Hey CC,
UW
9th grade 3.3
10th grade: 3.4, 3.55
11th Grade: 3.75
SAT: R+W: 740, MA: 800
Chem: 800, Math II: 800 Physics: 770
Should I just forget about top private schools? or is it too late to give up.
Yea you probably should, unless you have crazy EC’s.~3.5 average gpa is pretty low.
OP, what are some other things about you? I got into a top private with a 3.46 GPA. Granted, I had a decent amount of hooks and other factors that were in my favor, but that is what the holistic admissions approach is for!
The top schools have more applicants with top grades and top standardized tests than they can accept. .
I have decent ECs, I have recommendation letters from professors of Ivy league. (One’s MIT)
Also, I still have second semester and first semester of senior year to perform my best. I calculated and I can raise it up to 3.7… Good service hours (currently 200hrs), Junior President, first gen immigrant from east asia.
Generally, your senior year grades don’t really matter that much. I think it’s possible, but it would definitely be a huge reach. There are plenty of kids with far better stats who get rejected from top schools, and being from east Asia will be a disadvantage. Are you a US citizen or will you be viewed as an international student? Is the gpa you have listed weighted or unweighted? What’s your rigor like?
Did you check the Naviance data of your high school. How is your class rank? In general, the adcom woukd consider GPA aso indications of consistent effort and trend ooff improvement. High test score can be an outcome of short term effort. So top schools would rely on both while some may give more weight to GPA in the reviewing process.
Why do you think your gpa suffered early on?
I think senior grades do matter as a lot of colleges want to see 7th semester grades before admitting. Your scores are very good and if your ECs are equally good and through your application comes out that there is a reason your gpa suffered I think you do have some chance. Now, if by top you mean HYPSM only maybe not. But if you expand a bit I think you might be ok. In any case make sure you cast a wide net. Dont over concentrate on top schools. If you think you have a profile that matches a specific school (fit) perhaps concentrate more on that one. Do your best from now on though and bring your gpa up.
You have had an upward trend, which is a good sign- you can of course try to apply to some of the top schools, but you must have academic safeties where your GPA is in range. Because of your SAT scores, you might be able to get merit at some of these.
What do you call a top school? Top 100? Top 25 regional? Top 50 national?
Your GPA makes you a match for colleges such as Syracuse, St Lawrence, St Olaf, Rhodes, Dickinson… And your test score would help out get a scholarship there.
You’d get a full tuition scholarship and guaranteed admission to the honors college at UAlabama.
You have a shot at Penn State, UF/FSU, flagships at that level, but don’t expect financial aid.