High ACT, Low GPA, am I fine for these schools? Where else should I apply?

College Search & Selection
1

Indian male, first generation, ~100-110k familial income (dad only), Ohio resident

Major: Business (MIS or Supply Chain Management, also interested in Data Analytics)

GPA: 3.4 W/3.2 UW (yes I know, kind of tragic in a sea of high achievers)

For context, the low GPA stemmed from my freshman year second semester because of academic disciplinary issues and junior year first semester because it took time to adjust to the sudden rigorous curriculum shift (I went from all honors, no AP to all AP, one honors). I did not talk about my low GPA on my additional information section of the Common App; I was recommended not to because it may look worse on me if I do, and what I described can just be inferred through my transcript.

ACT: 32 (34E/30R/30M/34S) - not superscored

Classes: 8 APs, 1 IB (Junior year: AP Chem (4), AP Bio (3), AP Spanish (3), AP Gov (3); Senior year: AP Art History, AP Lang, AP CSP & AP Calc AB & IB Physics)

ECs: Contemp Youth Orchestra and member of a violinist group at a local LAC (happens to be very well renowned for their conservatory), online small-scale thrift shop business, 100+ volunteer hours from local hospital and school, beekeeping, crypto mining, treasurer of school orchestra

I can’t really speak on my essays (I’d be biased) or rec letters, I think they were both great?

I already applied to the following schools - what are my chances?:

  • Babson College
  • Bowling Green State University (accepted – safety)
  • Elon University
  • UIUC
  • Indiana University – Bloomington
  • UMass Amherst
  • Miami University (Oxford) (instate)
  • MSU
  • UMichigan
  • UMN – Twin Cities
  • Northeastern University
  • Penn State
  • Pitt (already denied from main, got put into a regional campus)
  • Purdue
  • URichmond (ED - denied, expected it but worth a try)
  • OSU (instate)
  • Tulane
  • UVA
  • UW Madison
  • Syracuse (potentially applying)
  • Santa Clara (potentially applying)

Disclaimer: I already know schools like UVA, UMichigan and Northeastern are extremely unlikely but I decided to shoot my shot.

2

Have you discussed money? OOS publics won’t give you any aid. You have plenty of reaches and your hook to match OOS schools is your full pay status.

3

@Sybylla Yeah. I have around ~100-110k familial income and I’ve communicated with my parents about lack of aid from OOS publics - not expecting much if anything. I’m a senior.

4

So what is your budget? IMO your family income level would indicate you won’t be a full pay OOS student at 50K plus a year. Make sure your instate option is shored up. Have you applied for aid in your applications?

5

@Sybylla ~75k max, nothing above. I’ve been told that we have a lot of money saved up so I can afford it despite the lower family income.

6

Have they seen the prices of the OOS publics?

7

75 k max or 75 k per year?

8

@ucbalumnus Yeah, we’ve also toured Boston University before and have seen the tuition there (around 75k) and were not opposed to me applying ED there when I was considering it. It’s per year iirc.

9

Sorry, but you wont be able to afford Santa Clara since your stats wont give you merit.

10

University of Tennessee is supposed to have a really good supply chain management program. You can check into what kind of out of state merit money you would get with your stats. Good luck.

11

@“aunt bea” Yeah I just looked at their tuition and I don’t think I’m in love with the school enough to justify paying that much, especially with no merit aid.

@janiemiranda I’ve never seen U of Tennessee associated with supply chain, I will take a look! Thank you.

12

So you applied for these schools with no aid needed? You need the facts from your parents. You are not getting merit anywhere that would be better than your state option IMO. Your parents didn’t got to uni at all? Not in India?

13

@Sybylla No, I did apply for aid but I did so not expecting much. My parents want me to stay instate for OSU or Miami U but encouraged me to apply out of state as well. And my mom didn’t finish secondary school, my dad went to university in India but did not graduate/finish.

14

Well, I think you are very likely to be instate public from that kind of parental language. Is OSU a lock though? Personally, I wouldn’t bother with any more reach/public school applications.

15

@Sybylla A lock as in my likeliness to get in? Not sure, my GPA will definitely hurt but I’m hoping my course rigor, test scores, essay and first gen status will propel me into an acceptance.

16

@Arovok https://haslam.utk.edu/supply-chain-management

I think your 32 ACT would give you an automatic $15000 a year merit scholarship but I’m not sure how much the overall cost of a attendance is for an out of state student.

17

Well, OSU would be a great option for you. I certainly wouldn’t choose the auto merit southern schools over that choice. Did your grades all improve? This shift to college is going to be much tougher than HS.

18

@Sybylla Yeah. I’m currently in my senior year taking AP Calc, AP Art History, AP Lang, AP CSP, IB Physics, and Honors Chamber Orch. Have around a 3.7 UW for this year, all As and Bs.

19

Nice.

20

Ask your parents to run the Net Price Calculators at the websites of each of the places on your list. If they don’t own any property other than the family home and they don’t own a business, the NPCs should give them a decent estimate of what each institution will end up costing. If they own a business or other property, the NPCs probably won’t be accurate.

Lots of parents tell their kids “Apply wherever you like.” but then are shocked at the final costs. So be sure that you like your in-state options in case they end up being your only affordable ones.