Is my GPA too low for T20 Schools - a candid chance me

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi there,

I am a hispanic male from Florida who attends a all boy’s catholic school. Both parents went to college and I would say we are upper middle class. I am applying/already applied to the following 12 schools

  1. Northwestern (Econ)
  2. UChicago (Financial Economics) attending their fly in next week don’t know if that counts for anything.
  3. Georgetown (Finance)
  4. Carnegie Mellon (Business Administration Finance)
  5. UPenn (Jerome Fisher Program and Wharton Finance)
  6. Yale - NUS (Politics, Philosophy, and Economics)
  7. Northeastern (Finance)
  8. UT Austin (Business Admin and Canfield Business Honors)
  9. U Florida (Finance and Honors Program)
  10. Florida State (Finance)
  11. University of South Carolina (Finance and Honors Program)
  12. Fordham (Finance and Advanced MBA program)

My stats

UW GPA - 3.82
Weighted GPA - 4.40

No Rank

High trend Upwards towards junior year in terms of rigor and grade

Courses

13 APs - Human Geography(5), World History (5), Seminar (5), Calc AB (4), Physics 1 (3), US History (4), Lang and Composition (5), Calc BC, Research, Microeconomics, Literature, US Gov, and Stats

2 DE - Business Law and Financial Accounting

11 Honors

Standardized Tests

ACT - 35 (E34, M33, R35, S36)

SAT 2 - Literature - 750, Math 2 - 800, and US History 740

Extracurriculars and Awards

  1. National Merit Commended Scholar
  2. AP Scholar with Distinction
  3. AP Capstone Diploma
  4. National Hispanic Recognition Program
  5. National Honors Society
  6. Key Club Board Member
  7. 750 Service Hours over 4 years
  8. Business Club President - Most active roll: Student ran education club (not fbla) with site visits, speakers, presentations, trips to Atlanta and Silicon Valley, student ran internship match online platform, business curriculum started for the school.
  9. Financial Manager of the FIRST robotics team with $40,000 budget
  10. 2 time mission trip leader to Aiken, SC
  11. Model UN founder and Vice President
  12. Committee Leader of student ran charity supporting Haiti by raising $43,000
  13. Run my own financial portfolio worth $16,000 (stocks, bonds, ETFs, and cash) from 8th grade to present with returns of 10.3% annually
  14. Started my own business designing and selling Tshirts and hoodies
  15. Learned to code Python and began to work on my own financial algorithm
  16. Only high schooler from 105 college interns at major bank paid intern program in the treasury management department for 10 weeks
  17. Started a podcast discussing economics issues in Sci Fi and Fantasy Worlds.
2

Several of those seem like stretches no matter what your GPA. But some seem pretty reasonable. Good luck.

3

Your GPA is just fine.

4

Northwestern, UChicago, Upenn, and Yale all have single-digit acceptance rates and are are fairly high reaches for anybody. Georgetown and Carnegie Mellon are in the teen, so they are also reaches for anybody. Your GPA is somewhat low for these colleges, but not out-of-reach low, especially since you have a hook. Still, there is a good chance that you will not be accepted at any of them.

Northeastern - also a reach, but your stats are in the middle 50%.

UT Austin - low reach,
U Florida - high match/match
Florida State - high match/match
University of South Carolina - safety
Fordham - low match/safety.

5

UT-Austin reserves 90% of applicants for Texas residents. The business school is even more competitive, so it’s a high reach. Can you afford the out of state or private tuition costs? If you can, then the list is probably fine. I would add a couple more safety schools to the list.

6

Congratulations on your achievements! I also don’t think your GPA is too low for any of the schools on your list.

Are you applying ED anywhere? EA? The schools on your list are fairly different e.g., NU and UChicago, Northeastern and CMU, but I assume you have good reasons for each school on the list and can write a compelling Why Us? essay for all that require it.

Regarding U Texas, McCombs and Canfield BHP are reaches and likely have a lower acceptance rate than the overall OOS rate of 25.9% (class of 2022) https://admissions.utexas.edu/explore/freshman-profile. As an OOS applicant make sure to complete the ‘Expanded Resume’ that is listed as optional on the application page.

I don’t think you need to add safeties: FSU and UF as in-state, and USC OOS are highly likely/safety for admission with honors college admits obviously somewhat tougher.

Good luck!

7

Thank you guys