I have an EXTREMELY low GPA of 3.2(weighted–my school doesn’t submit unweighted). But here’s the thing. Both Frosh and Soph year, I had a GPA of 3.5. both years my grades were the exact same–4 B’s and 2 A’s. Junior year, I had a cochlear implant surgery two weeks into the year, which caused my grades to drop significantly, so i had a total of 4 C’s for that year. But overall my hearing impairment has caused a lot of problems with school. I didn’t take the SAT bc of COVID, so I don’t have that to show. For my extracurriculars, I am in 5 clubs, am a volunteer tutor for foster kids, started a local chapter of a national organization in my city, I am VP of a school club, and participated in a crisis call center for COVID. My essay will focus on the struggles of my hearing impairment and how that shaped me, and what I learned from it. I know my GPA is really low, so i just want to know my chances for schools like: UWash Seattle, Rutgers NB, Santa Clara Uni, Penn state UP, Colorado boulder, and other schools like that. And if you have any other recs please let me know. Im not exactly sure what I want to major in, but i might major in psychology just because its in the college of arts and sciences for most schools, and it i really want to do something that will help people, learning from my own experiences. Also Im looking for schools that are diverse, as I am a POC, so id feel a little uncomfortable if the school isn’t that diverse.
A 3.2 is not an extremely low GPA by any means, no matter what some on CC might say. An extremely low GPA would be multiple/all failing grades, and you’re definitely not failing, so keep up your spirits! 
Are you in-state for any of these schools? If not, keep in mind that they’ll be extremely expensive out of state, and the top state flagships (like UW) tend to offer little to no major scholarships. I would recommend looking into the Arizona state universities, as they offer guaranteed scholarships (idk about this year due to COVID,) based on SAT/ACT and GPA.
Your region likely participates in a regional tuition exchange (search west coast regional tuition exchange, south, northeast etc. based on your state of residence,) which can allow you to attend an out of state school in your region at a fraction of the out of state cost. However, these tend to be only available for certain majors or at satellite campuses of state flagships.
Hi! Thank you so much. I live in CA, but out of state tuition is not a problem for me, and I’m very lucky for that. What would you say my chances are in general. i know its very unpredictable, I’m just wondering because between my surgery and everything, its very confusing
Also i forgot to mention, for sports, i do horse back riding, and was on the track team my sophmore year. For junior year, I wasn’t able to because of COVID
CA has many, many great universities, so I would highly, highly recommend considering your state schools first. The UC TAG program is an option as well, which guarantees transfer admission from a California CC per the completion of certain requirements at amazing schools such as San Diego, Davis, and Santa Barbara.
Im definitely considering community college, and state/ UCs. Im working on my college essays right now, so Im looking into out of states, is there anything you recommend for that? I just want to cover all my bases and use all my opportunities, and then decide, based on my acceptances, if i should go to cc
4 B and 2 A grades is an unweighted GPA of 3.33, not 3.5.
Since you live in California, you can use https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/ to calculate your GPA for UCs and CSUs. You will get three versions: unweighted, weighted-capped, and fully weighted. Most high school GPAs you seen on UC and CSU web sites will be the weighted-capped version.
You can also calculate your unweighted GPA including all courses from 9th grade (instead of from 10th grade for UCs and CSUs) to get an idea of where you stand for other colleges.
3.2 weighted GPA gives no information to people outside of your high school, since each high school’s weighting method could be different. Others do not know if it comes from a 3.1 unweighted GPA with light weighting, or 2.2 unweighted GPA with heavy weighting.
If you’re able to satisfy the TAG requirements for your major at Santa Barbara or San Diego, there are virtually no public out of state schools as well-regarded AND are such a good deal. However, I’m not from CA, so idk about the difficulty of the TAG requirements: I would recommend talking to your HS’ guidance counselor.
Out of state public schools would be 50K + for a degree that’s not going to be markedly better (for the cost) than a degree from UCSB or SD, though again, that’s my opinion.
@Gumbymom knows a lot about CA schools and would be likely be able to help provide input on some in-state CA schools you should consider.
Yea, most likely ill be going to CC and doing the TAG, but just for the sake of applying and having more choices, are there any Out of states you recommend?
Without an unweighted GPA, there is no way for others to know how realistic various out-of-state or private colleges are for admission for you.
Are you interested in a school that has a large Deaf community? RIT has many Deaf students, and has the National Technical Institute for the Deaf as a sub-program. You wouldn’t necessarily need to be a part of that program, but its presence means that you’d have many peers with similar experiences, and lots of support available.
This link shows the admitted student stats for the various programs. https://www.rit.edu/admissions/pdf/freshman-requirements/?page=2 While your stats would not get you into the computer science program, for example, that isn’t your area of interest anyway. The 25-75th percentile GPA range for the College of Liberal Arts (which has psychology among many other majors) is 89-95 (New York tends to use percentages instead of grade points, but that’s kind of like a 3.4 on the low end.) I think these must be unweighted, since the top end in the most competitive programs is still under 100… and your 3.2 weighted must mean a bit lower unweighted, yes? So, this might be a stretch… but if you were interested in the school, you could also consider applying through the NTID program and do the Applied Liberal Arts program, which would then funnel you into any major you wanted in the College of LIberal Arts. https://www.rit.edu/study/applied-liberal-arts-as The 25-75 percentile GPA range for NTID is 81-88 (roughly 2.7-3.3 unweighted) which would put you somewhere near median, I think.
I don’t know if such a program appeals to you, but it would be an on-ramp to a school that would otherwise be a bit reachy, and one with a Deaf community that might be rewarding to connect with. So, something to think about. Racially speaking, RIT isn’t super diverse, but not terrible, depending on what you’re used to. The new Director of Diversity and Inclusion is a Black woman who took the NTID path into a the psychology major at RIT herself when she was an undergrad. https://www.rit.edu/news/ntid-names-director-diversity-and-inclusion-0
Racial demographics:
Asian 9.3%
Hispanic/Latino 7.4%
Non-Resident Alien 6.4%
Black or African American 4.3%
FWIW, RIT also has an equestrian team: https://www.rit.edu/sg/equestrianclub/about.html
Arizona State Universities would be good. Lewis and Clark College in Portland is a small LAC but Portland’s a decently large city on the West Coast.
Are you interested in large or small schools? Urban/sub-urban or rural?
Though these are utterly useless for rankings-sake, US News IS helpful for finding schools by searching based on location and student body size. Keep in mind that there are separate ranking lists for liberal arts colleges, national universities, and regional universities.
@PikachuRocks15: Thank you for tagging me in this discussion. The OP has made several posts in regards to California schools and has been given information to help ascertain a good list for the California schools.
@Gumbymom what do you think my chances are for santa clara u. to include more information, i am a legacy and my audi-verbal therapist is writing a letter of rec for me in addition to my teachers and counselors. She also went to santa clara
Santa Clara’s Freshman profile for the College of Arts and Sciences shows a 3.46-3.84 unweighted GPA for admitted students. Having legacy status should help in the ED round, not sure about the EA or RD?
Also having the LOR from therapist can help along with the your extenuating circumstances regarding your surgery, however, your weighted GPA is below the middle 50th percentile so it will still not be an easy admit.
If you get an SAT score of 1400+ with your EC’s and essays, it might be enough to make you a competitive applicant.
Definitely not a solid Match school but worth an application.
https://www.scu.edu/admission/undergraduate/first-year-students/early-or-regular-decision/ says that “Applicants with alumni ties will receive the most consideration for their affiliation with the University during the ED I process”, but that does not exclude consideration of alumni ties in ED II, EA, or RD.
actually i wasn’t able to take the SAT this year unless i can take it in november but chances are they might close that one too