My dream school is UVA. I am out of state and rn I have around a 3.2 gpa. Ik that isn’t good at all but I superscored a 30 on the act. I am the captain of a competitive dance team that was gone to nations 4 years in a row. I am also the 1st person in my family to go to college… my mom and dad only graduated highschool. I have had 2 jobs for the past 2 years. I took 2 ap classes my junior year am planning on taking 2 my senior year. Do you think I will get in with such a low Gpa?
UVA is definitely a school that looks at the student as a whole. But they do tell you that they look at whether you challenged yourself to the extent you took advantage of the rigor your high school had to offer. My daughter goes to a HS in NoVA with many AP offerings and there were kids who took 9 AP classes with 1500 SATs With 4.4 GPAs that did not get into UVa this year. And that is In State. It is highly competitive in-state and more so OOS. But the application is everything. Write strong essays and tell your story! Get good teacher recommendations and finish your senior year strong. UVA is a reach school for many so make sure you apply to schools that better match your academic profile and that you would be happy to attend. Check the scatter grams with the stats of kids from your HS to see who applied and was accepted/denied. I watched many kids be disppointed not getting into their dream school over the last two
months because sometimes their expectations weren’t realistic. But, you just never know.
The other thing to remember is that UVA is an academically rigorous school so admissions looks at how you did in the rigorous classes you did take in HS. They can glean if you are ready for UVA academics. They will look at mid year grades so make sure to finish stronger than ever.
And remember if you don’t get in, it’s not the end of the world. I was waitlisted at UVA a million years ago and ended up PSU and loved it. I wouldn’t trade that for anything because it was the right place for me. My daughter will be a first year at UVA this fall and it is the right place for her. Things always work out the way they are suppose to. It’s a stressful time but make sure to keep perspective. If you work hard and make the most it, you will succeed no matter where you go to college. All the best to you!
Alright thank you. That was all very useful information.
I’m a UVA alum from 30 years ago. My son (from northern VA) had a 4.0 weighted GPA, 11AP classes, 1510 SAT, 34 ACT with pretty good extracurriculurs including two years of high school football, recreational basketball, coaching youth basketball for 5 seasons, and officiating youth league games. He also attended Virginia Boys State. He was admitted to 9/10 schools (with top scholarships at all but one of the OOS schools) but waitlisted at UVA and he is a legacy. I thought he did a good job with his essays. He did not get admitted from the waitlist. Never in a million years would I have thought he would end up at the Fulton Engineering School and Barrett Honors College (one of the top in the country) at Arizona State - the farthest away of all of the OOS schools. I’m not thrilled about the distance but I am happy that he is excited about the opportunity to live somewhere that feels really different from the area where he grew up and be able to take advantage of the hiking and other adventures in the Southwest. Don’t give up on your dream to go to UVA, however, it does sound like a reach school based on what you have shared. Good luck and I agree with @VAnative that it will all work out for you…just work hard and try to keep everything in perspective. Our son originally applied ED to VT engineering (which would have been binding) and he was deferred. He did get admitted to VT under general studies but in the process of looking at all of the other schools, even if he had been admitted to the engineering school, he changed his mind about where he wanted to be and what he wanted to experience in college - big D-1 sports, bigger city atmosphere, and different climate. Hang in there @juenglinggirl !
You cannot compare GPA’s from different schools but one statistic that they publish is that about 90% of students are in the top 10% of their graduating class. Since that is most of the school it is a good judge of if you will be admitted. Some schools do not rank but if yours does then you can get a idea of your chances.