I heard a lot of colleges give priority to people who apply early so I’m wondering if it’s worth it to apply early if my GPA is low (3.6UW, 7 APs so far) since colleges probably won’t be looking at my 1st semester senior grades. I’ll be taking 5 APs (+ discrete math) senior year.
Colleges I’m looking at right now are Pitt, Purdue, VTech (instate), UVA, Penn State, and UMD @ College Park for computer science/engineering.
Some colleges do seem to favor early action but if you have a low GPA, it’s probably better to wait and apply regular so you can bring up your GPA.
If you really want an edge and don’t mind the commitment, ED is available at a lot of schools.
Are you full pay at all these OOS publics? I expect that can’t hurt.
Purdue fills almost all of its class EA. Competition is much much tougher in RD. That said, a 3.6 is low for CS and it’s going to be a reach for that major or engineering.
Does your school do quarter grades? If so, you can ask your GC to upload them as soon as they’re in so colleges can see how you are doing.
Also Purdue and UMD don’t release EA decisions until late January so depending on your school’s calendar you may also be able to get them semester grades.
You are going to need a safety school that is affordable…there are currently no safeties on your list.
Pitt has rolling admissions, so complete the Pitt app as soon as it opens (it might even be now, not sure). Do all the short answer questions.
What does your GC say about your chances of admission to CS/engineering to VT and UVA?
Do you have an upward trend with your grades? Do you expect your cGPA to be higher at the end of first semester senior year? If you received straight As in your core classes in first semester, how much would that impact your gpa?
Penn State doesn’t consider senior grades, and accepts most of their students through Early Action, so make sure you submit a complete application by November 1. You would have the greatest chance of admission by applying for DUS (undecided) rather than engineering and by notating your willingness to start in the summer. No one at Penn State is actually in a major until junior year and DUS students can take the same entrance-to-major courses as students accepted to (pre)engineering. I don’t know what your financial limitations might be, but be aware that Penn State gives little to no financial aid (merit or need-based) to most students (instate or out of state).
My two cents would be not to wait and to apply EA whenever it’s offered at a school you are interested in even if you are worried about your GPA being too low. If you have quarterly grading at your school (with the exception of the super early rolling admissions schools) typically your HS will have have time to send in a 1st quarter grade update before the decisions for EA are made. That grade update report should be in your admission file when they make their decisions. Hopefully, they will see all A’s!
The problem with waiting for RD at many (non elite ) schools is that spaces in the class or major (especially CS), merit awards and even the financial aid (IMO) can get taken up early as the school tries to build or project its class. In the event you get differed to RD you can always have your guidance councilor send another grade update after 1st semester grades come out in mid January or, in addition, personally send an informal grade update to your AO as part of a letter of continued interest.
Lastly, if you happen to be full pay and can identify a school you really want to go to, don’t underestimate the help being full pay can give you applying ED at some of expensive privates if you are slightly on the margin stats wise. I could see have someone full pay with a 3.6 GPA and high test scores having good ED results at RPI, U Rochester or NEU for example.
My school does have quarterly grades and my first SAT score is a 1520 (I took it sophomore year). I don’t know if it’s worth it or not to retake the test since I don’t qualify for a fee waiver anymore…
Also my gpa is a sad face trend (3.6 freshman year, ~3.85 sophomore year, 3.3 junior year). A lot of it has to do with my commute situation (2:30 hour bus rides in the morning and 1:45 hour bus rides in the evenings) during 9th and 11th but a lot of it also has to do with me biting off more I can chew with all the hard classes I took 11th grade.
My safety is community college (worse comes to worst I’m going to try to transfer somewhere, probably UVA).
Thanks all for the replies
Aren’t you NMF then?
@Neverwinning, that sounds like a lot of commute time! Is your HS guidance councilor aware of this? It might help your cause if this situation is mentioned in your school councilor report. Maybe I am overreacting but most kids don’t have a 4hr 15 min commute. It actually sounds like something that borders on a hardship to me. There is a section in the Common App where you can explain any unusual circumstances. You could write a brief explanation there explaining your situation without coming across as making excuses. Curious what other parents think here. Am I off base here?
Also, I would definitely apply to Purdue even though it is a reach and add some similar schools. Run EFC calculator for each school to make sure they are affordable. No need for SAT retake IMO if you have a solid math sub score.
I’d ask your guidance counselor to mention your commute time in his/her letter of recommendation.
I’d also look into other in-state schools in case VaTech doesn’t work.
I don’t think I classify a very long bus ride a hardship. If it is a single ride you have lots of uninterrupted time. If it is a bunch of transfers, that may be different. Having a hardship works better when it doesn’t impact performance.
This long commute is absolutely a hardship, whether it be a single ride or multiple stops. Many busses are much too crowded and/or loud for one to study, not to mention many people can’t read in a moving vehicle due to motion sickness.
I agree with happy1 that the OP should have their GC cover the commute issue in their rec letter.
OP, what can/will your family pay for college per year?
@Shiprock1976 Thanks. I plugged my mom’s tax info into some of my choices’ net price calc and I got 25k net price for Pitt, 38k for UMD and Purdue, and 2.5k for UVA.
Unless I want to sell my kidney to afford OOS tuition, I think my best bet at this point is to go to community college if I don’t make it into UVA (likely not going to make it) or VTech.
@Eeyore123 I only have 1 bus transfer to and from school. I don’t think it’s necessarily a hardship, just an inconvenience and pain in the rear to wake up at 5:50am to get ready for school when the school bell doesn’t ring until 9am.
@Mwfan1921 I had a friend in grad school that grew up in Western Kansas and had bus rides like this. Some people would call it a blessing to not live on top of each other.
Is the commute a choice thing for a certain school though?
Calculate what your possible range of GPA will be after adding one more semester of grades.
Spending over four hours (round trip) per day commuting seems rather extreme. Do you live very far from the school?
I live 45 minutes car ride away from school, so not that far.