People with 3.8~3.85 unweighted GPA who got in to top 30 schools

Applying to College
1

I am a white kid who currently goes to a public high school. I have gotten total of 3b’s in freshman year to sophomore year ( 3B’s in freshman year and All A’s in sophomore year). However, due to my illness my grade has dropped in my junior year, which I heard that it is the most important year ( 3B’s in the first semester and guessing that I will have 1 or 2 B’s for the second) My confidence has dropped and I am not even sure if I could get in to my dream school, which is Notre Dame. I’ve gotten 34 for my ACT but i am afraid that my GPA would hurt my chance. I see that people with 3.95 or higher and 34 ACT score still get waitlisted or rejected. My parents work at Notre Dame if that helps. So my question is…

  1. Assuming that my EC is decent, do you think I still have a chance with unweighted GPA of 3.83~3.85? ( Estimated GPA including my Senior year. I do not know the class rank. probably top 10~15%) I am still a junior
  2. How much do you think having parents working at the university would help me?.
  3. If you are people who got in to good schools with below 3.85 unweighted GPA, could you give me some advice please?

I’ve been losing confidence and motivation due to grade drop in my junior year. A piece of advice would be very helpful at this point. Thanks!

2

I got into Georgetown with a 3.62/4.00 unweighted. Granted I am a URM. My advice is to really take your time on essays and make them as good as possible, and to do what your passionate about. For me I think the biggest reason I got in was because I wrote good essays and my ECs while low in number were things I was very passionate about. I hope this helps! Good luck to you! GPA isn’t everything.

3

Thank you for your reply! @hssenior27

4
  1. Yes, absolutely. The average GPA at UMichigan is 3.85, and above a 3.8 everyone's chances are pretty much the same. I would think you should be in at least top 10% with a 3.8-3.85, assuming it's an average public and there's no grade inflation.
  2. It definitely helps. It helps even more if you do ED, and it sounds like ND is your clear first choice, so if you can afford it that makes sense.
  3. I didn't get into a top 20 school, but I did get into a top 35, which I know isn't quite the same, but I think the advice is pretty much the same no matter what rank the school is. Write good essays, keep working hard and taking the most rigorous classes you can succeed in.
5

Does your school use Naviance? That would give you a good picture of GPA vs acceptance at any school you search. Most likely you’ll find a number of acceptances at lower GPA, but you’ll also see some ‘virtually perfect’ GPA/score kids get rejected.

My Son has a 3.72 and has been accepted at CMU, RPI, NEU, and URochester (those are top 30 to top 50 depending on whose ranking you go by.) So that should be hopeful to you. He even had a C freshman year but showed an uptrend with 4.0 both junior and senior years.

Your illness can be explained in an interview or essay, but I would suggest just mentioning it briefly. Better yet, just have your counselor mention it in their recommendation. You do not want to come off as making excuses.

There are also a handful of schools who, theoretically, ignore freshman year grades. Search these forums. CMU, JHU, UCs, Cal Poly IIRC.

6

I got into Notre dame this year with a 3.79 unweighted and a 2250 SAT

Also my junior year gpa wa the worst of my four years so far.

7

@Ksty1098 @pickpocket @usualhopeful Thank you so much for your replies!!!

8

I got into Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan,Barnard, Pomona, Georgetown and others with a 3.67 UW GPA and 1950 SAT. My 10th grade year was terrible as I had a very ill parent. No other hooks.

9

The strong ACT will help at ND, the gpa drop can be explained by your guidance counselor in their recommendation which is part of the Common App.

Rather than stress now about what would happen in a year, focus on your classes and your outside activities. Be engaged and involved, work on your study skills. Ask your parents (you can go too) to attend one of the info events for faculty/staff about ND educational benefits, where there will be reps from admissions talking about the process. As I recall from friends who talked about their experiences, they said that being the child of an employee can tip the balance among otherwise well-qualified applicants – but the employee kid must be well qualified for admission.

Reach out to your ND admissions counselor – they are typically very involved in working with applicants and are upfront about the process. ND suggests that only the highest applicants apply EA; we know several students who were advised by their ND reps not to apply EA but to wait for RD because they would not be competitive with the EA crowd and would risk rejection. Those kids were ultimately admitted RD (I have no idea what their stats were etc).

Meanwhile, presumably Bloomington or Purdue would be a good admission/financial safety for you – learn about their programs and admissions process as well. If a Catholic college is an important part of your preference for ND, then consider Marquette, Dayton and Xavier as well. As as parent who has been through this twice, we learned to find your safeties first and then add on your matches and reaches – its easy to identify the “dream” school, but takes more time to find the safeties and matches.

Good luck, and focus on what you can do now, rather than what might happen in the spring of senior year. You have great scores and strong record, so if you craft your list wisely, you will have many opportunities next year.