I have great EC’s in figure skating, skating 14 hours a week, taking some homeschool classes to get more time for skating, will be able to compete at sectionals (level after regionals, you must qualify. only around 35 out of 200 will) out of this year, maybe nationals (TV). I have a handful of local competition medals, been skating for 10 years (i am 16), and I have most triple jumps.
However, I have a 3.4 UW and hopefully a 3.5 finally, and will be taking around 7 total ap courses.
I will also study very hard to have a 2300-2350 SAT and will take as many times as I can to get that score.
What are some well known top schools that will be more likely to accept someone with an average GPA and very impressive EC’s?
When asking for college recommendations, you need to state your Home state, how much can you and your family afford, intended major and what exactly are looking for in a college? Large/Small/Private/Publich/Rural/Suburban/Urban etc… Are you willing to OOS? Do you want to continue figure skating in college?
Answer the questions, then posters can make recommendations.
My state is VA, and i get 15k off my tuitiom fee bc of tuition exchange from my dads job. i fur sure tend to makor in int. buisness/finance. If there are no business majors, I will take Econ. My parents would be willing to pay for any top schools except for the UCs,
some OOS public, and maybe not NYU. I am definitely going to continue figure skating and maybe even make a club if there is none. one of the things I forgot to mention is that I am a figure skating coach working 7 hours a week and I teach group lessons and private lessons for children with mental disabilities and I am the youngest coach as well. before that, I was a ice instructor volunteer for a year 8 hours a week with children with disabilities and choldren. i will also continue this, and I can have my boss write a good rec bc he really likes me! @Gumbymom
lastly, U am from a good largw public school in Nova
it is available for every college bc my dad wprks at gtown. I have a low gpa so i am looking for top universities that look at impressive ECs more than most top unis.
Schools with average UW GPAs in the 3.5-3.75 range include:
3.75 Case Western
3.71 Smith, URochester, Wesleyan
3.69 Brandeis
3.68 Boston College, Bucknell
3.67 Wake Forest
3.66 Colorado College, Lehigh
3.63 Bryn Mawr
3.6 Bates
3.54 Dickinson
Source: collegedata.com
With your strong ECs, you should have a good shot at some of these schools, especially if your SATs are over 2100. I wouldn’t assume your ECs will compensate at schools with even higher averages. At one school in the middle of the above pack, last year’s entering class included a nationally published poet, a Second City ensemble member, and a 2013 NHL draft pick.
cowycam - I think that you are making some assumptions here, and I think that you need to be somewhat careful.
First, have you been to sectionals yet or are you assuming that you will qualify in October? If you didn’t qualify for sectionals in the past, then you are assuming that you will make it this year - while that might happen, it obviously might not.
Second, you have not mentioned your PSAT/SAT scores, but you have assumed that you will get a 2300-2350 - those types of scores are very difficult to achieve and may or may not happen.
Third, as of last year, you stated that you had a 3.25 average - do you have your final grades yet and are you sure what your overall GPA will be?
While your figure skating shows a strong commitment and talent, it is not, unfortunately, as unusual as you think. There are many skaters on synchro teams who have gone to sectionals and nationals (and I know that it is harder to qualify for those competitions as a singles skater, but most colleges will not necessarily make that distinction). You’re going to really need to have actual SAT or ACT scores and a final GPA before it is possible to make predictions about your chances. Also, for some schools, such as University of Rochester, you will be able to submit AP or SAT 2 scores in place of the SAT/ACT, so those scores might be important as well.
If I’m recalling this poster correctly, he/she wants to skate in college and wants to go into business. The Virginia state schools are not acceptable to him/her because the programs are not highly enough regarded (according to OP) or didn’t have skating rinks. The financial situation wasn’t really clear, but I don’t recall them being absolutely full pay.
From what I know UChicago is probably the only top 10 school that will sometimes overlook low GPA if you write a really good, quirky essay. 3.5 is cutting it a little close but if your SAT is that high and the essay is Dickens quality you could very well get in.
Alternatively if you ED’d to Vanderbilt, which is known to give SAT scores greater weight in admissions than other top schools, you could have very good chances there. If you don’t ED… lower chances.
So if you like Vandy I would ED there and EA to Chicago.
I think that the point is that the OP does not appear to have SAT scores yet, so all of these posts are wildly speculative. Plus, Vanderbilt would be a huge reach, as would Chicago, based on the current objective stats - 3.4GPA and a competitive, but not yet national quality figure skater.
I think you should focus on schools that match your academics. Your skating is an excellent EC, but because you will not be a recruited athlete, I don’t think it will get you into a school where you don’t meet the academic qualifications.
Make a list of colleges assuming that you don’t score 2300 or higher. Then use colleges on that list as safeties if you do end up scoring 2300. It’s incredibly silly to assume that you’ll be able to score in the 99th percentile.
A kid from my school with few EC’s and a ~3.5 GPA with a lot fewer AP courses, no hooks/legacy, and I think 2240 on SAT got into Vandy this year EDII. It’s a reach but not a huge reach if you ED or EDII. And remember if you’re not sure you want to go to Vandy you can always EDII should you get rejected from EA or ED schools that you like more than Vandy.
@Irreplaceable Maybe he’s taken practice tests and that’s why he says he will get 2300.