Georgia Tech (match)
Princeton (big reach)
Duke (reach)
Virginia Tech (safety)
NC State (match?)
Clemson (safety)
South Carolina (safety)
pursuing electrical engineering
african american male
south carolina
income ~102k
gpa: 3.36 unweighted, 4.37 weighted
rank: 61/293 at top 5 high school in state
act: 35 composite 34 math and english 36 science and reading
sat: 1460 composite (took in 10th grade, taking again in november, debating whether to report)
ap’s: 5 (calc ab, human geo), 4 (physics 1, 2, world history) currently taking (calc bc, chem, us gov, macro, lit, seminar)
ec’s: 100’s of hours as ymca counselor in training in 9th and 10th grades, academic leadership academy (getting diploma from center of creative leadership), mock trial in 11th and 12th grades, nhs, beta club, ymca outdoor leadership camp
jobs: 11th grade: grocery store janitor, 12th grade: actual ymca counselor, just started varsity lacrosse today
recs: can get 10/10 rec from calculus teacher and 7-9/10 rec from physics teacher
essays: will be 9-10/10 with much review from english department at school
You will have a really tough time with Princeton, Duke, and GTech, especially for engineering. The killer for you here is your ranking of 61/231. These schools are really looking for top 10% of the graduating class students regardless of stats. The only thing that may help you will be legacy or sports. On the other hand you will probably get an admit from the other schools you have listed here. -Admissions Track
@clemsonfan803 You really need to take a look at the Common Data Sets for the schools you are considering before you start to think about whether a school is a match, reach or safety. For example, the common data set for Georgia Tech https://www.irp.gatech.edu/common-data-set indicates that over 90% of freshman had HS UW GPA’s of 3.75 - 4.00 with less than 2% having GPA’s in the range of 3.25 - 3.49. The CDS also indicates that GT considers GPA to be “Very Important” while putting less weight on standardized test scores, considering them to be “Important.” That isn’t the description of a match school for a high ACT low UW GPA student.
To find Common Data Sets for the schools you are interested in, google the name of the school + common data set.
Generally speaking, for a safety, your stats should put you well over the 75% mark in GPA and Standardized test scores. A match would be in the 50-75% range, lower than that would be a reach and anything below 25% starts drifting into the extreme reach range. These numbers are ball park for highly selective schools like GT that accept roughly 25% of applicants. The most highly selective schools (Like Princeton and Duke) with acceptance rates in or near single digits are reaches/extreme reaches even for the kids with perfect stats.
@tdy123@AdmissionsTrack so other than GPA and class rank, would I be considered a strong applicant at any of these schools? Do you think the other parts of my application could make up for these shortfalls?
@clemsonfan803 At the 25th USNWR report engineering school, NC State https://oirp.ncsu.edu/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/CDS_2016-2017.v10.pdf your GPA puts you in the bottom 15%. Would standardized test scores that put you above the 75the percentile (31E and 32M) and the rest of your application make up for the GPA? Maybe, but even then, the low GPA makes NCState a reach, not a match. At Clemson http://www.clemson.edu/oirweb1/fb/factbook/CommonDataSet2016.pdf only 4% of students had a GPA under 3.49. You really have to do some research and look for some schools where your GPA puts you above the 25th percentile and you’ll have a much better chance.
He is a match for Clemson and NC. He will be accepted to both with 85%+ probability. His SAT/ACT scores AP load and EC more than compensate for the lower than average GPA. This is especially true if he applies early. - Admissions Track
@AdmissionsTrack I’m very curious; how did you determine that a potential applicant with a GPA that puts him in the bottom 4% of students @ Clemson has an 85%+ chance of acceptance when Clemson virtually never goes that low on GPA except for recruited major sport athletes?
If Clemson just uses a formula that incorporates those four factors and comes up with an admit cutoff score, then it could be a little tougher than 85%. OP, do you have any other hooks apart from URM, first-gen or legacy maybe? Those will help with the more selective colleges on your list - Duke and Princeton e.g. I’d put GT as a reach and Clemson as a match. Good luck!
Clemson uses weighted GPA primarily, especially for in state students. The OP indicated that his weighted GPA is 4.37. This combined with his SAT score of 1460, his URM and in-state student status give him a 99%+ chance of admissions. He’s just not going to get rejected from Clemson. It is more than a safety school for him. And I just want to point out when you said that Clemson doesn’t get as low as 3.36 gpa. Hogwash. Schools can manipulate gpa’s however they want. Every single university in the nation admits students with gpas much lower than the stated average. It happens every year and more often than you think. Think about it, if you have so many students applying with 4.0+ gpas, the admissions committee has the latitude to admit a few hundred students with gpas that are below average and still maintain a relatively high average admit gpa. This is especially true if a school uses the weighted gpa scale. - Admissions Track
@AdmissionsTrack Thanks for your insight. I’m sure you are correct that “every single university in the nation admits students with gpas much lower than the stated average.” That is why the CDS has a section on student GPA ranges - it makes clear what proportion of students have GPAs in each range, data that would not be clear just based on averages.
If you are stating that based on your experience with Clemson, they are sure to admit a student like OP, fine. Clemson’s published reports, on the other hand, pretty clearly indicate that non-legacy, non-recruited athletes with GPAs that low are rare at best.
You wrote, “Clemson uses weighted GPA primarily, especially for in state students.” Clemson’s current CDS http://www.clemson.edu/oirweb1/fb/factbook/CommonDataSet2016.pdf reported the GPA of students (Item CDS C11) “using a 4.0 scale.” Where is the weighting if they report on a 4.0 scale? Is their reporting scale different from the scale they actually use for admissions? When they report (also item CDS C11) that “3 Percent who had GPA between 3.25 and 3.49” and “1 Percent who had GPA between 3.00 and 3.24” what does that mean? Even though they state that it is on a “4.0 scale” are you suggesting that they are not telling the truth? Of the 4% that they report as having GPAs below 3.49 (weighted or unweighted) how many do you think are recruited athletes, legacies, or development admits?
@AdmissionsTrack Clemson considers ECs minimally in acceptance . He has a low weighted GPA for SC which is on a 6 point scale. I tend to take the information on the CDS as a better indicator of admissions info over someone not affiliated with the school. Many students with stats similar , and higher , included URM were waitlisted , bridged and deferred last year .Statements like "He’s just not going to get rejected from Clemson " give students false hope and are not helpful IMO. Clemson application does not require an essay.
There is absolutely no debating this. I am 1,000% sure. Clemson is a marginally competitive school. The OP will be admitted for sure. You can show me all the CDS reports you wanted. Those numbers are manipulated numbers that the institution submits with no way of cross checking. Furthermore, those numbers represent students who actually enrolled, which is often time different from the general pool of students who were accepted. Clemson is not going to reject a URM , especially an AA instate male, with a 1460 SAT and a 3.36 gpa and multiple AP courses. It is just not going to happen. You guys can write all the scientific formulations that you want containing gpa cutoffs and percentages, that’s just not how admissions offices work contrary to popular belief.
You’re right, there is no debating with someone who is 1000% sure. Except perhaps to question what the difference is between 1000% sure and 100% sure, but that would be like debating whether an infinite number of $10 bills would be worth more than an infinite number of $1 bills and that might involve “scientific formulations” so best not to go there…
It’s unreasonably unfair to tell a kid he has some high % chance. Unless, right now, you’re walking his admit letter to the mail box.
Anyone claiming experience should know the variety of factors that can play. And that this is more important to most OP kids than adults trying to be The Great Carsoni.
So, OP, “other than GPA and class rank, would I be considered a strong applicant at any of these schools?”
Not the most competitive on your list. They’ll want to see math/sci activities. The competition will have that. And they’ll look at the transcript, it will matter what you got less than an A grade in. Not just that you took a number of honors or AP classes that built the weighted gpa.
Good luck. The AP scores and ACT are great.
“Clemson is not going to reject a URM , especially an AA instate male, with a 1460 SAT and a 3.36 gpa and multiple AP courses. It is just not going to happen. You guys can write all the scientific formulations that you want containing gpa cutoffs and percentages, that’s just not how admissions offices work contrary to popular belief.”
While I agree with you on this and also think he’ll get in, you don’t want to say 1000% unless you know someone on their committee, which you may based on your experience.
I bet this OP is admitted at Clemson too, no scientific admissions number crunching needed to offer up my random stranger opinion, lol. Let’s hope OP comes back in February and tells us what the result. Then any one of us can gloat all we want!