Hello,
So I am really interested in Emory, and plan on applying ED next year. It’s just I have a problem. I have battled depression throughout high school, which led to a crap 2.5ish GPA. However, my ECs are the level that would get one into an Ivy (honestly), and my SATs are 2200ish. I also took about 14 APs (by the end go school) and got/will get 4/5 on all but 2. I plan on talking about depression and show passion for international development, as I do, but I know my GPA might just fuck me over… What do you think?
Oh man, 2.5ish GPA will give weigh you down heavily. However if your ECs level are Ivy Level and you have a 2200 on the SAT I’d say you have a decent shot at Emory for ED. It will help if your counselor can explain the reason for your 2.5 GPA, but yeah I’d say your odds aren’t looking too hot for you as of now. Try to get straight A’s for 2nd semester of junior.
But like the above stated, you will have a chance at Oxford College than Emory College however even Oxford is getting more competitive over recent years.
Please never say things like: “My EC’s are Ivy level”. No one actually knows what that is…they don’t really even know what that is (the diversity of the accepted and denied applicants is great). All we can say about some top Ivies is that they often like people whose EC’s demonstrate that they are really talented in a particular area (like a person winning IMO may end up being more favored than someone with crap tons of EC’s that are awesome, but untargeted/do not show that extreme level of talent in an area). As for Ivies in general, they pretty much take the same students that Emory does. They are just more picky with SAT/ACT scores (for the most part. Places like Brown and Cornell are honestly not that different). Now-a-days with the selectivity/ever decreasing difference in types of students yielded by top schools, the Ivies shouldn’t be singled out like: “I know my ECs could get me into an Ivy, so are definitely Emory level”. I thought the same about some applicants on this forum and they were denied or waitlisted at Emory and did not get Ivy bids either. Mind you, they had a solid GPA.
And I would agree with BangBang…Oxford may be more lenient with the GPA. Emory seems picky with that, and while they will certainly take your depression into account, they may worry about how you would hold up. Without the whole backstory, top schools see those numbers as: “Great standardized test taker, great EC’s but how deeply will they be engaged in their academics”, especially a place like Emory which is attempting to (perhaps unsuccessfully, only time will tell) take an approach that gauges intellectual engagement in favor of cherrypicking high SAT’s, so hopefully your EC’s reveal some of that, or else you look like just another high-powered applicant with a “perfect” resume but with the unfortunate aberration on your transcript. Just please remember that often top schools actually value depth over breadth in many cases because so many people will have breadth in their resumes/academic record (like your 14 APs).
@bernie12 WOW, thanks so much for your input. Sorry for the generalizations of Ivy Level, that was wrong of me, I was simply basing of the generalizations that many people told me, without detailing.
I was wondering if you could go into some detail more with me on what I can do, as you seem experienced. I understand your points and they are very valid, I hadn’t thought of them before and am happy you brought them up. Would it look better that as I got some help with the depression my grades went up? I understand Emory is a reach if not further school for me.
As per Oxford, that looks like a decent option as as I mentioned I REALLY do want to go to Emory. Yet my GPA for oxford still looks really low… Do you know anything about the competitiveness of Oxford, it seems hard. I would prefer you to be real with me.
Also, all I can find is a PDF from 2013 about admission statistics, is there a more recent one?
@thecoolboy1234 Thank you for your input! I appreciate the honesty.