<p>I'm well aware they are a reach for most people, but my school has a ten-school maximum policy and I need to balance my reaches with Hail Mary's and lower and more likely reaches.</p>
<p>12th Grade Courses:
AP Macroeconomics
AP Microeconomics
AP Physics B
AP Statistics
Honors: Pre-Calculus (I am self-studying single variable Calculus, will sit for A/B and B/C AP exams)
Expected Semester I GPA: 4.0+</p>
<p>Cumulative GPA I will be applying to should be around 3.1</p>
<p>Had certain family difficulties which I will explain in the application, but for the most part do I stand a solid chance and if so, should I consider ivies? I started a small logistics business two years ago, but I don't have those National Honor/Merit awards that you see many people on here take for a given. </p>
<p>I'm planning on applying to Wharton regardless of my chances, but do you think I should consider other ones as well or just taper my reaches down a bit because of my cumulative GPA? (Also, if you know of any schools that consider SAT/ACT ahead of GPA that'll be great!)</p>
<p>My school also has a 10 school policy in order to prevent students from applying to 30 schools and attempting to “strike lucky”. If they could, they would, and I’m serious.</p>
<p>Rising trends are good, but I don’t think your improvement may be enough. But give it a shot anyway! :)</p>
<p>In a way, it is a rule that exists to save money, and it’s not necessarily stupid. In a large public school, it takes hundreds of employee hours every fall to send student transcripts to colleges. That means schools must either have employees neglect other administrative tasks, or hire employees who would be underutilized in the spring. </p>
<p>I don’t like the idea of a limit, but, Petersuu, I don’t think you’re really thinking this through.</p>
<p>You have a good chance for Ivies. But HYP are incredible - other applicants generally have 3.9+ uw. Give it a shot anyway - you ACTs are you pros.</p>
<p>Well, to be fair, different Ivies have different levels of competitiveness and different strengths and weaknesses. It’d help if you told us your intended major and what specific ivies you’re looking at.
That being said, I think you have an extremely low chance of acceptance even at the least competitive ivies. An upward trend, good ACT scores, and family difficulties still don’t make up for such a low GPA. If you still want to apply, then go for it. I honestly think that 10 schools is too much anyway. Just keep in mind that your chances are very low, and have several safeties and matches on your list.</p>
<p>Your 10 schools should include: 2 schools you like, are 100% sure you can get into and can afford (typically, your local public university and another one where you would qualify for the Honors College&merit aid); 3-5 schools that match your stats, that is, where you’re well above the 25% mark and closer to the 75% mark in the 25-75 spread; since you’re only applying to 10 schools, that means you can have 3-5 reaches. The Ivies and Wharton are basically out of reach so that only leaves 1-3 reaches already if you apply to Wharton and one Ivy. With Wharton as a super reach, I wouldn’t advise considering more than one university/LAC from the top 10 to these 3-5. Reaches would be schools ranked 25-50 in universities and LACs but the ones admitting you may provide a nice financial aid package due to your SAT score.
A SAT score doesn’t trump GPA for the Top 10’s and B students don’t get into Top 10 universities/LAC unless they are amazing in some way (invented something, published a book, is a recorded pianist, most-recruited athlete…)</p>
<p>@Petersuu, I’ve confronted the head of my counseling department (which sets the rules) and his reasoning is because of trying to deter students from “mass-applying” to everything, so they really have to choose ten schools they truly like.</p>
<p>I appreciate the responses everyone. I do have solid safeties and matches, ande my list is completed for the most part. I was wondering whether my chance - regardless of how small - at an ivy will justify taking up one application, and I will be able to afford 3-4 reaches (ie whether to try for HYP instead of a “safer” reach like NYU Stern). Every one of these applications counts for me, since my application is quite different from others and I don’t want to be “wasting” them on over-reaches or end up with a string of acceptances from lower-tier schools.</p>
<p>These are the schools I would like to attend, in order:</p>
<p>-U. Penn (Wharton). I’ll probably send one here regardless of my chances.
-Harvard
-Columbia
-Cornell (Dyson)
-Stanford</p>
<p>I don’t know about “amazing,” but I started a small logistics business which is quite unique from most other applicants. In addition, all of my coursework revolves around this subject (everything offered at my school from entrepreneurship and finance to economics and university-level courses I’ve been taking online). I’m just trying to decide how high to aim for my reaches, and if my guidance counselor or some of you more risk-averse applicants didn’t encourage a tapering, I would probably be applying to all ivies as my reaches.</p>
<p>edit: A large difficulty I faced was even determining what constitutes a target from a reach. There’s a huge discrepancy between my GPA and SAT/ACT scores here, so for a school like NYU I’m quite a bit above their ACT average of 29, yet below their GPA of 3.6.</p>
<p>Except for your 1-2 super-reaches, you shouldn’t apply to schools where your GPA is below the 25th percentile. Those at this level are legacies, athletes, and students who had to overcome tremendous odds. </p>
<p>Since UPenn, Harvard, and Columbia are your favorite super reaches, pick those. Add NYU Stern, and your list is done since you’re down to your matches and safeties.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but you have no chance at ivies. They’ll almost automatically reject you based on your transcript grades. Ivies are reaches for everyone, even those with 4.0s. Since you’re limited to 10 applications, it would be much wiser for you to pick schools where your GPA is a match to their average. Go ahead and apply to 1 or 2 if you want to, but I think your chance of getting into any of the schools you listed is slim to none. A 3.1 GPA simply won’t make the cut.</p>
<p>My understanding is that most selective schools will wonder why someone so obviously intelligent did not show academic success in high school? It doesn’t look good, gives the impression you don’t work to your potential or don’t have a strong work ethic and unfortunately brains alone will not cut it in an Ivy. I almost think the opposite would be better where u work your ass off and have a great GPA but your test scores are mediocre? With all that said, go for it… You never know and obviously I do have the brains for those schools.</p>
<p>I think you’d be throwing an application away. Right now your GPA is 2.89. That’s way off target for any of the Ivies. Does your school use Naviance? If so, I’d recommend taking a look at past results from your school.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be so harsh, especially if there are special circumstances that explain the low grades (NOT immaturity, laziness, etc). Self teaching multivariable calculus could help him with some Top 20 universities/LACs.</p>
<p>OP: you have your dream schools. Limit them to 3-4. Now you need to work on having 2 safeties and 3-5 matches.</p>
<p>I have no trouble explaining my circumstances if I have the opportunity to; I just wish there was an interview or something (Even if there was, I live overseas and a Skype interview just doesn’t have the same effect).</p>
<p>In addition to Calculus, I’m also taking multiple undergraduate business-related courses and some MBA ones out of self-interest, but I’ll put some emphasis on this if you believe it will help my admissions.</p>
<p>I’m still having trouble deciding on what constitutes as a match. Let’s take Boston College for example:
-Average GPA (for my school): 3.80
-Average ACT: 31
-Acceptance Rate: 28%</p>
<p>My ACT scores are quite a bit higher than theirs, but my cumulative GPA is quite a bit lower as well. Now if you only looked at the last two years I would even put this as a low match, but it’s hard to predict how an admissions official will consider my circumstances.</p>
<p>Again, I sincerely appreciate you guys taking the time to help me out. I’ll make sure I update periodically.</p>
<p>It’s going to be rather simple in fact. Do not consider your SAT score. Look at your GPA (most schools look at GPA and rank before test score because it shows what you’re able to do over time vs. a one-time test.)
All schools where your GPA matches their average GPA will be safeties due to test score.
All schools where your GPA is -.2 -.3 - (-.4) their average GPA will be a match due to test score.
In your situation, it’s fine to have many reaches since there’s such a disconnect between test score and GPA. However you need to find your 2 safeties and 3-4 matches first. Look into LACs and regional universities.</p>