I’m currently a junior in high school with a 3.518 GPA, i have yet to take the ACT or SAT, and i rank in the top 35% of my class and I’m active in choir, show choir, and math league. My dad is an alumni, and my older brother attends UMN and is in CSE. I don’t take AP courses but i still can, i do take college in the high school classes and do fairly well in them. What are my chances of getting in if i continue to get good grades, raise my GPA and challenge myself for the next year and a half of school? Anything helps! I really hope to get into Carlson, but i feel its a reach. CLA is fine with me as long as i can take the business classes that i want. Thank you!
yea u will be fine! ur dads an alum!
@needtogetinuomn thanks! Any other tips? I can’t ride on just my dad haha
well if ur doing cla for sure u will get in no matter what
Did you mention you were PSEO? That will help you as long as you are doing well in your college courses.
The class rank is low for CLA and CSOM; however, the inclusion of PSEO or other college courses offsets that due to the higher rigor. Shoot for A’s during this oh-so-important junior year because that will help your grades and your rank. A strong academic performance in junior year really does speak volumes to the admissions people. You will be applying this next summer or during fall of senior year so your junior grades are the last opportunity for that transcript to shine.
You should also prep thoroughly for your ACT/SAT so that you have the strongest score possible from that. A high test score also speaks volumes. CSOM admits have mid-range scores of 28 - 31 (ACT) or 1200-1360/1860-2060 SAT. Those are your benchmarks because if you nail those you should be in good shape for at least CLA. (Note that SAT scoring is changing beginning in March 2016 but you can look up the percentiles for these current benchmarks and figure you need to be in that range if you take the SAT).
While CLA has the reputation of being “easy” to get into, that’s really not the case on an absolute level. With an overall acceptance rate of 45%, and an even lower rate for the more selective colleges, that puts CLA/CDES/CFANS/CEHD at roughly a 50% acceptance rate - maybe a bit higher (CLA is the bulk of those colleges so that percentage is probably close to the mark for CLA itself).
@Mamelot This is super helpful! Thank you so much
@Sydneyumn Best wishes as you pursue admission to the University of Minnnesota! Please allow me to give you one small piece of advice.
If you’re texting a friend, you can be pretty certain they’ll be the only one to see it. On the other hand, if you’re posting a message on the internet, it’s going out to the world and you never know who will read your words.
Your message seems very sincere and I applaud you for your intetest in furthering your education, but I can’t take your post seriously due to the “10th grade cell phone text English” that you used. In one paragraph of writing, I counted thirteen grammatical errors and I seriuosly doubt someone with a 3.5 GPA would do something like that.
Rightly or wrongly, people will judge your intelligence based on the way you write and speak, That’s just the way it is and you need to understand that when you communicate.
Not trying to be a d’bag but please consider your audience when you write something! I sincerely wish you the best!
Uh, @cchase1, eight of those 13 consisted of neglecting to capitalize the pronoun “I”. i’ve made the same mistake myself LOL. Posting from mobile devices can be challenging sometimes.
@Sydneyumn asked for tips to improve chances of getting into the University of MN - an application that doesn’t even require an essay - not for someone to red-pen what to them appears to be a writing sample 
Frankly, reading a post by a genuine student on this forum is a refreshing experience. I’ve always suspected that many posters are actually parents posing as their kids. As one Admissions Director at a very select university told us last year: “parents, we can tell the difference between your writing style and your kid’s.”
As an alumni parent of a student applying, I’ll say - don’t count on the legacy to be that big of a factor. If it was, we would have heard by now.
Keep your grades up, knock the ACT/SAT out of the park, and you’re gold. Good luck!
Thanks! @khidhala
@cchase1 I think you perceived my question wrong. Thank you for your input but I was not asking for anyone to critique my grammar.