My oldest (3.8 UW, 32 ACT) was accepted:
Navy (wound up medically disqualified after acceptance)
Case Western with merit
Hamilton
Rejected:
U of Chicago
Williams
Attended and and graduated Case Western in May. He has a job that pays for him to live completely independently.
32 single sitting
34 superscore
3.8 GPA
1/27 class rank though
Applied to:
UT Austin Computer Science (auto admit, no response on major
Texas A&M MechE (auto admit, no response on major)
Alabama MechE (admitted with full tuition scholarship and 2500 a year)
Case Western (no response)
Rice (No response)
WashU (no response)
SMU (No response, should be here New Years)
GaTech (no response, should be here mid January)
Cal Poly (no response)
Definitely subscribing to this thread as it pretty much describes me perfectly!
Will update as acceptances come in
my oldest had similar stats:
admitted w merit: tulane, oblerlin, rochester and uvm
admitted non-merit: mcgill and u mich (attends)
denied: wes (ed), brown, wash u and rice
not sure what your D wants to study but I really like rochester.
best of luck to your D!
Last year I advised a student with roughly similar stats, except that her ACT was 29. She was international and needed pretty significant financial aid.
Accepted: Smith, Wellesley, NYU, UCLA, UCBerkeley, Pitzer, UChicago, Brown
Rejected: USC, Columbia, Barnard
Waitlisted: Georgetown
Attending: Brown
@exlibris97 That student must have had some pretty amazing recs, ECs or other work/life experience if they were able to get into those schools with a 29 on the ACT.
@Much2learn
My D is torn. She is interested in Nursing - more specifically, she would like to become a Nurse Anesthetist. She is also interested in teaching (earning a Master’s and working specifically with Autistic children), or becoming a child psychologist. She’s having a difficult time choosing between the 3. There aren’t many Nurse Anesthetist programs in the country, so she would prefer to do her undergrad at a school that has this program. (She’s been accepted to Pitt and they do offer it).
Are any of your kids still deciding between majors and struggling with which path to choose? It’s a moving target these days. She has been set on becoming a Nurse Anesthetist for 2 years, but just in the past month or so has started to really question if that’s the right fit.
@akin67
Maybe she was a nationality that they were trying to have represented? I agree, a 29 ACT is mighty low for those schools.
@GAcollegemom6 I have a freshman nursing major at Pitt. Great program!
When you say that your D is starting to question fit, do you mean nursing in general or becoming a nurse anesthetist?
“Are any of your kids still deciding between majors and struggling with which path to choose?”
Yes, choosing a major is difficult, and strong students like yours have virtually all doors open. With mine we talked about several things. As you point out, the choice of major has a significant impact on the choice of school, and it is important to recognize that they are likely to change at some point. You are wise to be discussing majors now.
Some things we considered:
Also, if you are lower income, Penn could be worth considering, and could be less expensive than Pitt because their aid is better. Her stats would give her a shot. Penn and JHU like to debate which one has the best nursing program.
My DS basically fits the thread stats. Applying to Penn (ED), Pitt, Amherst, Haverford, Pitt, GWU, American, CMU, Princeton & one school abroad. So far he got into PItt. The finances matter to us so we’ll see how it all pans out.
D15 had the equivalent of a 32/33 ACT, gpa was around 3.87. 4 APs. We have no hooks. ChemE major. Accepted w/merit at Case Western, Tulane, URochester, UMD BC, SUNY Stony Brook, UMass, USC (Cal) (attending, Presidential +), Drexel
Accepted to chemistry (2nd choice) and no merit at UCSB, waitlisted UVa
S17 has 32c/33 super score. 3.75 uw. His school doesn’t weight or rank. He’ll have 7 APs. Applying to 11 schools for MechE, so far accepted to Purdue but we haven’t received info on merit yet.
Good luck @Jpgranier !
D15 had 31 ACT (x2 sittings) with a 32 superscore and a 4.0 UW GPA; graduated with 9 APs, mostly 5s though a few 4s; accepted ED to Middlebury and EA to UVM (before she could pull the app). Other schools of interest were Colorado College, Bowdoin, Bates.
FWIW, D15 is at Viterbi/USC with merit money - and very, very happy. Well, finals are coming and it’s her 1st semester engineering and the English class she picked is interesting but pretty challenging, so she’s not really that happy right now this very minute, but in principal she loves the program/school. 3.73 UW, rigorous school. 32 ACT/2190 SAT - lots of APs (as far as other acceptances. Shut out of all UC engineering except UCSC. Accepted for ME @ UMich, McGill, UWash, NYU, + some others that I’m forgetting, fwiw)
@jmek15 congrats on the presidential scholarship!!! If I knew that I had a shot at it, I would’ve applied to USC
32 single sitting
34 superscore
3.82 GPA
1/32 class rank though
Applied to:
UT Austin Computer Science Accepted into Computer Science!
Texas A&M MechE Accepted into MechE!
Alabama Computer science Admitted with full tuition scholarship and 2500 a year!
Case Western (no response)
Rice (No response)
WashU (no response)
SMU (No response, should be here New Years)
GaTech (no response, should be here mid January)
Cal Poly (no response)
Will update as acceptances come in
@jpgranier, her award is proof of their holistic approach because the odds were not in her favor. We realize how lucky she is and feel very blessed. Without the scholarship she could not have attended even though it was her dream school. Just like @CaliDad2020’s D, she is very, very happy except during exams.
My daughter is a sophomore at Rice. She had a 32 ACT but had a 3.95 unweighted gpa. She was accepted to Rice but also rejected from places like Bryn Mawr and Wellesley. The closest she got to an Ivy was wait-listed at Dartmouth though she only applied to Dartmouth and Brown. She loves Rice by the way.
D had 3.8( UW) ACT 33 and is a freshman at stanford ( got into all UCs, USC, Notre Dame, etc) . With most top schools being holistic, once you hit that 32 and 3.8(UW) mark, ECs and essays can be the dealbreaker. ( *have to point out though that with her 3.8 UW GPA, she was in the top 2% of her school).
@iska123 Do you really think that’s the case – once you hit 32 and 3.8 (UW), then it all depends on the ECs, recs and essays? I’m just on the fence as to whether to push my Junior D to retake the ACT to try to improve on the 32. She’s not at the 75% range for some of her favorite schools yet (33? 34?). Her UW is 3.96 (only 1 B)
I’m curious to hear other’s thoughts on this theory.
I think it depends on the school… would have to know which schools your junior D is considering. I think it would only help her to try the ACT again since she has plenty of time and it sounds like she is shooting pretty high. Some schools will even superscore the ACT now, she has nothing to lose by taking it again. Also remember the score that is good enough to get her “to the table” so to speak does not exist in a vacuum- there will be thousands of applicants with the same or higher score and GPA. Her essays, ECs, any potential hook, and certainly her “narrative” are what will matter once the transcript makes it through that first round. Still, congrats to her as a 32 is an excellent score.
Typically, unless you are legacy, a recruited athlete, or have some amazing EC’s or accomplishments, those with less than average grades and test scores are not sufficient to secure admission. Since all of the above groups are likely to get in with lower than average qualifications, most “ordinary students” need to be closer to the higher end of the qualifications to get admitted. I am sure there are few here and there that have lower qualifications who get accepted, but it is very rare. For every one story you hear about someone with a 3.8 and 33 ACT getting into Stanford, you hear of dozens of valedictorians with perfect ACT / SAT scores who did not.