<p>I'm a white male who's currently a junior in high school. I'm out of state, but I'm a double legacy (both of my parents, an aunt, and an uncle have degrees from University of Virginia). I go to a tough private high school (regular classes are comparable to honors classes at some other schools), but it doesn't keep track of rankings or grades. If I had to guess, I'd say I'm around the top 30 to 25%. My SAT scores are 1370/2120, and I'm hoping to get that number closer to 2200 through the super-score by taking it a couple more times. I'll have 7 AP classes after my senior year (Euro History, US History, Calc AB, Calc BC, Statistics, Macroeconomics, Language & Composition).</p>
<p>Extra-Curriculars of note:
Founding member of the school's student-led Investment Fund, which now has close to 30 members, as a freshman. I'll be a four year member, I was the first sophomore to be on the Executive Board, the first non-senior to be president, and I'll be the first member to be president for more than one year.
I've volunteered every summer for what will be five years after this upcoming summer.
I had a summer internship before junior year at a company that helps local start-ups.
I was invited to and participated in a panel on personal finance at the University of Pittsburgh with local high school and college students.</p>
<p>My grades and class rank don't quite seem to be what you usually see at UVA, but it is a hard high school. Also my SAT scores are above their average and I'm a legacy with a decent course-load and ECs. So I really don't have too good of an idea what my chances are, and any help is greatly appreciated!</p>
<p>Ok, here’s the deal. Most of UVA’s students come from in-state, making the competition for OOS students rather stiff. The double legacy should help though. Your SAT’s are fine, as well as your extracurriculars, but it’s really impossible to chance you since you didn’t provide a GPA.
If your unweighted GPA is 3.7+ then I’d say you have a decent shot. </p>
<p>@Thompson2004 yeah it’s kind of a bummer that our school doesn’t tell us our GPAs. If I had to guess I’d say it’s below 3.7 unweighted, but not by too much. Thanks for your response.</p>
<p>You can figure out your own weighted/unweighted GPA. Google how to. We are in state. From what I know the students admitted from our highly rated public high school this year are in the top 5% of the class. All in NHS. Most had GPA’s above 4.35 weighted. I got this from my son who is doing his own intel. He went to an assembly today where they announced where seniors were going and he took notes. He’s only a sophomore. You can subscribe to UVA’s admission blog from their main site. It’s very informative. You probably know that UVA admits only 30% from OOS. I have read that they consider a legacy as in state though. You have a decent chance but you know you have to find a couple of other schools you can be excited to attend. Good luck.</p>
<p>Ok, calculated my GPA. It’s about 3.65 unweighted. That’s definitely below UVA’s average, but I think they really pay attention to the high school’s difficulty.</p>
<p>They also pay attention to where you are in your class. Check their figure for “top 10%” If you aren’t top 10% or close to it, which you don’t seem to be, I think you have to bring something they really want. I would say it’s not a waste of time to apply but you really should be thinking about other options.</p>
<p>@mathyone that is a little concerning, but the problem with looking at it that way is that it is very very hard to get good enough grades to be top 10% at this school, harder than it is at most. There are only 6 kids who will be top 10%, and they’ll all be going to one of the very best colleges (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, etc.). So I think the admissions office will take that into account, but there’s no way of knowing for sure.
I also do have other schools on my list that are easier to get into, but UVA is my top choice at this point.</p>
<p>From your description, you aren’t even sure that you’re in the top 20%. Really you should ask your guidance counselor about this. They should have a much better idea than anyone here, who doesn’t know you personally and doesn’t know your school.</p>
<p>You need to be aware that UVA is one of the harder schools to predict anything about. It’s highly desirable, and with good reason, with lots of top OOS kids applying. So if you are really interested, you have to be informed, actively look for info about the school and their processes, not leave this to chance or what others think. Here’s one piece:<a href=“http://alumni.virginia.edu/admission/admission-liaison-program/legacy-services/”>http://alumni.virginia.edu/admission/admission-liaison-program/legacy-services/</a></p>
<p>Saying it’s a hard high school and you will have 7 AP- well, there are many competitive hs and they will look at your actual performance, how you did in the more important classes, what shows about your drives. Also, from those APs, looks like you are not planning STEM? </p>
<p>@mathyone It’s not an issue of me not being informed. The school has no record of our GPAs and does not keep track of our rankings. The only thing we can do is ask for copies of our transcripts, which are then sent to colleges, who calculate our GPAs on their own. Yes, it sounds strange, but I’m 100% positive that this is the case; for whatever reason, it’s just how the school operates. So my prediction that I’m around top 25% could be spot on or way off; I’ll never know for sure, the high school will never know for sure, and any college I apply to will never know. I just send my transcripts, application, test scores, and school profile to colleges. So I now realize it’s very difficult to judge my chances; I apologize for the lack of information, but it’s really all I can do. But it is a good idea to talk to my guidance counselor, just in case he has more info.</p>
<p>@lookingforward STEM isn’t a part of our curriculum. I also have done research outside of here; going on this site isn’t the only thing I’m doing prior to applying. I just wanted to post on here and see if anyone had any opinions or had gone through the UVA admissions process and might have some idea what my chances are. But I didnt realize that it’s much more difficult to predict than other colleges.
Thanks for your responses </p>
<p>Did you read your school profile? It might have some info. But aside from the numbers, after being in the same classes for years, you must have some sense of how your academic performance compares to other students in your small school. </p>
<p>I haven’t taken a look at it, but I’ll ask for a copy from the guidance counselor. And it’s tough to tell, but I’m under the impression that I definitely do better than te average, but I’m also a couple levels below the top kids. I know I’m not top 10%, and I’m probably outside top 20%, but not by much.</p>
<p>One of the admissions deans is fairly active on CC and may pipe in. But my understanding is UVA tries to take a range of kids in-state, since they are a public. And Virginia has a very broad spectrum of school districts and socio-economics, from among the wealthiest and the poorest. That can throw off what you see online re: matriculating freshman SAT scores and any info about gpa. </p>
<p>And not all hs give rank. If your hs is truly competitive, good chance the adcoms will know how to rate your transcript, to see if you met the challenges there. Get a copy and calculate it yourself- only the core academic classes, no weighting. They’ll want to see solid performance in those, including APs. Great school, love it.</p>
<p>From Dean J’s blog:
“Middle 50% SAT score (offers only):1970-2240
…
92.5% of admitted students were in the top 10% of their high school class
This number only reflects those who attend schools that report rank.”</p>
<p>Note the last statement. I could believe that highly competitive high schools are less likely to report rank so as not to disadvantage highly qualified students.</p>
<p>@mathyone Interesting thought; that’s certainly reassuring.</p>