<p>I am a white male (with hispanic descent) and go to a private college prep school with a religious affiliation. </p>
<p>Freshman Year:
English Honors
Algebra Honors
Global 1 Honors
Biology Honors</p>
<p>Sophomore Year:
Global 2 Honors
Chemistry Honors
English Honors</p>
<p>Junior Year
AP English Language (Did not do so well because I was put in the class because of scheduling issues)
APUSH
Physics (no honors, just AP regular, or go to earth science)</p>
<p>Senior Year
AP Environmental
AP US Government and Politics
College Theology
Pre-Calc Honors
Spanish 3 Honors
(I also have the option to add another class, either AP Bio, College Chemistry, MedTec, or an elective such as accounting. Should I add another course and give up my one free period [lunch], or will it not affect me?)</p>
<p>EC's:
12 years on the piano
12 years in the martial arts (black belt and a leadership position)
13 years out of schools baseball
8 years out of schools basketball
1 year schools basketball team (freshman)
3 years Varsity Tennis team (captain for 2, sophomore-senior years)
2 years Varsity Wrestling team (junior and senior years)
120+ hours of community service (mandatory for graduation)
School news club for 3 years (sophomore-senior year)
Film club (1 year)</p>
<p>Grades:
Cumulative GPA- 3.1 Weighted (no unweighted GPA will be sent or even exists)
ACT- 29 on only attempt, 8 on essay
SAT- 1730 on only attempt (630M, 560CR, 540W), 8 on essay
School does not do a class rank</p>
<p>What I am worried about is that my ACT is around 75% for the schools, but my GPA is below average (and on an upward swing). Does this make almost all of these schools reaches for me? I am also applying undecided if that helps. </p>
<p>Chances at:
U of Alabama Tuscaloosa
Binghamton University (In state)
UCONN
Florida State U
U of Florida
James Madison U
Penn State University Park
U of South Carolina
The Ohio State University
University at Buffalo (In state)</p>
<p>UF- Reach because of your low gpa. The 50% gpa mark at uf is 4.1-4.3 or 4.4 I can’t remember.
FSU-High Match/Low Reach Again from the low gpa but this is more likely than UF
OSU-Reach
Why did you only take 3 classes junior year? That will hurt you badly. Also your SAT is low so only submit your ACT. Good luck.
The rest I don’t know much about.</p>
<p>Your GPA is the challenge at many of these OOS state flagship universities. Google the “Common Data Set” and look at Table C11. Lets use Alabama’s as an example:</p>
<p>For UA, 27% of all enrolled, degree-seeking, first-time, first-year (freshman) students had a high school grade-point average of 3.24 or less (the overall class average was 3.6). This makes UA a high match.</p>
<p>However, at UF, 94% of addmitted freshman had a GPA of 3.75 or higher, making it a reach.</p>
<p>Keep in mind, even if you’re accepted at a state flagship (UA, UF, PSU, USC, etc), you’ll likely have to pay full OOS tuition. In that case, you may want to extend your search by looking at OOS private schools. You’ll find a lot of good private schools for the “B student” with cost in line with the OOS tuition at public flagships (or much less). You may also want to look at some of the lesser known public schools (“directionals”), as these tend to have lower admissions requirements and lower OOS tuition fee’s.</p>
<p>@Gator88NE Thanks for the reply! I am already planning on paying full OOS tuition. Not an issue for me at this point.
I have a question: My school seems to have people get accepted to flagship OOS schools at a much higher rate than the national average. For example, almost all applicants get into alabama with no trouble, and they have significantly lower gpas (2.5 to my 3.1) and lower SAT/ACT scores. (21 to my 29). And in Penn State, until this year 90% of the applicants got in (this year about 60% got in, and all applicants denied had lower test scores) Nobody with my grades has ever been denied, or even waitlisted. Could my high school make a difference? I go to a better than average private school, which ranks around top 20% in the state.</p>
<p>Sure, some colleges will take into account your high school. That’s why class rigor is important.</p>
<p>Some colleges also take into account that you’ll be a full pay OOS student. </p>
<p>At PSU-University Park, only 3.5% of admitted students had a GPA less than 3.0. I would be surprised if more than 1/2 of your class mates with GPA’s in that range are getting accepted to the main campus. Perhaps you have grade deflation at your school? Eitherway, your high school GC likely knows what it takes for a student at your high school to get into these universities. </p>
<p>@Gator88NE Thanks for another reply. 5/6 applicants in my school with a gpa <3.0 were accepted to PSU- UP in recent times. I’ll have to talk to my guidance counselor about grade deflation. </p>