<p>Hi everyone! I hope you're all doing well! </p>
<p>I've posted in the past about my daughter, who has high test scores and good extracurriculars, but a bit of a rocky transcript. January 1st just rolled by, so the bulk of apps are finished (thank goodness!)</p>
<p>However, my daughter was recently rejected from Fordham and wait listed at the University of Portland. Both of these schools she applied to EA, because they offered fee-waivers and scholarships, which is why we're surprised and a bit worried that she's been rejected.</p>
<p>As a refresher, she has a 3.2UW (yes, very low) and an ACT score of 33+. While her GPA is certainly on the low end of the spectrum, her ACT scores are quite above their averages.</p>
<p>We've figured that she's been rejected/waitlisted because: she applied with a Psychology major, which is possibly more competitive than the English major she's decided to apply with for her RD schools; the schools mixed up her transcripts, so they applied late in the decision; her junior grades are low, and since they haven't seen her senior grades (4.4+) they were hesitant to accept her; her "additional comments" essay detailing why her grades were low was too wishy-washy - her new one gets to the point and talks about what she had to deal with in high school. She hasn't allowed me to read her Common App essay, but all the adults I've talked to who did read it say it brought them to tears. Good sign, I hope! :)</p>
<p>We applied to a wide spread of schools for RD, but is there anywhere we should apply to ensure she gets accepted somewhere? Or are the musings above probably the reason she got rejected?</p>
<p>Thank you in advance!</p>
<p>Hmm, the weak GPA and low junior grades is probably what did it. Downward trends scare colleges and with EA, they didn’t get to see that she was on her way up. I feel your pain. My D had a rough sophomore year and it’s crazy how difficult it is to recover from that. It seems high test scores can help out a kid with borderline gpa (like 3.6 or 3.7 uw) but it doesn’t seem to do much for lower gpa’s. I bet things will go better for your D in the RD round.</p>
<p>You might try University of Iowa. Excellent English and writing program despite being pretty easy to get into (writing program is often in the top 10 in national rankings.) She can apply now and get a response in a couple days. No essay. They have a calculator you can use on their site that calculates your score and basically… you land over the minimum score, you are in. They also have some merit aid for ACT scores 30 or above (even with a low gpa.)</p>
<p>Rider’s average GPA is a 3.4 and much lower ACT than your D. They have some interesting programs too. We know kids at both Rider and University of Iowa with near perfect stats but going there for specialty programs and really good merit aid. They are quite content with their educations.</p>
<p>With those grades & scores (assuming most of the junior grades are 80+), your daughter should gain admission to all but the most selective Canadian universities. Only UToronto, McGill & UBC would be iffy.</p>
<p>Is there anything in her essay, suppplementals or GC recommendations that might be alarming to admissions or might make them wonder about her ability to handle college? The unweighted GPA vs. high test scores is always a question mark, but generally that can be addressed by the GC or handled very carefully in essays or supplementals as it can be seen in kids with LDs or kids who have had a family or personal trauma. I would look at the essays and supplementals with a critical eye for anything that might be controversial, or worrisome. Perhaps if your GC has reviewed the essays and supplementals they might have some suggestions. The suggestion of Iowa or another university that admits based solely on stats is a good suggestion.</p>
<p>It’s not uncommon for someone with a rocky transcript to be deferred from EA to the regular pool. This often means that they liked your daughter a lot, but they want confirmation from the next grade report that she is on an upward trend. Naturally being deferred is no fun - my oldest was deferred from both MIT and Caltech and ultimately rejected from both - he got into Harvard - so sometimes it’s just who is reading the application or other mystery factors. All that said, consider it a caution that you may have to add a safer school or two.</p>
<p>Certainly, your daughter’s stats are considerably better than my son’s – he was admitted EA to 2 U.S. LACs, rejected from a couple (to me, waitlist = rejection), and deferred at a 3rd. (And admitted to Mount Allison U & Dalhousie U in Canada). </p>
<p>The deferral (from one of the stronger schools to which he’d applied) specifically stated that the adCom wanted to see the next trimester’s grades.</p>
<p>As long as your daughter is in the top quartile for at least a couple of the schools to which she’s applied, and the school admission rates are >60%, I’d not panic. But if she hasn’t applied to two such schools, I’d urge her to do so forthwith. Certainly, your daughter was a realistic candidate at Fordham & UPortland but, with her stats, she couldn’t consider those safety schools.</p>
<p>That said, keep in mind that it’s not a safety school if the student doesn’t want to attend. But with your daughter’s stats, there should be plenty of them out there.</p>
<p>Any size / location preferences?</p>
<p>I doubt that it has anything to do with Psychology vs. English but more to do with whatever is in her essay and supplemental or comments before hitting submit with the newer higher GPA. I’d look closely at those along with making sure she has the one or two safeties as mathmom mentions and Iowa could be. Anecdotal reports indicate that the high GPA lower test scores are alittle “easier” a go than the high test scores low GPA kids. There are many posts on the “Where did your 3.3 to 3.6 kid get admitted thread” that started a few years ago about kids with high test scores but not as high overall GPAs.</p>
<p>Agree. ExpatSon is low GPA / high(ish) test. I’m pretty certain that his supplemental essay knocked him out of the running at one school (which was
a reach to begin with), but I got tired of our ‘animated discussions’ about it.
(I suspect that the C+ in his 1st term of Precalc didn’t help either.)</p>
<p>Can you tell us your daughter’s junior year GPA, and the intra-year trend?
<a href=“e.g.%20-%20expatSon%20finished%20his%20junior%20year%20with%20a%202.9%20but,%20except%20for%20one%20course,%20each%20semester%20%0Awas%20better%20than%20the%20last”>size=1</a>.[/size]</p>
<p>I’m fairly sure the problem doesn’t lie in the essay: D is a natural writer, and the people who she’s asked for advice are people (that I know) are gifted in English. I will, however, ask her to look over the essay one more time for any red flags.</p>
<p>Her GPA was a 3.8W; however this is after her retaking Physics/Math is taken into account, because the teacher wasn’t willing to take into consideration her friend’s death and other circumstances of that semester.</p>
<p>For “likelies,” right now we have U of Pacific, U of Oregon, U of San Francisco, U of Puget Sound, Willamette, CU Boulder, and perhaps UCSC (although I’m not entirely sure about that one.) Is another school necessary?</p>
<p>University of Iowa sounds like a great idea - I’ll ask her to apply! Getting one solid acceptance under her belt would be optimal. And, she just told me she got a request for a supplemental questionnaire from UC Davis today! We thought Davis would be far out of her reach, so it’s wonderful to know they’re actually considering her. :)</p>
<p>For preferences as far as school goes, I think now it’s just about the acceptances, since she’s so anxious about that; then we can weed out what gives one school preference over another, because she does like a broad range of schools.</p>
<p>Note - she is half Asian, so will she fit into schools like Iowa?</p>
<p>Clearly, your daughter is a strong candidate; not being admitted EA to ‘reachier’/smaller schools shouldn’t be unexpected, or cause for concern.</p>
<p>I’d agree with your assessment of UofO (seems like a slam-dunk) and CU-Boulder.</p>
<p>Pacific has a 38% admission rate, so I’d consider it a match. Erring on the side of caution, similar thinking applies with Willamette and UPS, because they’re small. The same goes for UCSC, given its very small percentage of OOS students.</p>
<p>As regards ethnicity & Iowa, looking at the [Campus</a> Life/Student Body tab on bigFuture](<a href=“BigFuture College Search”>BigFuture College Search), there seems to be a reasonably cosmopolitan mix - 3% Asian * 21K undergrads provides a cohort of over 600. And more than a quarter of the school appears to be non-white (or, at least, not identifying as white).</p>
<p>Sounds like things will happen. The Iowa campus is a really nice, pretty Big 10 campus…I know sometimes people have a visceral reaction to the work Iowa, have her check out the website and the images on Google images. Iowa fits the bill. It’s right on the river and has that traditional college feel. I think last year I saw the Asian population was about 20%. As a point of comparison of a comparable college Michigan State is around 5%. But the term “midwest friendly” really is true. If Iowa is a financial possibility with auto-admit it would make a great “safety.”</p>
<p>Interesting expatcanuck, Iowa reported the Asian population at 20% last year. Oh well, the OP can probably look it up.</p>
<p>Our friend in Iowa is Hispanic and gay. Says people have been really open and accepting. The college is located in a pretty artsy, liberal area. They also have a special scholarship for kids who “increase the diversity of the campus” lol. </p>
<p>a little about the writing program.<a href=“http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/library/college-choice/The-10-Best-Colleges-for-Writers[/url]”>http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/library/college-choice/The-10-Best-Colleges-for-Writers</a></p>
<p>20% is a good number! I was searching UIowa demographics and their site said that 3.4% of the population was Asian, with 12.6% of the total population being minority students ([University</a> of Iowa Student Profile | Undergraduate Admissions - The University of Iowa](<a href=“http://admissions.uiowa.edu/future-students/university-iowa-student-profile]University”>http://admissions.uiowa.edu/future-students/university-iowa-student-profile)).</p>
<p>Nonetheless, if it’s a really open and accepting school, that won’t be as much of an issue! I was just concerned because we’ve had a lot of problems with racism and such at her current high school.</p>