<p>I have a 3.5 GPA, a 20 on my act. I had low grades Freshman and Sophomore year of High School. However, the first semester of my senior year's GPA was 91.</p>
<p>I early applied to the College of Charleston and I thought I did everything right. Why did they reject me?</p>
<p>The worst part is that I opened my mailbox on Christmas day to find that I was rejected.</p>
That really sucks that you got it on Christmas, sorry. Your grades and scores aren’t bad, but you didn’t mention if you were from South Carolina or not. It is easier to be accepted if you are a resident of the state. Also, colleges look for extra curricular and leadership positions so if someone with your same stats applied who, for example, played more sports than you or was part of student government, then that could have been a deciding factor.
Here is a direct quote from there website:
When you apply, the College of Charleston admissions committee looks at many things in your application, including your academic preparation, GPA, SAT/ACT scores, talents and leadership qualifications. Leadership, extra-curricular activities and other achievements are important, but are of secondary importance in our decision-making process.
The middle 50 percent of freshmen enrolled for fall 2015:
Scored 1030-1200 SAT for in-state students (critical reading and math only). 1070-1210 SAT for out-of-state students
Scored 23-28 ACT for in-state students. 24-29 ACT range for out-of-state students
Had a GPA between 3.827 and 4.441 (SC Uniform Grading Scale), 3.339 and 3.981 (weighted) or 3.075 and 3.7 (unweighted)
Source: http://admissions.cofc.edu/applyingtothecollege/freshmen/whatwelookfor.php
Colleges like College of Charleston get a lot of applications and since your test scores were a little below their average they would have probably liked to have seen an above average GPA. However, you mentioned your GPA was brought down by your Freshman and Sophomore years,and it was still good, but not good enough to compensate for your test scores.
Any school would be lucky to have you, don’t be too discouraged by this. Good luck!
Just realized this is from 2014!! Hope all is well with you! However, my advice still goes for anyone looking to be accepted to the college or who was recently denied.