Low GPA, but high test scores?

College Search & Selection
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<p>I go to a very competitive high school (number 1 public high school in NC), and have taken 5 AP's, and about 18 Honors classes. I struggled through high school and made a couple D's in my honors classes my sophomore year. After that, I gained control of my studies and got my grades up. It looks like I am going to end with about a 3.53 GPA. I do have decently high test scores though. 32 ACT, and 2150 SAT. I'm looking at schools like Ole Miss and Alabama, but, I was wondering how my poor sophomore year grades are going to effect my admission chances. I would love to get some opinions. </p>

<p>Thanks everyone.</p>

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<p>You would get a scholarship at Alabama. Full tuition, I think. It is automatic in their web page, unless they change it for next year. Ole Miss is a safety for you. You might want to add a couple of reaches, because why not? I’m not sure I’d really call either of those a challenge for your stats.</p>

<p>But cost is a question as well. If you are looking for merit aid, I think Alabama’s full tuition (not room and board, but still…) is a pretty good bargain.</p>

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<p>Let me add that that is my weighted GPA. My unweighted would probably be closer to 2.85 ~ 3.00</p>

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<p>Oh, ok. Then not Austin, but I think Alabama counts it if your school will put your weighted gpa on the transcript, even hand written. Ask in the U of Alabama forum. And I still think Ole Miss is match. Also possibly UT Dallas,but I don’t know their Greek life etc.</p>

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<p>They look at unweighted and they take out gym, health etc and recalculate using core classes. </p>

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<p>Tiger, they who? Because Alabama used to say if the counselor put both weighted and unweighted gpa on they would use the higher one. Did you mean UT Dallas?</p>

<p>Edit: Here, scroll down: <a href=“Frequently Asked Questions – Scholarships | The University of Alabama”>http://scholarships.ua.edu/faq/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>And I was thinking that if your weighted gpa appears on your transcript you would make one of these scholarship categories, depending on how your sat breaks down </p>

<p>"UA SCHOLAR
A first-time freshman student who meets the December 15 scholarship priority deadline, has a 30–31 ACT or 1330–1390 SAT score (critical reading and math scores only) and at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA will be selected as a UA Scholar and will receive the value of two-thirds tuition or $64,184 over four years ($16,046 per year).</p>

<p>PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLAR
A first-time freshman student who meets the December 15 scholarship priority deadline, has a 32–36 ACT or 1400–1600 SAT score (critical reading and math scores only) and at least a 3.5 cumulative GPA will be selected as a Presidential Scholar and will receive the value of tuition or $95,800 over four years ($23,950 per year)."</p>

<p><a href=“http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out_of_state.html”>http://scholarships.ua.edu/types/out_of_state.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>What other schools do you think I could get admitted too with these stats?</p>

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<p>Well, if you aren’t looking for aid, there are a ton of possibilities. If you want Greek life, I don’t know if the LACs have that but a bunch of them accept a B student. It will likely make a difference if you are under or at 3.0 to some. You could make some UCs ,possibly, they like APs but won’t bump up any honors except those few in state ones they certified, so you would have to calculate your UC gpa and it would have to be a 3.4 for out of state. They don’t look at 9th grade for your gpa, which may help or hurt you, I don’t know. If you have a 3.4 uc gpa then UC Santa Cruz or UC Riverside, but they aren’t the kinds of colleges you mentioned, and are pretty expensive for out of state. The Cal State Universities (Chico etc) would also be possibilities. I like Chico, personally. </p>

<p>Tulane maybe?</p>

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<p>Look at the ‘3.0 student’ threads here, there are a number of them.</p>

<p>here’s one of MANY <a href=“College for the average student - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1355674-college-for-the-average-student.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Thanks I meant if a candidate is close the “core” gpa is calculated. The link says higher gpa is reviewed not used. Our counsler has told us if the gap between unweighted and weighted is high schools will review core gpa. Maybe it applies more to LACs which was my focus. </p>

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<p>My link only applies to University of Alabama. I agree colleges typically look at core courses, however, I was just speaking of the one school he had mentioned, which gives a particular scholarship.</p>