What are my chances for my top 10 schools?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Gender: Male
Grade: Junior (not applying now, just thinking ahead)
Class Rank: 482 of 708 (percentile 31.92%)
PSAT score: 1200 (630 reading and writing, 570 math)
Will take SAT in Oct. and March

My junior year schedule is:

American Lit/Comp
AP Statistics
Pre-Calculus
Physics I
AP Psychology
US History

Current GPA is 3.6, hoping to be at least 3.8/3.9 by graduation. Senior year, I will be doing rigorous courses still. By the end of high school, I will have finished 6-7 math credits. Freshman year, I took Honors 9th Lit/Comp and finished with a B-. Sophomore year took Honors Geometry and dropped down to regular Geometry after two months but ended with an A. The only AP course I’ve taken before junior year was AP Computer Science Principles last year and averaged a B+.

I haven’t done any sports or extracurriculars at school but I did pursue graphic design (made money selling my work online) and music production at home. I wasn’t able to continue these endeavors as my dad believes they are a waste of time and that colleges only care about grades, not extracurriculars.

Here are my schools:

Safety: Indiana University - Bloomington, University of South Carolina, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Target: Penn State, University of Georgia, University of Florida, University of Texas - Austin

Reach: University of Virginia, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, University of Southern California

I’m a Georgia resident and I plan on majoring in business in college.

2

As a GA resident IU, USC and UIUC are not safeties for you, and U of TX is a high reach (they take 90% of their class from instate).

Worry about doing the best you can your junior year to bring up your GPA and preparing for your SAT.

Circle back at the end of junior year with grades and scores and people can give you a better idea of where you stand and where to look.

3

Oh, I assumed they can be safeties because of their higher acceptance rates and I’m confident I’ll get in

4

You need to consider a couple of things when looking at public flagships - the acceptance rate for OOS applicants and the acceptance rate for your intended major. Overall acceptance rate is meaningless.

And being “confident” doesn’t make a school a safety or match.

For example, IU Kelley has one of the top undergrad business programs. The average GPA for Kelley is a 3.9, and that includes instate applicants. You will need to reach the 3.8 GPA benchmark to be even considered for their direct admit program. (3.8 GPA/1370 SAT is the minimum to be considered). That makes it decidedly NOT a safety for you at this time.

5

All of these schools are financial reaches, except UGA. If you applied with that list, chances are, you’d be going to UGA whether you want to or not. Out of state is triple the cost of in-state. The vast majority of parents either can’t or won’t pay that kind of tuition for a bachelors degree relative to the benefit. If you’re in GA, you have some solid affordable schools already available. It’s best to stay in-state. Right now, uncertainty is the new normal. Even if you could afford an expensive school now, that might not be true in a year or two. You’ll be surprised how many students start out at an exotic school, only to transfer and lose a bunch of credits later. Staying in-state, you could finish your degree with student loans if something were to happen to the money supply.

I would scrap the list completely and apply to schools in GA.

6

First of, all, congratulations on what you have done so far. A GPA 0f 3.6 is excellent. However, I am sorry, but 3.9 GPA by graduation is not technically possible for you. You have finished half of your credits by now, and, even if you got solid As on every course you will take until graduation, you cannot raise your GPA to much beyond 3.8 range. A GPA of 3.8 by the time you finish your first semester of Senior year, when you are applying RD for colleges, will be almost impossible.

You should modify your list of colleges and programs based on a having a GPA of 3.6-3.7. If you get all As in your junior year, you can reconsider a list with a GPA of 3.73-3.75.

The mid 50% range of GPA for UIUC Gies is 3.60-3.95. Since their acceptance rate is about 60%, and that of Gies is somewhat lower, that would put UIUC as a target, not a safety.

U South Carolina has similar acceptance rates, and your GPA is in the middle of their mid 50%, making it a target as well.

You will not likely meet the criteria for direct admissions to Kelley. You are within the mid 50% of regular admits to Indiana, and their acceptance rates are about 76%, making it a low target (or a likely), but not a safety.

That is assuming that you can afford OOS tuition at these colleges.

7

The OOS admission rate for UT Austin is 8%, not to mention the OOS cost is close to $60k. To further complicate matters, UT admits to the major not the university. The McCombs School of Business is one of UT’s most popular majors which makes it even more competitive to gain admission. To illustrate, very few of the in-state auto-admits (top 6% of their high school class) get admitted into the business school at UT. Admission is only guaranteed for these students to the College of Liberal Arts.

UT’s application is very detailed, lengthy, and quite cumbersome. Based on your stats and your limited number of AP/IB courses, you would be wise to save your time and $75 application fee and focus your energy elsewhere.