<p>BU
Syracuse
Penn State
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Northeastern
UCSB
UCLA
UMich
USC</p>
<p>3.38 UW GPA (Upward trend: 3.1 freshman year, 3.5 sophomore year and 3.6 junior year)
IB Diploma Candidate</p>
<p>SAT-2110</p>
<p>EC-s
3 years Varsity Basketball (Captain, MVP)
3 years Varsity Volleyball (Captain)
3 years Varsity Tennis
Model UN, attended SEOMUN and THIMUN, got 2 special positions
100 volunteer hours
Nominated by students to be a student advisor</p>
<p>Awards:
High School Honor Roll
Couple of subject awards
Nominated for athlete of the year
MVP in basketball</p>
<p>Job Experience:
Very selective internship at NASA</p>
<p>US citizen living outside the country (International School)</p>
<p>this seems like a great list! i’m not sure about some of the schools on here, but from the schools i know it seems like a lot of matches, not a lot of safeties, so the only thing i think you need to do is look for some schools where you’re guaranteed acceptance, though because i’m not familiar with all your schools you might have a good safety or two on there already.</p>
<p>thanks man. usc ucla and umich are my reaches. i know i dont have the best shot but i’ve dreamed of going to usc since forever so it would be awesome.
but you think i got a pretty solid shot at some of the other ones? cause id still like to go to like BU or UCSB</p>
<p>I can’t imagine a student who’s applying to schools like UCLA and U Michigan wanting to attend a small Maine LAC with less than 7% the undergraduate enrollment of the larger schools.</p>
<p>Do some research into the common data sets. Collegedata.com is one good source; collegeboard.org is another. From the class of 2009 data (which is the most recent I could find) admitted freshman mean GPA at the schools on your list are:</p>
<p>northeastern NR
bu 3.49
penn state 3.55
syracuse 3.6
wisconsin 3.69
usc 3.7
umich 3.75
ucsb 3.85
ucla 4.24</p>
<p>The two UC schools are probably reporting UC-weighted GPAs.</p>
<p>Looks like a pretty good list to me although I’ll agree a “safetier” safety or two might be in order.</p>
<p>thanks steve thats useful. do you know if the rest of those those are weighted? my school doesn’t weight but im an IB diploma candidate so i think schools take that into consideration.
i was thinking about adding IU-Bloomington and OSU to the list, but thats about it cause i don’t want to exhaust myself with apps</p>
<p>however, the schools i’d really like go to to are mich, usc, uscb and bu</p>
<p>I doubt any of the others are weighted. Don’t let that get to you. Remember, those are means. Assuming a fairly symmetrical distribution, there are just about as many people with GPAs under that number as there are above. The common data set sites I mentioned will show you the distributions (for schools that report them). For instance, at IUB:</p>
<p>2.00 - 2.49 1%
2.50 - 2.99 5%
3.00 - 3.24 12%
3.25 - 3.49 18%
3.50 - 3.74 22%
3.75 and up 42%
Mean 3.66</p>
<p>Yes, selective colleges look for rigor. A 3.5 in a standard curriculum isn’t the same as a 3.5 in an AP/IB curriculum.</p>