I am a junior at a fairly good private school in houston where there are not many APs available. I took mostly all advanced freshman and sophomore but was placed into normal classes junior year. I am thinking of applying to Villanova, UT, Tulane, and Michigan for a major in finance. I got a 35 on the ACT and have yet to take the SAT.
Grades
-84 overall average
-3.02 weighted
-2.8 uw
-upward trend since second semester sophomore year.
ECs
-debate team for 3 years now (traveled to Harvard and Berkeley for tournaments)
-Eagle Scout/ the SPL (highest position) of the largest Boy Scout troop in the country
-played lacrosse freshman and sophomore year
-going to entrepreneurship program in NYC this summer
-taking physics course online this summer to go to AP physics 2 next year
-president of business club
-rocketry team junior year
What are my chances? And otherwise any other suggestions of schools for me? I really hope my ECs, test scores and school difficulty will make up for all the Cs I got sophomore year.
A very high ACT but very poor grades can lead to some eyebrows being raised for a lot of colleges… Is it possible to increase your GPA at all this year?
I had mostly As and high Bs first quarter this semester so I might be able to raise my gpa to a 3.1 or 3.2 weighted. If I am applying regular in January i might be able to raise it another point senior year
I feel like you’ll have a better chance of getting in if you highlight in ur app that your grades have been trending upward, so they know your lower grades were from earlier on in high school
Do does anyone know if being a legacy at Tulane would help? My dad went there and I have had email conversations with an admissions person and a couple professors.
Honestly I think these schools will all be reaches with your GPA and junior year course rigor. At many colleges the transcript (GPA and course rigor) is the most important part of the application. It is fine to apply to those schools as reaches but you also need to find a group of colleges that would be matches for your actual GPA.
And FWIW with a 35 ACT I would not bother taking the SAT. Your time would be better spent on classwork to improve your GPA.
lol just wondering how many scouts are in your troop? mine has like 110 and it’s too much even there.
But I think the GPA and the junior year rigor may raise some question marks. Villanova and Michigan, and maybe Tulane are gonna be question marks unless that GPA comes up.
I am going to apply to a couple safety schools such as LSU and Indiana but there really are no good schools out there that I am interested in with the average gpa I have. I am hoping that the fact I went to a difficult school and have good ECs and test scores will make up for the gpa. There are times when people tell me that I have a good chance at getting into these schools but when I look at the averages it seems like they are impossible for me to get into. I know that grades are the most important thing to colleges but I have tried to make up for it in every way possible.
And I am already registered to take the sat in may. It’s not really going to take any of my time away since I haven’t and don’t plan to do any test prep ever. Don’t a lot of colleges like to see both scores?
Schools typically use the highest of either score. I can’t think of one college that looks for both the ACT and SAT. If anything I might have taken some SAT II exams to show proficiency in academic subjects.
And I’m not certain Indiana is really safety schools given your GPA. Talk to your HS guidance counselor and use Naviaince if it is available.
If you have a high ACT score I wouldn’t suggest taking SAT at all. I would take a couple of SAT subject tests and self study for a few AP exams since you are placed in normal classes. Use the time that you have for SAT to study for AP exams and write good essays to convince the admissions that you can do well academically to make up for that low GPA and normal classes.
@next224 try taking some summer classes retaking the classes you did poor in in early High school. It is still possible though. I was kind of in the opposite boat I had good grades but i only got a 26 on the ACT, but I got in. If you get your GPA up by taking maybe 3-4 retakes of the classes you did worst in combined with good grades the rest of high school I don’t see you having a problem being a competitive applicant. Don’t take the SAT since do did so well on the ACT, direct that time to retaking classes.