I am most likely going to attend a rank 60-110 university. Will ACT scores and GPA or extracurricular play a larger role for admission and scholarships for those not-super-competitive schools? I am involved in a robotics club (2 times a week), but that’s pretty much all the extracurriculars I’m involved in. I have a 4.09 GPA and 29 ACT (I think the April one I just took will raise it to a 30).
Generally the lower ranked the school the less they care about ECs. Test scores and GPA will generally be (by far) the most important components for most of those schools.
Look at the common data set report for the schools you are interested in. It tells you the importance of the factors considered in admissions including extracurriculars
It depends on the school and whether or not the scholarships are guaranteed or competitive. Guaranteed scholarships are stat based; competitive scholarships tend to have a holistic element and leadership, character, and accomplishments are usually part of evaluation.
Fwiw, if you need large merit scholarships to bring down your costs and your scores don’t rise to at least a 32, you should consider going further down in rankings in order to be competitive for large scholarships. Typically schools ranked even around 100 require higher test scores to be eligible for any type of top scholarship-guaranteed or competitive.
@steven6191 - I don’t believe you are correct in characterizing the 60-100 nationally ranked schools as “average.” These are still very competitive and many taken fewer than half of applicants. Grades and scores are important, but so too are ECs and strong recommendations.
60-100 is a huge range, especially for national universities. What are you thinking of?
For LACs, EC’s will matter to a certain extent (holistic admisisons) but won’t compensate poor curriculum rigor and C’s.
As Mom2aphysicsgeek said, if you need merit scholarships try to raise your score to a 32 or look at lower-ranked universities.
Because so many on CC are aiming for the most selective colleges, I do think people tend to pay less attention to probably a huge chunk of students who fit this category. Is there a list somewhere of colleges that are less selective but stiil have generally high stats? @MYOS1634 and @mikemac ? I know there is the long-running thread colleges for the Jewish B student. Should students in this category be looking primarily at publics? Or is it simply a question of looking at USNWR, or similar and going by rankings? (Mind you, I hate USNWR rankings.)
LACs in the 50-125 rankings tend to be very good for A- to B students.
Large public universities will be less holistic and pretty much look at GPAXtest scores, the rest is cherry on top.
@Steven6191, I’m wondering if robotics is really your only EC. An EC doesn’t have to be a structured club, team or school activity. It can be an independent hobby or interest you have developed in some way, or any kind of ongoing responsibility. Do you really only go to school, study, go to robotics and then do passive entertainment ?(i.e. TV, social media etc). Maybe you actually have another EC or two but don’t realize it. How do you spend your time?
Also a job or any volunteering in your community would count as an important activity outside of school.
^ very true.
What do you do once you’re done with school and your twice-a-week robotics?
The point about evaluating what you do outside of school is an excellent point. Leadership doesn’t have to come in the role associated with a title. ECs don’t have to be associated with a club or a sport or a group, etc.
If possible, I would spend a significant amt of time working on bringing up your test scores. You could try the SAT, too, bc you might score higher on it than the ACT. But, your test scores are also a limiting factor right now to your being eligible for merit aid.
Thanks for the responses. I am aiming for a 32 on the ACT as I realize my current score isn’t exceptional. The only notable thing I could consider as an extracurricular is coding, but I haven’t created anything amazing (mainly unfinished game projects), so I don’t think that would be impressive on an application. I’m going to try to volunteer at a food bank or Habitat for Humanity.
Should I focus more on getting a 32 or volunteering if I decide to do both?
Edit: Never mind, I think I have my answer from previous responses
@Steven6191, I’m assuming you’re a junior…can you do some significant volunteer work this summer? I would think that very active (and prolonged, if possible) participation with Habitat would be great. The food bank would be good, too, as long as you’re really learning, giving of yourself and participating (as opposed to something rather rote.) If you have some down time in the summer, could you finish some of your coding/game projects? Even if it’s not amazing or award-winning, it shows that you engage yourself in something interesting in your free time, and helps to show who you are. Any possibility that the robotics club could branch out this summer, to do enrichment robotics activities with younger kids at a public library, YMCA summer program, scouting group? If you initiate and develop a project like that, it could show leadership skills in something you’re skilled at.