopkins dorms and completed a college level course
Girl Scout for 13 years
Essays/LORs/Other
Personal statement, relatively strong (unique hook, about personal growth)
All optional supplementals for WM and 1 for UVA (2 for WM, better than personal statement I think, 1 for UVA was the interacting in the community one)
1 LOR from counselor and 1 from Govt/IB Psych teacher (Hopefully will be pretty strong, as I’ve worked closely with her for two years)
Senior interview, went well
For WM: went to Fall Focus, children of alumni admissions weekend, and visited on my own
Schools
Applied ED to William and Mary and EA to UVA on 9/28/23, reach
Will apply EA to Virginia Tech, target
RD to Mary Washington, safety
Cost Constraints
Have to stay in state and go to public university because I have a program that will cover tuition under these conditions
I think you have a good chance at W&M. Harder to say with UVA. Your target and safety schools are a good bet as long as they are affordable. Best of luck.
There is not enough information to chance you. First, how many As have you gotten? Bs? Anything lower than a B? You can calculate an unweighted gpa yourself.
Second, you need to ask your rank(decile or even quartile is sufficient). For most schools, UVa and W&M does not admit from the bottom half of the class, and rarely below the top 10-25% depending on school (some private schools and public magnets loaded with high-scorers and a record of sending large amounts to these schools get admits below that range). 4.45 depending on weighting system could be near the top of the class or around average. None of us know your school.
Third: how rigorous is your course prep compared to the typical top-25% of your school? Uva and WM will expect you to have course rigor similar to that group.
Finally: your scores are at or below the 25th%ile for both schools, I believe even pre-test optional, so it is very likely a high reach for both, but ED and the legacy wil help a lot at WM. Tech should be a match but possibly not. Definitely be sure to look at some of the other wonderful in state options such as CNU, Longwood, JMU: excellent education and career preparation can be found at many schools in Virginia! Best of luck.
What percent of the class does that?
Within IB, is she taking the course work (HL vs SL , number of courses) that normally are taken by kids who get accepted to W&M? It may be that the counselor can answer best.
I am not trying to be discouraging; she has a great resume! But realism is needed for those schools. For example: we are in-state. There are kids in the IB program who are getting the IB diploma who have above avg grades who get rejected from Uva and WM every year. The 2 schools nearest me are AP so it is the system I know best, but every year there are parents surprised that their kid with 7 APs and almost all As and even scores within range do not get in to those schools. Knowing the schools, it is because at their school they are above average but not among the rigor or rank of the kids who get into Uva , WM. Because that group takes more and harder APs, more honors, etc. The counselors are not surprised and often have told the kids that UVa/WM are reaches, but it is hard for parents to comprehend as it was so different when our generation applied.
Chancing is so hard when the details of the school arent known.
FCPS weights .5 for honors, 1,0 for IB. This is a top GPA for beginning of senior year. The HL in English, History and Math shows range and is what would be expected from these universities for a social science major.
I don’t think SAT had any meaning if test optional. It could be lower due to test anxiety, etc, and has no bearing on ability to thrive in college (Getting As in IB courses does, however, and this student has many).
“Those who come here, belong here” is what W&M says. You’ve done that. You’ll get in.
Here are my predictions:
W&M: 95% chance in ED, 5% deferral, then admitted RD
UVA: 70% EA, but you’ll never know, because you’ll need to withdraw your application due to your W&M acceptance.
Thank you for responding. My unweighted GPA is 3.98 and I’ve gotten all A’s, one B+ total at the time of application. My school doesn’t provide class ranking at all. However, like other people have said FCPS gives an extra 1.0 for IB so my GPA is on the higher end at my school. I’m taking the highest rigor I can, so hopefully it compares well. I’ve already applied test optional so they won’t see that score. I hope this information makes it easier!