My son has a 224 score so is likely going to get the semi-finalist designation, but although he takes a bunch of honors (and now AP) classes, he had some trouble last year and he has about 7 C semesters, and 1 C-. So his GPA is 3.16 unweighted and 3.7 weighted- do we think that will put him in the group of the 1000 that don’t make finalist? He got a 1570 on the SAT, so that will be good enough as far as the validating score… ideas?
No one is going to be able to say for sure, but unfortunately the odds may be against his making finalist. There are definitely cases of kids with otherwise stellar records not going through with one or two Cs on their transcript. There are also cases where a couple of Cs did not keep a student from advancing. No one knows what the difference in those cases was, but you might have better odds if you’re in a less competitive state.
My kid got it with a 3.0 but no C’s. He had straight Bs. I had read that Ds disqualified but some ? One? C would not. There are threads in the archived and not so distant past discussing this.
Conventional wisdom seems to hold that one semester C is okay, but more than that is problematic though not automatically disqualifying.
Sorry, meaning that if you get a C once in one class it’s ok, but if you get mulitple Cs, it’s much less likely?
You have no control at this point if he makes it or not. The bigger issue is finding the right combination of schools to apply to. My D’s friend had a disconnect between GPA and test scores and way overshot where he applied. Use the weakest part of his application when finding the safety and match schools.
@NBSMOM correct. If you go back on this forum, there are “worry threads” of people reporting NMF outcomes in years past. That’s where the anecdotal data comes from. I absolutely cannot say that no one with multiple semester Cs has ever gotten finalist status, but we have seen kids with a C in only one class (usually meaning both semesters I think) as far back as freshman year fail to advance despite an otherwise excellent record.
Thanks. The grades are clearly an issue for a lot of colleges- so we are looking at target/reach/safety etc. I just wanted him to be prepared for his other friends who have similar scores but better grades to be finalists when he probably won’t be.
For semi finalists you just need scores to make cut off but for becoming scholars, specially 2,500 who get handpicked by merit foundation for their own scholarship which is independent of college/parental employer participation, there is a whole lot more. You have to be a complete distinguished package.
You need good grades, high rank, SAT, course rigor, leadership, academic record, extracurriculars, character record, community engagement, teacher and counselor recommendation etc.
@NBSMOM The biggest question is why did he have “a little trouble” with last year’s grades? Parent’s divorce? Moved twice - or once from a low performing district to one which had higher standards? Lengthy illness? Personal situation which cause a lack of focus which he has since refound?
If so, I’d see if the school’s recommender could address last year’s grades in their recommendation letter. If it was more like that he didn’t put the necessary effort in, I think it’ll depend on the strength of the recommender’s letter to overcome a very poor performance. And, likely not a good outcome. So, I’d plan a call to a guidance counselor to discuss strategy on the letter (which is either written by a g.c. or the principal).
And his essay better be awesome.