I was rejected from University of Pennsylvania last night and clearly know it was because my GPA is lower (3.85 weighted and my school doesn’t do unweighted).
For ECs I’ve had four internships, serve on two town boards (I’m chairman of one of them), worked a few jobs bussing tables, was a volunteer surrogate for a prez campaign, and was a paid staffer for a local campaign. At school I lead the Model UN club and local political discussion club while serving in student government. I also did rowing for four years if that means anything.
For recs I have two very good teachers recs and my third outside rec is from a presidential campaign staffer who I worked closely with.
I am a white male and the school and I go to is a mid-tier private school in New England. I am applying for financial aid (I’m on financial aid at my high school actually) and I’m in a middle-class single parent household.
My freshman grades were mostly low and mid Bs in mostly honors courses. My sophomore year grades were mostly mid and high Bs and low As in a mix of honors and regular classes. In junior year I got straight As in a balance of honors and regular classes.
My SAT scores are 1460 and 1500 and super-scored their 1530.
Will I have any chance at my other reaches like Cornell, Northwestern, and Georgetown? What about NYU? I’m a legacy to Cornell and Northwestern if that helps at all in regular decision…
Cornell is open that legacy is only a bump in ED. Not sure about NU but my D’s friend, a legacy, was rejected a few cycles back with stronger grades and scores.
IMO, these are really reachy schools for everyone but especially with a lower GPA (and you can easily calculate your UW GPA yourself).
Be sure you have match and safety schools on your list that you would be happy to attend. Are you applying to GWU and American? Those come to mind right away in reading your profile.
Your strong upward grade trend will be attractive to any number of schools.
Hi, this is Jenna from Prompt! It looks like your test scores, grades, and extracurriculars seem great, but you didn’t mention your essays – what were they about? Tens of thousands of students are applying to schools like UPenn with similar numbers, so essays then become really important to help you stand out. Essays can help elevate your application even if you’re worried about things like your GPA. Your essays are a chance to prove that you’d be a good fit for the school, and to show off your creative thinking in a way that your overall resume doesn’t. If you work on your essays between now and the regular decision deadlines, you have a better chance to get into some of your reach schools!
You probably want to calculate your unweighted GPA to get a more realistic way of determining reach/match/likely/safety.
If your parents are divorced, will both of them be cooperative for financial aid applications and contributing? Some colleges require both of their financial information.
I’m sorry that you didn’t get into your dream school. No use looking backwards. You are into Fordham, which is a good school. I suspect that you might wind up interested in law school, politics, international relations. Being in DC would probably be a very good thing for you, so I’m glad that you applied to Georgetown, American, and GW. I think that you would do well at any of these schools. I don’t know if Cornell would be the right fit for you - it’s not located near any center of political activity/power. Even Albany is too far for you to get to for internships during school. Northwestern? Well, you do have Chicago local politics, maybe not the best place for what you’re interested in. I think that you would do very well at Fordham, or at any of the three DC schools.
My dream school was Cornell, because I had gone there for the summer before senior year of high school. I was a lazy student, and I didn’t get in. I wound up at Penn, which it turned out was a FAR better school for me. Looking back, it was the best thing that could have happened for me. I reassure you that whichever of the schools you wind up at, even if it’s Fordham, you will do very well there, and wind up feeling as if it was the best thing that could have happened for you. Fordham, in addition to being a good school, gives you access to NYC politics, which is certainly a very big playing field.
Don’t beat yourself up about it too much. Shrug it off, and look forward. You’re going to do really well, whether it’s at Fordham, or any of the other schools you’re still waiting to hear from.