I’m a rising senior and i have a 2.5 GPA but i got a 35 on the act…I studied my butt off for the act. What kind of colleges can i get into? I’m not sure what colleges to apply to because i’m in a weird situation. I had a lot of personal issues my sophomore and freshman year which caused my GPA to be so low. My junior year grades were okay, it does show improvement from the previous years. I plan on doing well my first semester of my senior year as well to show more improvement.
First off, your ACT score is off the charts. ACT scores like that get people into ivies.
To answer you question; find colleges that appeal to you; it doesn’t really matter how, just see if it seems like a “fit”. Also see if your family is able to afford the tuition sticker price (I’m sure your ACT score could get you some merit aid, but check anyways; nobody likes too much debt). Then check their latest admitted class statistics. BigFuture by the college board is a great site to check stats; it shows what percentage of admitted kids had X GPA and Y SAT score; but sadly it doesn’t show ACT scores.
PrepScholar also has a really good engine. Just type in to google “(Insert College) average GPA prepscholar”, and it should show up. This way you can compare your ACT score as well as your GPA.
Then there is the college/university’s actual website which will occasionally show middle 50% stats.
If you have any story or circumstance to explain your GPA, write about it in your essay! People with lower GPA’s than yours have gotten into very good schools (Top 50) off of essays and EC’s alone.
Remember, it never hurts to just take a chance and apply; Best of luck!
okay i just dont want to go to CC
I would say work hard to improve your GPA senior year. This can help three ways: (i) In some cases, some universities might wait for your mid-term grades before deciding on admission (not all will do this, but I have heard of multiple cases of this happening – in your case it seems more likely than some other cases); (ii) If you don’t get in anywhere that you like, you can take a gap year and a year later will be applying with your entire senior year grades; (iii) Doing well your senior year will help you prepare for doing well when you get to university.
How good were your junior year grades?
My expectation is that you probably will get in somewhere significantly better than CC. While top 20 universities are pretty much looking for a sure thing (students with many years of straight A’s in AP classes), there are thousands of universities and colleges that are willing to take a chance on students that show that they have potential. A strong Junior and Senior year plus 35 ACT pretty much screams “there is some potential here”.
Check the NPC on universities that you are considering. You might want to start with your in-state schools partly because this is an obvious place to start, and partly because they are more likely to be affordable. I agree with @LaxKid16 that you should also check prepscholar for schools that you are considering.
Your ACT is phenomenal but your GPA is too low for you to get into a “top college”, so I would suggest you apply to a local state school or community college (which you can always transfer out of).
Yes, you absolutely can get into college.
For starters, don’t discount CC’s. I went to one, saved a boatload of cash, then went to a local university and graduated on time.
But if it’s not the right choice for you, there are still lots of options. Go to a College Match site and find schools with open or fairly high admissions.
There are lots of options, but you need to take the initiative and find them.
GPA 2.5 and ACT 35 is a huge discrepancy. Something is not adding up in the eyes of admissions. They probably will question more for the “one shot lucky deal” on your ACT than the “persistent” low GPA. In my many years of helping kiddos, this is the 1st time I see one with such a huge discrepancy. I believe it will be true with many AOs across the country. See how the junior and senior grades look like. If you can get a 3.3+ GPA for those two yrs (assume you are taking hard classes as well), then you probably can get by with many state schools. However, if you don’t get the marks during the final two years, odds for CC will increasingly an option for you. But don’t lose hope, CC can be great places for 1st and second yr of college, and if CC grades are great, you can do the transfer to other schools later and save some money. JMHO.
i’m not looking to apply to the top 20 colleges.I would like to get into colleges like auburn, or tcu, drexel, uni. of cincinnati umass, or even texas a&m. i plan on doing well my first semester. And the only reason why i didn’t do so well my first years of high school was because I was bullied and had a lot problems. My junior year grades do show improvement by the way.