<p>my 9-11 gpa is 3.91w and 3.73uw. the problem is that freshmen year none of my classes were weighted (none offered at my school for freshmen except honors geometry, which i took, but they don't weight) and soph year only one class was weighted (again, honors math wasn't weighted, no other weighted classes that sophomores could take except ap chem, which i took). i'm a junior this year and i took 4 honors/ap classes (math was finally weighted this year), and my 1st sem gpa was like 4.27 i think? not done with school yet so i don't know what my 2nd sem gpa will be.</p>
<p>so how bad do you think my gpa is? i don't know my class rank, but i feel like it's not too bad but not too good either--top 15-20% maybe. i know this is bad for top schools but i can't really change anything now.
also, can AP/sat ii/sat scores make up for a mediocre gpa? I got 2260 on the sat -- 800W, 790M, 670CR(ouch), and the only AP score i have so far is a 4 on chem.. Hoping for 5's on the three tests i took this year (art history, english lang, physics b) but i might get a 4 on physics.. Also just took the physics sat ii and hoping for 750+ but who knows. will these scores help make up for my grades?</p>
<p>also, what schools do you think would be a match for me just going on these stats? too lazy to put in ec's right now but they're good (like ivy-level good, focused primarily on one thing; i have other ec's too but they're more minor). for teacher recs one will be very good and the other will be standard (maybe pretty good but idk yet), and i'll have an additional rec that will be very good as well. do you think i would be a match for UC's? esp cal or ucla? i'm instate. what about private schools like bowdoin, cornell, vassar, reed, or others?? i'm looking for a school that might give merit aid (family income is too high for fin. aid--200k+), and also would prefer a liberal culture. </p>
<p>That GPA and SAT would make you a qualified applicant for ANY school in the county.
Now, some schools reject 90% or more of the “qualified” applicants, but you still are pretty much just as qualified as anybody.</p>
<p>I think you are a reasonable candidate at all the schools you mentioned.</p>
<p>Your GPA is too low for most UCs. High test scores will not make up for a low GPA because the UCs do not care much about the SAT. You may only be accepted by UCSB (perhaps the only UC that loves high SAT scores), UCSC, UCR, and UCM.</p>
<p>A 3.7 UW isn’t bad! My GPA is marginally better and I, along with many classmates with similar GPAs, got into good schools. </p>
<p>I’d be a bit more worried about a class rank outside of the top 10% and class rigor (though you took a few APs this year, so I imagine that your schedule is fine).</p>
<p>UC’s especially Cal take grades, i.e. UC GPA , more heavily than privates. It’s possible that OP may get in at all listed privates but NOT Cal and maybe even UCLA. However, don’t count on getting any merit from the privates listed. 670 V + 790 M = 1460 is a fine score but not outstanding enough with an UW 3.73 for merit. OP would need to bump down a notch to pick up merit.</p>
<p>thanks for the replies! also, do you think i can get into mcgill, utoronto, and ubc as well? i’m mostly interested in mcgill out of those three, and from what i’ve read, it seems like it’s pretty much a guaranteed acceptance if you meet the stat requirements. so would these be good safety schools for me? </p>
<p>There is nothing you can do about your GPA at this point. Fold that part up and focus on other areas of your application. The time you are here asking for opinions that might make you feel good or bad about your GPA is not that relevant. Use it to study for your SAT subject test - you said physics, but I believe 2 subjects are required; and maybe another SAT 1 to improve your CR score or trying for the ACT, then start working on your application essay, letter of recommendation, volunteering jobs, research, leadership boost etc. There are thousands of students with 4.0 GPA’s already lined up, but more that 90% will still be rejected by schools like Cornell and Bowdoin while lesser GPA’s might also be accepted.There is much more to worry about now than an unchangeable factor.
Hope that helps.</p>
<p>thanks guys. i’d like to point out (in case it makes a difference) that the highest gpa at my school is ~4.2-4.25, which is like valedictorian level, and it drops significantly after that. its basically impossible to go over that because my school doesn’t offer tons of honors or ap classes, and i took all the ones that i could, and they don’t even weight some honors classes, which accounts for my seemingly lowish gpa. i’ll probably have around a 4.0 weighted gpa after this semester is factored in. i think i underestimated my class rank earlier, too, i’m probably (hopefully) closer to top 10% but maybe not quite… I’m not sure yet. but my school grades students really harshly and i don’t know anyone except maybe one person that has straight a’s. </p>
<p>@tesfayeB, that link did nothing to dissuade me. I repeat, Bowdoin, UCs, and Cornell are reaches, not matches. Vassar and Reed would be low matches.</p>
<p>You’re talking about schools that will review holistically. As for ECs and your comment they are "ivy-level good, " that leaves me curious. In general, Ivy-level ECs are not “focused primarily on one thing.”</p>
<p>You need to do some digging into the colleges admissions web sites, to glean what you can about the sorts of kids they look for. And if merit aid is important, you should be checking which of those colleges awards it. Not Cornell, Reed, Vassar-- you can check the rest.</p>
<p>Most colleges in that tier are going to be looking at unweighted. There’s only one space in the app for gpa and they get their real look from the transcript, classes you took and the letter grades. They’ll weigh your rigor against what’s available in your hs. You have to bone up on this stuff, do some legwork.</p>