I took basically every honors course offered to me in 9th and 10th grade. They were tough and I got a B, B+, in most of them. However, I moved to California after my sophomore year and my new school counted all of like the 13 very tough honors courses as regular CP classes which dropped my GPA significantly. My new school didn’t offer honors classes so I took regular and AP classes, doing pretty well, mostly As and Bs and my GPA was 3.8-4.0. This trend continues into my senior year. However, I am concerned that my 9th and 10th grade scores brought my GPA down to a point where I’m not competitive for a lot of the schools I’m interested in.
My SAT and ACT scores are: 1310 and 28. They are okay but not great so I retook them, waiting on results.
So will I be able to make up for my low GPA and will colleges understand what happened? My teachers are writing me top notch rec letters. My essays are also quality work. My ECs are not Ivy League-esqe but they are decent.
My schools are: UCLA, UCSB, UCSC, UCD, UCI, Purdue, Cal Poly SLO, UIUC, RPI, CU Boulder, and Washu Seattle.
My major is Aerospace Engineering
Am I competitive to any of these schools? I feel like my GPA is not a true reflection to who I am and I really wanna express that in my application but I feel it might be too low to change the minds of the admission officers. I don’t necessarily do bad in school, I did okay in those honors classes but their significance meant nothing once I moved. One last thing is there was some serious personal issues in my life during sophmore year so how much will that be taken into account. I don’t want to use those personal problems as an excuse but it is important to mention them as they affected my performance in school
Hi there!
Unfortunately for low-GPA students, the UC system is incredibly numbers-driven when making acceptance decisions. (UCSC, arguably the lowest ranked UC on your list, only accepts students with your GPA at a rate of about 13%.) It wouldn’t be impossible to get into a few of the lower-ranked colleges on your list, but to be honest, your chances appear slim at most of these.
Definitely explain the honors weighting situation on your applications, and with a bit of luck they’ll be lenient in light of that and the upward trend in your grades that you talk about. (I should mention, though, that I’ve attended three separate high schools and none of them have weighted honors classes, so depending on the admissions officer, your situation may or may not be common.)
Depending on the magnitude of the personal issues during your sophomore year, it may or may not be a good idea to mention them briefly. You won’t want to seem like you’re making too many excuses for lackluster academic performance, so maybe consider having your counselor mention it in his/her letter of rec?
As @nsn215 pointed out, UC’s are very GPA focused and in trying to get into a competitive major you need very good stats. All the California schools on your list are Reaches just based on your GPA and test scores. You need to go back and formulate a new list with some solid Match and safety schools at least for the California schools.
Test scores are not your issue, it is the low GPA. For the UC’s, GPA always trumps test scores unless you have some extenuating circumstances to explain your grades. You need to find some realistic schools that will focus more on your test scores, essays and EC’s and less on your GPA.
Try out Webb institute, Embry riddle, Stevens institute, cooper Union, sung schools. You gpa is good enough for these schools, you many not get finaid though. However, very prestigious
Since SUNY and E-R aren’t as selective as Webb, Stevens, and Cooper Union perhaps you may have a chance at them, but try to convince them that your capabilities aren’t accurately reflected by your high school GPA.