I’m an African American and I got a 33 on my ACT and have a unweighted GPA around 3.5-6 and a weighted GPA around 4.3+. I’ve taken a good 5 or so APs before my senior year and got 4s or 5s on them all. I’m hoping to get into some selective schools and keep hearing that African Americans seem to have an easier time getting into these schools, but I’m not really sure how accurate that is. I’m also very confident in my essays.
And some examples of schools I’m interested in are Berkeley, ucla, Duke, Vanderbilt, northwestern, Georgetown, and of course the Ivy leagues
The Low GPA will hurt you and being African American only provides a SLIGHT bump. I know many qualified AAs who would have been qualified w/o their AA status that has been rejected from top schools.
I think you have an excellent chance! My URM D is a soph at Penn, and was accepted with a 2150 SAT, 2 subject tests scores over 700, 31 ACT, and weighted GPA of 4.2. She did have a TON of leadership positions though - the resume is the clincher.
@Leonthesecond - Very excellent shot. Would be interested to hear how it worked out. AAs get a shot to help diversify the class body but don’t look at too much like a boost since you still have to come just as hard as anyone else to get accepted. You did well so rely on that. I don’t think your unweighted gpa is a problem. Class rank would matter a lot though. Extracurricular add substance. No idea what you have with the latter two.