Hello everyone, I am currently a junior in high school with a 4.1 GPA (unweighted) 4.5 GPA (weighted), I will have taken 6 - 7 AP’s before graduating, I am close to a 1500+ on the SAT (currently working on getting there as I’ve taken the SAT just once), I have 150 + volunteer hours, have run fundraisers for things I feel passionate about (medicine, biology, medical technologies), know a number of programming languages, will contribute to a non-profits codebase for medical software this summer. I also have been a varsity athlete every year (not that this will add anything). My question is what are my chances to get into prestigious STEM and CS schools? Also what should I be doing to better my chances to get into a place like Stanford? Should I just keep doing what I’m doing by strengthening activities I do out of school ,or do I need to focus more on getting the highest SAT score a possible? Anything would be helpful because no one has given me any advice on what I should do.
How is your unweighted GPA greater than 4.0?
Cost constraints?
State of residency?
How do you have a 4.1 unweighted GPA? No unweighted grade can be higher than 4, so the unweighted GPA cannot be higher than 4.
The chances of anybody, no matter how good, of getting into Stanford are tiny, same for MOT and CMU. Forget about “prestige”, and look at where you will fit, and what you want to do. CS is a very popular major these days, and that means that acceptance rates to CS programs are much, much lower than those published for the entire college.
For acceptance into Stanford, MIT, CMU, UIUC, UMichicgan, UCB, UCLA, etc, you will be competing against kids with SAT score close to, or at 1600, UW GPAs of 4.0, APs, major awards in robotics and math competitions, etc.
You have a good profile, and you should keep on doing what you are doing now, as you move into your senior year. However, look at acceptance rates and at the stats and other profiles of kids who were accepted into colleges in which you are interested, to get an idea of which colleges one which you should focus.
my school gives A+'s 4.3 so the unweighted ends up being a little over 4.
If my school didn’t give 4.3 for A +'s I would have a 4.0 exactly
For the California UC’s, they have their own GPA calculation and do not use +/- for their GPA calculation.
UC’s use 10-11th grades only for the a-g course requirements and gives extra honors points for UC approved Honors courses (CA HS students only), IB, AP or DE (CA HS students only). The capped weighted UC GPA is capped with 8 semesters of these honors points and the fully weighted UC GPA is an unlimited honors points. 9th grades are reviewed for a-g course completion and Senior courses are reviewed to make sure all a-g courses will be completed upon graduation along with HS course rigor.
Here is the Rogerhub UC GPA calculator: https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
If you are a California HS student, then you look up your HS’s UC approved Honors courses here: https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist
Your SAT score is competitive for UCB along with solid EC’s but you should consider UCB a Reach school regardless of your qualifications.
Some UC statistical data:
2018 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.80-4.19 capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 10%
2018 Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 4.20 or above capped weighted and not major specific:
UCB: 37%
2018 UC capped weighted GPA averages:
UCB: 4.23
2018 Data:
25th - 75th percentiles for SAT:
UCB: 1360-1540
You parents will pay >$240K for a UC etc?