<p>Does weighted GPA count for anything?</p>
<p>Most schools will “weight” your gpa.</p>
<p>So a 3.0 in an AP course becomes a 4.0</p>
<p>I don’t know how they find the time to recalculate the gpa of all their applicants, but supposedly, that is what they do.</p>
<p>It’s computer-generated. And I know what weighted means; I’m just wondering if adcoms actually look at it.</p>
<p>I’ve read elsewhere that UF sometimes rejects overqualified applicants (such as a student who got into MIT) because they know the student could get into a much higher rated school and is probably not going to attend. They try to improve their yield rate.</p>
<p>that sounds like playing god to me</p>
<p>how do they know that the kid who is applying can only afford to go to UF, and not to a private college.</p>
<p>and if they are doing that, they are manipulating their numbers, by only admitting kids they think will attend, and then claiming to have a high yield.</p>
<p>and if they do that, aren’t they losing the chance to say that the people who get into their schools have high SAT scores?</p>
<p>It could be another factor entirely. Take this, for example, a post in a UF thread that I found.</p>
<p>“I toured yesterday and the assistant chief of admissions gave us some tips and info about applying and the essay and such, and I kinda got the vibe that they could be unpredictable… but she also made it clear that academics is only HALF of it. A 2350 SAT, 4.7 UF GPA (or some ridiculously-high UF GPA) applicant was rejected last year. Why? Because he didn’t take the non-academic parts of the application (e.g. the essay & EC’s) seriously and thought he was guaranteed admission with his great stats.”</p>
<p>It seems they want their students to be truly well-rounded.</p>
<p>well rounded gatorguy? Or really show that they are interested in going to UF and not feel entitled?</p>
<p>If he’s more liberal arts oriented then bowdoin or swarthmore. They are both top liberal schools. lA schools focus on undergrad edu, if he is used to small classes he will prob do well there, and then can get a good gpa and go to an ivy grad school. To be honest it doesn’t matter where you go undergrad these days, graduate schools is what counts. He can go to a state college and get into Harvard grad, less debt and still good education. However, if He isn’t looking to go more than 4 years he should look into Boston university, Emory, Carnegie Mellon, umichigan Ann arbor, penn state uni park.</p>
<p>Fla Dad == If you are worried about alot of drinking, ditch Dartmouth.</p>
<p>Hopkins – why would your son apply there is he is not Math Science oriented?</p>
<p>Good merit aid – Emory, Rice, Vanderbilt, BU and GW are good possibilities. Univ of Richmond? UVA Jeff Scholar, UNC or Duke Robertson scholar possibilities?</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions</p>
<p>It seems to me that kids nowadays have to apply to a LOT of schools, not just 5 or 6 like in the “old days”.</p>
<p>Acceptance rates are very low, and then there are financial considerations.</p>
<p>floridadad</p>
<p>My D applied to 10 last year. 1 ‘safe’, 1 near safe, 6 targets and 2 reaches. I don’t think this is uncommon for people who are applying to top-25 schools.</p>
<p>I ask you this in all seriousness.</p>
<p>Why not apply to all 25?</p>
<p>And hope you will get into 1 or 2?</p>
<p>Instead of only applying to 8.</p>
<p>I say this because admissions is a crapshoot.</p>
<p>My brother’s kid got into Cornell, but got wait listed at Syracuse and Northeastern.</p>
<p>And with the low acceptance rates, it would seem to me that a kid could easily be rejected at all the top schools he applies to, if he only applies to 3 or 4 reaches.</p>
<p>With the existence of the common application, how many hours does it take to apply to each individual school?.</p>
<p>Despite the convenience of the Common App, applying to a lot of schools can still seem somewhat daunting because of the supplements. They’re what take up most of the time because each school has a different one.</p>
<p>Edit: Although, it shouldn’t be that bad as long as you give yourself ample time to complete all of them. Procrastination is what makes it difficult.</p>
<p>Your son will have an easier time of conveying “Why xyz school” if he actually makes the effort to compare and differentiate what he likes about each school. Doing this comparison should also help him weed down to a smaller number of schools – 7 - 10 well sifted choices should net multiple acceptances with your son’s stats.</p>
<p>In response to “Why not apply to all the top 25 schools?,” I’d like to point out that if 25 schools are picked out for a student, whether it be by the experts (U.S. News) or the 'rents (that’s you, floridadad :D) chances are, the student won’t like many of them. No matter how highly ranked a school is, nothing really can replace “fit.”</p>
<p>Besides, the applying frenzy is part of what drives acceptance rates down. That probably isn’t going to stop someone who really wants to get into a top school, but it’s the reason I would venture to say that society frowns upon it.</p>
<p>A student at my school last year applied to 13 schools, and was accepted to all 13 (now attending an Ivy). This is great for her, but bad for the other 12 schools where she applied (yield rate). Thus, schools kind of work against students by making barriers such as Common App supplements or required demonstrated interest. And cost is another factor. $10 per SAT Score Report, transcript costs, and of course, application fees - it adds up.</p>
<p>Belle</p>
<p>The fact that students are applying to more and more schools is probably one of the major factors that drives down acceptance rates. hen I went years ago, 5 was the norm. Now for students applying to the the top schools, it’s probably 10 - 12 at least. And I hate to say this, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all if this number grows.</p>
<p>I guess the downside is really time. Even if you can adapt essays for your supplements, it still takes time to do each one well – My guess is that my D spent 5-8 hours per supplement. Multiply by 25, factor in homework and ECs, and the time for the basic application, you get a time crunch. I certainly think it’s better to turn out 10 well-thought out applications than 25 cookie-cutter ones.</p>
<p>I know two people who applied to 20+ schools. They were both salutatorians and had 2300+ SAT scores. They applied to about 15 top schools and 5-8 safeties. They were accepted to all their safeties and received decent merit aid. However, each student was only accepted to about 5 top schools. For instance, they both applied to all 8 Ivy Leagues, with one accepted to 2 Ivies and one accepted to 3 Ivies. Neither student was extremely involved extracurricularly, but almost all of his free time was spent on college applications. </p>
<p>My advice is to use this strategy but on a smaller scale. Your son should apply to 2-3 safeties and about 10 top schools (targets/reaches). That way he can have a few schools where he knows he’ll be accepted and will likely be offered merit aid. I think 10-12 top schools is a good number. Yes, it is possible to apply to all 25 USNWR universities, but your son will likely be less happy at certain schools (ex: MIT) than others. This should allow you to naturally shorten the list to include only the schools that appeal to him academically, geographically, etc.</p>
<p>Does your son have a preference in terms of location (city, rural, etc.)? I suggest (if you have the means) visiting colleges once you have your rough list compiled. Honestly, no website or book can summarize the atmosphere of a college, especially as it pertains to a specific individual. </p>
<p>With that said, here’s a list of colleges that I believe would be a good fit for your son:</p>
<p>Cornell
Wash U
Johns Hopkins
Emory
Rice
Carnegie Mellon
University of Chicago
UVA
Tufts
University of Pennsylvania
William and Mary
Amherst
Swarthmore
Davidson
Columbia
Brandeis
Lehigh
University of Rochester
Case Western Reserve
University of Miami
Tulane</p>
<p>Amherst is a very well respected liberal arts college. If he likes liberal arts, I think it will serve him well to go for those. Otherwise, 3.6 is a little low, but I wouldn’t stop him from applying to Ivys. Just have other “match” schools. I honestly believe (as I have few people from my school every year who are like this) students with at the BARE MINIMUM of 3.5 GPA can (not really likely but can) get into an Ivy school given that their test scores (AP/IB/SAT/SATII/ACT) are close to perfect, their extra curriculars are amazing and they write a stunning essay. </p>
<p>Try, you never know. :)</p>