Trying to understand student’s chance with a variety of schools. GPA weighting is confusing so could use some suggestions. Mid-to-large schools, close to city but not city center, possible accounting or management major but undecided, good student but not exceptional performer. Would like a school that will challenge but not feel overwhelming.
Open to schools not considered here, as well. Appreciate your thoughts.
Demographics
US citizen(US citizen or permanent resident)* or international student
Massachusetts(state is important if you apply to any state universities)
Public (current college for transfers)
Gender/Race/Ethnicity female/white
none
Intended Major(s)
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Unweighted HS GPA: 3.3?
Weighted HS GPA 3.76
Class Rank: 126/284
ACT/SAT Scores: 1210
Coursework
8 APs, 1 dual enrollment, all remaining honors
Awards
Extracurriculars
Captain for Cross Country and Ski teams, peer mentor, student council, community service org member, disability buddy, anti-bullying peer service, part-time job
Essays/LORs/Other
Good to strong essays
Cost Constraints / Budget
Open for now
Schools
Safety (certain admission and affordability)
Not sure
Likely (would be possible, but very unlikely or surprising, for it not to admit or be affordable)
URI
Quinnipiac
Michigan State
University of Oregon
Match
University of Delaware
Elon
UMass (A&S)
Bentley
University of Denver
Syracuse
Penn State
Reach
Loyola Marymount
UMD
American University
San Diego State University
UMass Isenberg (business)
Why the question mark by unweighted GPA? Take all core course grades (Eng, Math, Sci, SS, Foreign Lang), assign 4 points to any A, 3 to any B and so on, then divide by number of course grades.
What does ‘open’ budget mean? Typically it’s preferable to set a budget and communicate it to your student. For all the out of state publics, assume full pay. Will you qualify for need based aid? Run each school’s NPC to get a cost estimate.
What math class does your student have senior year? Will they have 4 years of classes in each of the 5 core subject areas?
The list is probably ok, even though I am not sure I understand why SDSU for example? Would your student attend SDSU over Mich State, Oregon, Denver, or Delaware…all schools I expect your student will be accepted to? U Mass Lowell would probably be a safety, no?
You might also look at ASU and U Arizona, both have good business programs, but on the larger side. Look at U Dayton, also excellent business programs and career placement with fewer students.
Make sure your student applies EA everywhere that offers that option. Are you considering an ED app anywhere? For each school you will have to decide whether or not to apply test optional, based on last year’s data. Good luck.
Not sure what you mean mid to large. Bentley has 4K undergrads. SDU is 32K and Michigan State 39K.
Budget matters. Some schools may take you full pay and some may not if you need money.
I agree with @mwfan on Lowell.
I think your matches are reaches except maybe Elon - which is - mileage wise near some cities - but is isolated. And has 6K students. I’m unsure of Bentley.
I don’t see applying to UMD but I suppose you can. No chance it happens. But a U of Kentucky, Kennesaw State are others that could work. West Chester PA too.
You really need to provide a size desire and cost but I think, while there are schools you’ll get into, you mostly overrate your list.
I thought of a school you don’t hear much about on CC: Northern Arizona University. I think your student would love the location in Flagstaff and the school has a strong running and skiing community. And it tends to be more affordable for nonresidents than other options.
I think there are about 20,000 students and many majors offered (including Business Analytics and Business Economics in addition to Business Administration).
Penn State main campus will be a high reach if your daughter applies as a business (Smeal) major; she would almost certainly be offered a commonwealth (branch) campus (2+2 program). She may have better odds applying as a DUS (undecided) major, especially if she checks the box that she is open to starting in the summer. Students in DUS can take the same classes as Smeal pre-majors and can get into Smeal by successfully completing the Entrance to Major requirements. Make sure she applies EA, with all components of her application received by Nov. 1.
Penn State cost of attendance for out of state freshman students is >$53,000 for tuition/fees/room and board. Penn State isn’t near any large cities, though State College is a student “city”.
I am going to assume that the 3.3 unweighted GPA is accurate.
I would add U.Mass Lowell to your list. I am not sure whether you might also want to add U.Mass Boston. I think that U.Mass Amherst is not a sure thing with a 3.3 GPA. Whether it is a match or a reach I am not sure, but my guess would be low reach.
UNH is worth taking a close look at. I think that I would add it to the list. It is quite an attractive campus, a good school, and not so far away from Massachusetts. I have visited it several times for several reasons (including a tour with a daughter back when she was looking).
I would put Bentley as a low reach. Probably the same for U. of Oregon and Penn State out of state.
I also wonder what “open budget” means. The budget is something to take a close look at before you decide which universities to apply to.
Oregon and San Diego are a long way to go for good universities when there are lots and lots of equally good universities much more nearby.
San Diego state has their own CSU GPA weighted calculation. They use only A-G grades from the summer after 9th to the summer prior to 12th. OOS applicants are given 1 extra honors point weight for each semester of an AP/IB or CSU Transferable DE course only with a maximum of 8 Honors points. So for example, 4 year long AP classes take 10-11th would be 8 semester of Honors points. Since the CSU GPA is capped, any eligible courses above that amount will be evaluated for HS course rigor but not included in the GPA calculation. Maximum CSU GPA is 4.4.
You should familiarize yourself with the A-G course requirements especially the 1 year requirement for a Visual Performing arts course which trips up many OOS applicants.
So to calculate her CSU Capped weighted GPA, add up all the A’s, B’s, C’s etc… received for the a-g courses taken during the 10-11th grades. Since she has taken 8 AP’s, she will get the maximum 8 honors points in the calculation.
The CSU application will also calculate your CSU capped weighted GPA once she enters her courses and grades.
SDSU will evaluate her with the OOS applicant pool and within her applied major. Depending upon her CSU GPA and OOS competition in her major, SDSU may not be a Reach for admission. The Cal states do love full pay OOS applicants at $47K/year. Note that CSU’s do not give financial aid to OOS applicants.
SDSU does not break out their admit rates/major based on Residency, but for the College of Business, the Median OOS CSU GPA in 2022 was 3.81. 2023 data is not yet available.
Not when calculating an unweighted GPA, which some schools do. Other schools calculate GPAs in their own way. AP vs college prep will be taken into account when evaluating rigor.