Does school prestige matter? I have a 3.8 unweighted GPA, but, according to Yahoo, MSN, Bloomberg, and Niche, the private-broading school I go to is ranked #10 in the United States. Mitt Romney attended the school I go to if that means anything. The school is very prestigious will this subside for my “low” gpa? I want to go to Stanford. I have a 35 on the ACT.
You need to speak with your guidance counselor about this. The staff at your school knows exactly where everyone has been admitted in the past umpteen years, and what those students’ stats were.
Don’t stop believin
At this point getting into Stanford is a crapshoot. The acceptance rate was under 5% so it would be a mistake to pin your hopes on getting in there. Work with your guidance counselor to create a balanced list (reach, match, safety) schools that you like to apply to.
How is your class rank?
Your counselor (and Naviance if your school has it) should give you an idea of what colleges have admitted students with your stats (GPA, SAT/ACT).
However, at the super-selective college level, there is much more than stats that goes into the admissions decision. Stats are just one of many things that need to be top end to get admission to a super-selective college.
Start your list with a safety that you will be admitted to, you can afford, and like.
I go to a very high ranking school. Colleges know upon reading the name of your school (especially if it’s really close to the top, like your’s) that it’s a competitive school. However, going to a high-ranking school will not make up for a poor GPA (which you don’t have).
I know a girl from my school was rejected from Stanford this year with just over almost a 100 UW GPA (we do GPA on a 100 scale) as well as the best extracurriculars in the you can think of (state wins in sports, captain of clubs, class president…). She wasn’t rejected because something was wrong, but when every single applicant has thee stats there’s just not enough room and some have to be rejected. She still got into Brown, Penn, Claremont McKenna (as well as numerous others) and was waitlisted at Harvard.
Still apply. You have a shot, but when the acceptance rate is 5% no one is guaranteed to get in.
“Low-key I’m really smart and go to a feeder school to every Ivy League and I am hoping to break-out of the mold and go to Stanford”. You’re going to be fine in the college process. Don’t let it beat you up too badly. Best of luck!
@deller123
Perfectly accurate analysis of the OP’s intention.