I am going to be applying to Emory and Oxford for Early Decision II.
Unweighted GPA: 3.62
(First two years screwed me but managed a 4.20 Junior year with increased difficulty of classes)
(I also transferred schools February of Freshman year, and my public school grades, all A’s, are not included in GPA)
AP Course Load: AP Euro, AP US History, AP Lang and Comp, AP Environmental Science
(I know I should have taken more but the only others offered were in sciences and I was not interested in those)
Class Rank: My school does not have class rank
ACT Composite: 32
ACT English: 35
ACT Math:27
ACT Reading: 34
ACT Science: 33
(Hoping to raise math to at least a 32 and bring composite up to a 34)
Extra Curricular: Paid Job at a Pizza Restaurant (20 Hours a Week), Varsity Soccer, Club Soccer, Co-Head of FBLA, Co-Head of Culinary Club, Student Council position first semester of junior year (hoping to have another second semester of this year), Member of the Reelection Committee for a local judge, Part of the Committee that plans Environmental Week, Interned at an Innovation Lab last summer, Working on starting my first business (Not sure if I should add this)
Essay: Writing about my work and how making pizzas helped me understand my purpose in life.
I go to a small private school and while my transcript does not say so, all of my classes are supposed to be considered honors classes due to the difficulty of the school. My counselor says colleges will know this, but I am afraid it will just look as if I am just taking easy classes.
I have heard that the acceptance rate for Early Decision applicants is about 50 percent. If this is true, does it apply to both early decisions or just EDI?
For Emory EDI is like 38% and EDII is like 20-25%. The cycle before last it was 25% (The same as RD basically)…If it was about the same as RD in the past cycle, then it is more like 20-22%. Don’t add what you are working on (I allude to your business)…maybe discuss in essay instead.
To be clear, 50% is how much of Emory’s matriculates came from the ED admits. Basically just saying that RD yield is much less.
Although you have an upward trend (which is definitely a positive), your 3.6 GPA will definitely decrease your chances + your ACT score isn’t necessarily impressive.
However with all the stuff you mentioned I feel that as long as your essay + recommendations are on point you have a decent shot at ED I
Their ACT is basically the median for an Emory admit which may not be enough to offset the GPA. However, for a matriculant, their ACT would be higher than the median (because the 75% is like a 33). They will likely consider the weakness of the GPA in the context the OP mentioned though it would be nice if they already had some AP scores or SAT II subject test scores.
“admit” not matriculate (you see matriculate data elsewhere and in any CDSs for schools). There is a difference. Schools that aren’t HYPMS, admit high and yield at least a little lower due to competition. Emory doesn’t aim that much higher (it wasn’t in a position to do so…I say it could start aiming higher if it can consistently get more applications than say 18k over the next few years) than what it yields like some schools (scores will slide about 30-40 points down on each end of the IQR from the pool of admits which is smaller than some schools which I’ve seen slide 70-80 points from the RD admits they had…, especially on the 25% end) , but it is higher. Last year’s admits had a range of 30-34: http://apply.emory.edu/discover/fastfacts.php