<p>Ok so I have officially began my application to some colleges. I still need to take the SATs in Nov. and when I finish I will have sent most materials to colleges. My main concern is my GPA and my transcript. Unlike others who have a really high GPA and a mediocre SAT score, I have a better SAT than my GPA. I know both matter equally, but I just want to know if a grade like a 65 or 70 will matter greatly. My GPA as of now is 88. After the 1st semester of senior year, I am speculating that it would go up to about 90+ since I take AP's and they're 10% weighted. My unweighted avg. is about 87. I screwed up Soph. year getting only a 65 and a 70 in my geometry class (but I am really not a bad student in math). I got 90's on the math regents and taking AP Stat this year. So in all, I have like one grade in the 60's (65) and about three in the 70's. With a SAT score of 1950 and a 90 GPA (with a 65 and a few 70 range scores in some of my classes in soph. year), will I be able to make it to colleges like Uconn, northeastern, umass, rutgers, and bing? Again, I'm taking SATs again in Nov. and hope to move past the 1950 SAT mark and I will have about a 90 weighted GPA by the end of Dec. I also have fair EC's and other intangibles.</p>
<p>The single most important factor for college admissions is your transcript. That is because it is the single strongest predictor for all measures of success in college (first year completion, first year GPA, final GPA, completion of degree in four years, graduate school admissions, etc. etc.). Sit down with your guidance counselor and talk about which colleges and universities have admitted students with a transcript like yours in recent years. He/she should be able to come up with some suggestions.</p>
<p>Bump. I need a more optimistic answer. And plus I don’t think transcripts are way more important than SATs. I’m pretty sure they balance each other out. Any other answers? Thanks for the posts.</p>
<p>No, the transcript is way more important. The transcript shows how hard you have worked the 3.5 years you have been in high school, while the SAT shows how well you are able to reason based off a 5 hour test.</p>
<p>^Still didn’t really answer my question.</p>
<p>Hmmm… well I would also agree that your transcript is a better measure for success in college (however people and their habits do change) than the SAT. BUT! For UConn, your GPA (which would be about a 3.5 or 3.6 i think) is around 45th percentile and lets say you get a 2000 or even higher on your SAT in November, that would put you in the 75th percentile. So write a great essay, do well on the SATs and emphasize your EC’s and I’d say you would be competitive for the school… </p>
<p>For other schools, try to apply early action / decision if you want, because that would increase your chances even more! *i.e. ED for northeastern… only if you are sure you would attend. But hurry!</p>
<p>You have a good chance for UConn, Rutgers and UMass
You would need to do better on the SATs to be competitive for Northeastern</p>
<p>good luck… you will be fine.</p>
<p>“I need a more optimistic answer.” OK. Well, I’m sure the admissions committees will revise their acceptance criteria to accommodate your needs.</p>
<p>^ yeah, d3xterity: try not to take these comments as ‘pessimistic’ or ‘optimistic.’ These comments are merely constructive feedback based upon our experiences/research/common sense.</p>
<p>My bad. I didn’t intend to criticize the comment as not being optimistic, but I just wanted a more detailed answer. Thank you @thestranger1 for the constructive post.</p>
<p>As people have pointed out your transcript is the most important part of the application. a few below average grades may impact you at more selective colleges but overall universities want to see that you are generally a strong performer, are taking the hardest courses available to you, and that you have an upward trajectory in terms of your gpa. </p>
<p>The thing about having a high SAT with an average GPA is that from an adcom’s POV this can be taken as “oh this applicant has not been living up to their potential”…as opposed to having a really high GPA and a mediocre SAT which signals that you are a really hard worker that is performing above your potential. </p>
<p>Like thestranger1 said, write a great essay, do well on the SATs and emphasize your EC’s and you should be relatively competitive for most of the schools that you are applying to.</p>
<p>no problem :)</p>