@gallentjill My DD also loved Hofstra. We negotiated heavily and while they gave DD their top package, loans were still in excess of $30k annually. We moved on
I’m a 3.58 and 35 kid. Beside some safeties, applied to Harvey Mudd, Claremont Mckenna, Whitman, Colorado College, Occidental, Pomona, Middlebury, and Lewis and Clark. Accepted whitman(17k merit) oxy(10k) and Lewis and clark(24k). Waitlisted at midd and cc. Will 99% be going to Whitman, but will also check lc again. Probably not pursuing waitlists
Congratulations ColanderBoy, thank you for sharing
Unhooked 3.51 UW GPA 34 ACT from a strong prep school. Accepted at Texas, Georgia Honors, SMU (Merit), Rhodes (Merit), Sewanee (Merit), UMiami (merit), Villanova (Merit), University of Richmond, Wake Forest.
This thread is very interesting to me because I have a D19 whose GPA wobbles between 3.5-3.6 but also has a 35 ACT, average EC’s. She has good in state options but would like some OOS options with merit, so I’m hoping people continue to post on this thread.
DD was 32 ACT, 3.5+ GPA, SMU gave VERY generous merit, so we signed up.
D18 - 93% UW at competitive public high school with 15 APs by graduation, 1540, 33, also 3 SAT Subjects, average ECs
Accepted to:
UGA in state
GT in state
FSU with merit
U Alabama with merit
UC Boulder with merit (but not enough)
U Miami with merit (but not enough)
Tulane with merit (received competitive DHS)
3.5 UW GPA and 1510 SAT. Accepted to both Vanderbilt and Northwestern. Trying to decide which to attend right now
That’s awesome @bukle11. Can you tell us why you think your application stood out? Tbh your gpa is low for both those schools so you obviously managed to impress their admissions committees. I have to think you did more than just have a 1510 SAT.
@Corinthian thanks! My extracurriculars were my strength in high school (placed in national music competitions). In my opinion (I obviously don’t know for sure), that’s what made up for my low GPA.
DD 3.4uw, 4.00W, 34 ACT was accepted to Case western (ED) with merit and need aid, Tulane (EA) with merit $$, Alabama (presidential scholarship and Academic Elite finalist), Missouri (diversity award and Brooks finalist), & Temple honors. She withdrew her Northeastern application before she heard back. She is attending Case in the fall.
My son will be in this boat, with a 34 ACT and a GPA probably in the range of this post. This thread is useful. He is really interested in getting merit aid. I hope people keep posting here.
@Proudmama2, thanks - your daughter’s stats suggests Alabama uses the weighted GPA rather than UW, and that’s going to make a huge difference for my daughter. She’s at a magnet school where they push the students into the most rigorous schedule they can. As a sophomore she’s taking AP Calc, AP Chem, and 3 AP-equivalent enginnering classes. I would hate to see her lose out on scholarships because she chose to take a more rigorous course load. We’re looking at similar stats (3.4 UW/4.0 W, with 1450+ SAT). Her plan is to apply to Alabama as early as possible, and having that “in her pocket” will allow her to focus more on reaches, rather than matches and safeties - her top choices are MIT and Princeton at this point, so no guarantees even for a well-qualified student.
@CTScoutmom When I contacted Alabama Hunstville to inquire about the GPA issue, admissions told me “We take the highest GPA listed on the transcript” so if your transcript has the weighted then you are golden, if not, petition your schools to make sure it is included. Not all schools consider weighted but Alabama does and for us it made the difference and bumped DD to full housing 8 semesters along with the tuition.
My DD’s high school listed both - as an IB course student, this was huge. It really annoyed me when an “average” state school (elsewhere) looked down their nose at her 3.6 gpa, ignoring her 4.9 weighted due to rigor. This average state school didn’t even take rigor into account, we didn’t keep them on our list very long at all.
The reasoning was they wanted to remain competitive for the rural students who didn’t have access to AP/IB - That to me just shows an inability to be flexible and truly look at all students. It also told me this school was not interested in a higher level of student, that they preferred to cater to average.
My kid, 3.5 uw (4.0 w) and 1570 sat, is going to UCSC - also got into RIT and Drexel - both with merit money.
Alabama Alabama does use weighted gpa as long as it is on the transcript. Our transcript has both on it.
I had a 3.73 UW GPA and a 34 on the ACT.
Accepted:
Grinnell with $12k/year merit + FA
Macalester with $10k/year merit + FA
Hamilton + FA
Bryn Mawr with $12k/year merit + FA
Gustavus Adolphus with $30k/year merit + $2k/year music scholarship + $10k for research
Augustana University with $18.5k/year merit + honors
University of Iowa with 8.5k/year merit + honors (in state)
New College of Florida with full ride scholarship
Waitlisted:
Bates
Haverford
Denied:
Carleton ED
WUSTL
My son heard from some friends at his old high school that somebody was accepted to Chicago for the Class of 2022 with a 3.5 UW/1450 SAT, but the kid was legacy (older brother and one parent were Chicago grads).
Son got into WashU last year with a 3.67 UW/2290 old SAT ED. In my opintion he was an outlier.
3.6 UW GPA, 33 ACT, 12 AP courses
Accepted into Desautels Business school, McGill. I’ve heard of others with higher GPA’s being rejected. I think McGill puts a lot of emphasis on AP’s and standardized tests.
FWIW, the GPA range here is probably a bit wide. One of my kids graduate in '17.
3.73 UW GPA top CA private. AP Scholar distinction. 4+ Weighted -can’t remember exactly 4.11 maybe?
33 ACT. (although only took in Dec. of SR year so some schools never saw. SAT 2190 SS, 2180 single (last) sitting of 3. SAT MathII 730, Bio 680? maybe - in that range.
very good ECs (3 years of steady volunteer at foster home, strong competitive research position at top stem college. as well as 3x Varsity, student ambassador etc.)
probs vg LOR
Accepted:
UWash (to mech eng major)
UMich (engineering)
USC (viterbi w/ money - this was her first choice and she made it very clear)
NYU-Tandon
UCSC (mechE)
McGill (mechE)
reject or waitlist:
Stanford
JHU
Columbia-Fu
UCB (mechE)
UCLA (mechE)
UCI (mechE)
UCSD (mechE)
UCD (mechE)
Hope this helps. Her GPA while not a prize winner, was probabs top 25-30% for her school.