Currently a senior with UVA as my top choice. I’m applying in state to the college of engineering and thinking about doing early action, depending on what I get on my SAT. Right now my GPA is a 4.23 weighted and 3.78 unweighted and taken 9 ap classes so far, not including the 5 i am taking for senior yr. My extracurriculars aren’t bad, currently VP of my latin honor society, 2 internships involving mechanical engineering, part of the same community service club for 9 yrs, part of a leadership workshop staff, and on varsity tennis. I’m curious as to how good are my chances at UVA, considering I get in the middle 50% for SAT. Also is it worth applying EA cause I feel I can get good grades senior yr that’d help my application, but im not sure.
Fellow UVA applicant here- I think you’ve got very strong chances. I’d say if you think you can get your GPA up a bit, do so-- you’re within the average GPA range, and I think your ECs put you pretty high up on therankings, but the average GPA is about 4.32, and if you’re confident in your ability to raise your score a bit, it might be good to put yourself smack in the middle grade/score wise. Hope to see you there! :3
This is very helpful, thank you!
No one can answer this, including me. GPAs don’t provide the level of detail admission officers at selective schools need to make their decisions and subjective factors like rec letter and essays provide context that can’t come through in message board posts.
@“Dean J” Why do universities even report ranges for GPA when they are weighted and every high school does it differently? It seems meaningless, yet fuels the comparisons people make on forums like these. Our VA high school is very stingy with weighting. Nothing for honors, and less than a point added for DE or AP. So even a kid with straight As and 9 AP classes has something like a 4.25, which seems low when reported GPAs include high schools that wildly inflate everything.
There will always be data points that colleges are asked to report that aren’t used in a selective admission process. Selective colleges aren’t the norm. The majority of colleges in this country admit the majority of their applicants.
@“Dean J” Thank you for responding. Who is asking colleges to report weighted GPAs? I see that you are separating ‘selective colleges’ from all others, but I don’t see how any would rely on weighted GPA when it means very little except perhaps to compare applicants from the same high school. There are plenty of people in college confidential on the pages for plenty of selective colleges that throw around weighted GPA, or want someone to chance them. It’s unfortunate that it is perpetuated by the reporting of weighted GPAs by any college. I realize this is probably not something you have control over for UVA, but I’ve always wondered about it.