I’m a rising senior and I’m going to apply to many well-known universities (and one liberal arts college). I have a 32 ACT, but my GPA as of Junior year is 3.8519 (rank 86/432), which is lacking compared to what is expected of someone with that high of an ACT score, and I don’t really have an excuse. I’m considering applying EA to all the ones that offer it, but after some calculations, I worked out that I could increase my GPA to 3.8710 (assuming I get all A’s) on the mid-year report that RD admissions see.
Am I being overly concerned with my GPA/rank? Are there any other hidden caveats to applying to everything EA? Would it be difficult to finish all the supplemental essays by the EA deadline? Detailed responses are greatly appreciated (I don’t have to worry about finances much). Here is a mostly complete list of the schools I’ll apply to:
Brown (I’d probably do ED for this)
Amherst College
Illinois - Urbana
UC Berkeley, LA, SD, SB
Southern California
UVA
Carnegie Mellon
University of Washington (the safety - sorta)
The UCs base student admittance on 10-11th grade performances. Your senior GPA won’t be used in their calculations. Are you instate for California? These will be very expensive choices if you are not in state and can’t get financial aid.
Applying ED means that you won’t get an opportunity to compare financial aid packages because you are telling the school that you’ll go to your ED admitted school, come heck or high water.
I don’t think a .02 change in GPA will matter.
I told my D to apply EA to all the schools on her list that offered it.
If you don’t get all the supplemental essays done in time, well, those will have to become RD apps. Are you working on your essays now? You should be, if you’re planning on EA.
@auntbea has responded concerning ED which is another matter entirely, and not really what you asked.
You also didn’t ask this, but make sure you have a school that is both an admission safety and a financial safety. That means a school where you are SURE of admission and where you can definitely pay the bill. I am wondering about U Dub being a “sorta” safety, and unsure what you mean by “not worrying about finances much.” Have you and your parents actually sat down and talked about how much $$ is available and the actual cost of attendance at the colleges on your list, including travel? Have you run net price calculators?