@inn0v8r@notveryzen Ohh. My counselor told me that “the higher your GPA is, the lower your test scores can be, and vice versa.” This is not true then?
That’s what I thought COE was haha, just making sure. How would you say chances are for biology/biochemistry major? I know that UCD is also very strong in biological sciences.
and @notveryzen my school doesn’t rank either. I suspect I may be in the top 15%, if not 10% of the class (not exactly sure). And not sure if I’ll make ELC, since they use capped for that.
I hope I’ll have a shot. My weighted uncapped is a 4.60, but my unweighted is pretty horrible (3.80). Hopefully they’ll take into account rigor…
@wormholes I think what your counselor said is broadly true across schools, but there are different (mostly unknowable) weightings between the two for different schools. It sure looks like to me that for UCs it is much less about scores than GPA.
UCs are great - I just want you to carefully build your college list from the safeties up, not from the reaches down.
@inn0v8r Right, makes sense. And thank you, yeah I definitely would hate to be overconfident and then get crushed. I just hope this time next year, I’m happy and have somewhere good to go
A 3.8 with 11 APs already and a 35 is good enough for virtually every school in the country. That doesn’t mean you will get in, but you are certainly qualified and you won’t get thrown in the trash in the first round. Getting beyond that is going to depend on the rest of your app. And just guessing here, but with that crazy course load, I’m guessing you don’t have a lot of time for ECs.
Apply to Florida State, Alabama, Kansas, Kentucky, or Nebraska…and boom, you’ll be into a fun school with great professors and big-time sports, and you will probably pay less than $20-- maybe even MUCH less. Now quit worrying and start researching the schools you might actually attend.
JHU would not be “impossible”.
If you submit well-prepared applications to a balanced mix of reach-match-safety schools, you’ll be fine.
If you’re a California resident, you may want to avoid applications to OOS public schools. You have so many very good, less expensive options in state. Unless your family income is too high to qualify for aid, some of the private schools may have lower net costs than any of the OOS public universities on your list.
Tk, there are a lot of oos publics that throw merit aid at students with a 3.8 and a 35. Don’t assume the in-state publics will be better options financially
^ Yes, those are good points. Now, the OOS publics offering a lot of merit aid won’t necessarily include the “public Ivies” on the OP’s list in post #15. Michigan’s average merit award is about $6K; UVa’s is about $7K. How many OOS students get non-athletic merit awards from those schools big enough to bring the net prices down to UC in-state levels?
The OP would qualify for the Presidential scholarship at Alabama, which covers full tuition (http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out-of-state.html). Depending on his family financial circumstances, he still might wind up with a lower (or competitive) net cost from a UC or from a selective private school.
Run the online net price calculators for any school that interests you. Especially if cost is a big concern, do consider a variety of college types (in state public, OOS publics that offer generous merit scholarships, private schools that claim to cover full demonstrated need, etc.)
@notveryzen Ok, thank you. And I have decent EC’s, but I thought UC’s (my first choice) don’t really care about EC’s at all…they’re all about numbers aren’t they?
@tk21769 That’s a good point. And yep, that’s exactly why I’m looking into the UC’s - cheap (relatively) and good schools. What would you say is “too high” of an income to receive aid? I don’t know much about aid…
UCSB explicitly states on their website that their application review consists of 50% GPA and test scores and 50% essays and EC’s. EC’s do count for the UC’s especially when you have thousands of applicants with similar grades and test scores. EC’s can set you apart from the rest.
^^ The income ceiling for aid varies from college to college, and also is influenced by various factors including the number of college-age children in your family. Usually, the best way to estimate how much aid to expect is to run the online net price calculator for any school that interests you.
Here’s College Scorecard’s breakdown of average net costs to attend several schools that claim to meet 100% of demonstrated need:
(Expand the “Costs” section to see averages for various income levels)
When I run Pomona’s net price calculator, assuming only one child, it looks like aid drops to zero at some point around the $225K/y income mark. YMMV. Pomona is a rich, selective school. Aid might drop to zero at a much lower income point even at some other colleges that claim to meet full need.
Really… there are almost 100 posts between your two threads on the same topic. You KNOW you will have college options. Stop jonesing for prestige, make a reasonable list, and put together the best apps you can.
