18, your self-awareness and willingness to share are admirable.
For reference, 6,800 freshmen (including 4,300 WA residents) enrolled at UW in 2015. Their middle 50% ACT range was 26-31 (for freshmen from CA, 27-32).
Hi, I know I’m not really that eligible to speak for your case, but I don’t recommend applying for the ivies. The score is significantly lower than their averages, and as for UC schools, the score may also be an issue. Given your GPA is a 3.86, which is also lower than Davis and UCB’s averages, I’m not so sure you’d get accepted. I’m in the same boat, except I have a 3.82 and a 32 ACT. I know the deadlines have passed, but have you considered some of the CSU schools with rolling admissions? For example, CSU Northridge has rolling admissions and it’s a pretty good school.
If not, I recommend privates, like maybe Chapman, Loyola Marymount, Willamette, etc. would fit the bill?
CSU’s do not have rolling admissions. Some offer Fall and Spring admissions. CSU Northridge offers Spring admissions but for non-locals.
From CSUN website::
SPRING 2017 ADMISSION
For the Spring 2017 semester, CSUN will be open for admission to first-time freshman who are nonresident (out-of-state) applicants only. Find instructions at nonresident freshman.
@deadroses , good post. I tend to agree. It may make sense to apply to some of the more flexible privates where an adcom will focus on your transcript. In the northwest, I’d consider UPS, Willamette, Whitworth (heavy Christian), Linfield and Pacific Lutheran University. If you want a larger school setting, I’d consider Washington State University. If you want a solid “directional school”, I’d consider Western Washington University. I also hear good things about the two Montana state schools, particularly University of Montana. I would also definitely make a reach application to the University of Washington. I would be far from shocked if you were admitted.
Wherever you apply, make sure to be clear in your personal statement materials that you took full advantage of the rigor that was available to you. That, and your GPA, along with any other compelling things about you as a person, are what will carry the day in your decision.
Rest assured you’re going to get in somewhere with that GPA, and what you do when you get there is the most important thing.
@UWfromCA , hearkening back to a discussion we had about UW and Whitman, a question (not rhetorical): do you know what the typical (assuming there is a trend) spread is between the median scores for admitted and enrolled? I’d imagine relative yield would be an influencing factor.
W/o having spent much time thinking about it, I’d guess that it would vary most relative to schools that we’d call ‘destination’ places and schools that occupy big safety roles. That is, you’d have to answer the question: is your enrolled population typically coming more from the bottom end of your admit pool, the top end, or an equal distribution?
I really have no idea about whether that is a consistent number for most schools, or if it’s its own, separate, stat for each school.
Being cognizant of the limitations on anecdotal evidence, I ask because those test score ranges really do not jibe with my experience. With three kids matriculating from Seattle area schools, and having lived most of my life here, my anecdotal experience is more than just a few kids. One reason I suppose that my pool might be a little skewed is that all three of my kids were at schools with strong IB programs and/or prep schools. So the lower test scoring kids there may just have really impressive transcripts that put them over the top. But even there, so so many of the average performing kids would avoid IB like the plague (because it’s a GPA killer) heeding the advice of our salty old CG who knows the UW admissions director very well. And predictably many of those kids had very average test scores.
To be sure, from about 2009 to about 2012, getting into UW was tough for in-state kids as UW navigated the crisis by, in part, pulling in more full pays. That was a blip though.
I don’t know. Maybe 24 is just too low. Maybe the kids I’m thinking about are more in that 26/27 range, where their score won’t help but won’t hurt, and the GPA is there.
Still, my flier application for the OP would have been to UW before UCB/UCLA. The latter are significantly harder to get into, and even the OP’s GPA won’t be enough.
Hi, uh, sorry, I’m probably not qualified to add my two cents in here, nor can I/am I willing to write a four paragraph analysis like others have. I’m just going to say it: unless you have an exceptional hook or extremely unique major/program/intended career path, your SAT and ACT scores are not Ivy-level. While I understand your school doesn’t offer AP/IB classes and there’s not much you can do about that, the fact that your GPA is a 3.86 without those rigorous courses doesn’t help. Sorry. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ And in my personal understanding, the way you write “I’m also applying to all the ivy colleges” and “Honestly, I like all the ivies! Except Cornell,” it makes me think that you haven’t really understood or looked at their programs and campuses and stats in depth, that, or you don’t really care about the specifics of the college you go to, just the name brand. I urge you to write down what you want in a college, use the SuperMatch tool, and go from there, because I assure you, you will not like “all the Ivies” once you see the different things they offer.
@SingHar17 , I tend to agree that the OP’s criteria for school selection is a little superficial. Not the first, not the last.
Alas, w/o a big jump on the ACT or suddenly becoming an athletic recruit, it won’t happen at any of the Ivy League schools.
@MiddleburyDad2 Yeah, I mean, it’s okay to be an “apply to all the Ivies” person, but you should have some general knowledge about how they differ, what majors you’d be interested in, any special programs that stand out – things you can write about in personal insight questions to show that you actually care about the school. And I didn’t think about the athletic recruit thing, but I agree!
I understand wanting to think positively, but with those test scores the Ivies, Stanford, and top UCs are highly unlikely. The problem with applying to them in your case, I’m afraid, is that you will spend a lot of time and money doing so, while not applying to the many good schools out there where you would stand a much better chance of being accepted. You have had some great colleges recommended to you on this thread and I hope you consider them seriously.
The issue for Ivies isn’t just the stats, it’s also the ECs. And with this comment, “I’m just being positive that I will get accepted into Stanford,” it doesn’t seem the OP knows what the tippy tops look for, hasn’t pursued that, doesn’t know the type they want, the level of action, accomplishment and thinking. You don’t “get there” for all the wishing in the world.
If OP does have big dreams, often the best shot IS the smaller or state colleges, where he can grow at his own pace, see the results. Not a big “name,” where the kid struggles just to keep up.
Re #24 (apologies to OP for the side discussion, which will end here in response to a direct question):
One thing to factor into your perception is that the number of freshmen applicants to the UW has increased from 31K to 36K to 43K in the last three years. However, instate applications have remained steady (around 11,000 per year). My friends who teach in WA tell me the top 15-18% of the senior class will apply to the UW every year, the top 10-12% of the class will get in (hence the usual 65% instate admit rate) and 60% of those admitted will enroll. This makes sense, as 92% of freshmen at UW were in the top 10% of their graduating class. I would not be surprised if this general pattern holds for many state flagships and their instate populations.
UW only publishes test data for enrolled freshmen (CDS), as far as I can tell. However, some schools publish data for both enrolled and admitted.
For example, UCLA’s ACT range is 29-34 for admits and 26-33 for enrolled. At UCD, the SAT range is 1770-2120 (ACT 27-32) for admits and 1600-2000 (ACT 23-30) for enrolled.
Based on the foregoing and UW’s enrolled ACT range of 26-31, the admit range is probably somewhere around 28-33.
@UWfromCA , so the trend, at least at those schools, is that the enrolled cohort has a lower end range than admits?
That is to say, there is a weighting of kids on the lower end of the admit range who aren’t enrolling.
You would think that the typical school risks losing the kids at the upper end more so than at the bottom end.
Obviously, the strong in-state publics have economics as a significant variable in the calculus. Meaning, strong students who could have gone to arguably “better” privates or OOS schools are choosing to stay home to save their parents money (or it may be their only choice).
92%? Hard to believe, but there it is. I wonder how many public HSs in Washington use weighted GPAs in the final ranking. My kids’ school did, so the IB kids tended to dominate the top 20%, as it should be IMO. I add that and then go back to what I’ve said before, and that is that a lot of pretty unspectacular students at that school who have scheduled their way to the counselor’s magic 3.7 marker are attending UW Seattle. Maybe a good chunk of those kids hammered their tests … hard to say. I tend to doubt it, but more power to them. Then again, there are all those other HSs around the state, where the top students are landing there too, which would boost the %.
Finally, you do not need to apologize to the OP. Nobody should care. It’s super easy to not read something - I do it all the time - and we’re not talking about the Forty Niners.
^ Have a great day.
I just got back from performing and I saw all these notifications! Haha, I am not clueless about the ivies. 
And I want to double major in political science and business. I don’t think what I am doing is wishful thinking? Im just manifesting positivity. I am aware of rejection, but I am not dwelling on it. I have applied to a couple UC schools. I did not apply to CSUS. I also applied to university of the pacific, Concordia University Irvine. & I will soon apply to William Jessup and Seton Hall. Rest assured, I am going to college! I received the cutest admission acceptance from Concordia and I qualified for a 12k scholarship. Im still applying to Stanford and Ivies, maybe even Cornell. Also Babson College. & I do live in California! Some of these schools I applied to because their application was free or they just gave me a fee waiver. I do believe my essays are amazing! I hope the UCS think the same. Thank you guys for caring so much! It really means a lot to see all the feedback.
Also do you guys get notified when I comment on here?
It seems that you will not listen. Grades/Test scores are more important than the essays. No matter what way you look at it. The ivies will not accept someone with a 24 ACT even if their essays were written by a nobel prize in literature. You need to be realistic and save money.
Anyway yes I do receive notifications when you post on here.
^^ woah! Just launched one of those venom buds I see.
I see, VenomBuds. It’s funny when I read your comment it was in the voice of Sheldon Coopers. ( from Big Bang Theory) You have a very close minded and quite negative attitude towards how a college does their admissions process. I hope that when March and April roll around I will be able to tell you of what I got accepted into.
Oh, and I think you’d be pleased to know that I have been accepted into three schools. One of them which provided a a crazy scholarship. Whats apparently been impressing colleges are my academic grades and my full tuition scholarship for being a percussion section leader for the four years. Im just really thankful and blessed that whatever happens Ill still be able to higher my education.
Most schools want you Academic GPA (Classes like Ceramics, PE, Music, etc excluded) so you most likely will be submitting what you call your “Core GPA” anyway.
You’re not getting into ivies or probably most of the universities of California. Definitely not UCLA. Waste of money considering you have no chance with your SAT scores. Try applying to University of Santa Cruz, and some others. Look at their average SAT using prepscholar which tends to be accurate. Don’t waste your money on schools you have no chance in, sorry your stats are subpar and won’t help you much.