3.2 gpa but very high test scores and strong ec's?

[busdriver11]

"I'd love to get into CMU or NYU (my dream schools) but as I haven't put in my 100% all throughout high school, my chances aren't too high. Maybe the admissions officers will see something in my application that will strike them"

As far as CMU goes, I believe I have useful advice. Kid #1 got in 3 years ago, kid #2 got waitlisted, and if he hadn't pulled himself off the waitlist, I feel confident that he would have gotten accepted. I could go into detail on that, but it's not relevant at this point. Both kids with lower GPA's and lower test scores than you. Do not give up. Let them know this is your top school. Visit, interview, go to every meeting they have in your town. Be passionate about CMU. And apply for the maximum number of CMU schools (max was 4 last year). DO NOT do something dumb like just apply for Tepper or SCS. You can transfer. Apply to H&SS as one of those for sure. Don't even waste one of your shots on SCS, apply to the schools that are easiest to get in. You may not believe me, but this paragraph is the best advice you can get. And if you get waitlisted, PM me!

Good shot at the University of Washington. Great test scores, and they just LOVE your out of state money. Funny, many of our WA kids can't get into the UW, but they can get into the CA schools, and vice versa. We're just trading our kids around so the schools can get more $$.

Cal Poly....scores will help you a lot, and one big part of their application is working in the field of your interest, which you have. No essays so you can't indicate your interest, but that section where it asks about work experience in your field is a big deal.

[CT1417]

1214mom--I noticed your comment that "the average student accepted to UMD had a Weighted GPA of over 4.0 for this year" and decided to check our school's Naviance. The school retains five years of data and during that time, the 36 admits to UMD-CP had avg GPA of 3.48 regular and 3.46 early. (The GPAs are not usually that close for RD and ED.) The avg SAT scores were 1300 & 1250. We do not send athletes to UMD but do seem to send athletes everywhere else!

So, I do think your second comment about the variation in GPAs and rigor of curriculum is correct. Our school grades on a standard 4.0 scale with a .5 bump awarded for honors & AP classes beginning in sophomore year. 5% of the students end up with a GPA greater than 4.0 but no one seems to exceed 4.25. The problem with GPAs is that grade inflation and rigor are difficult to measure. The school profile helps to define class rank (at least within a range) but can't fully address grade inflation and rigor.

[cobrat]

I am an eternal optimist, so I am going to go out on a limb and say the superior SAT score, coupled with the difficulty level of his classes and his high school, would put him in pretty good stead with more than half of the schools.

Depending on the academic reputation of OP's HS, the mismatch of GPA and SAT would be regarded as a manifestation of exceedingly high academic rigor and make allowances accordingly. I know for a fact this was a reason why many respectable/elite colleges were willing to dip deeper into graduating classes at private boarding schools like the ones a few cousins attended and public magnets like the one I attended.

Don't know if your HS is one of them so you may want to check your HS GC's admission stats for prior graduating years.

[ohiobassmom]

A student with lesser test scores and better grades has a much better chance- hard work means more than being a slacker with potential.

Sometimes...sometimes that means the HS hands out As like candy. Lower GPA may mean more rigor in classes taken, tough grading in general...or a student who is not challenged by HS work but may be ready for college work. Certainly sometimes it means "smart slacker" but not always.

OP - do you have Naviance? It's very useful to see what colleges do with GPAs/test scores from YOUR high school.

[MiamiDAP]

"that means the HS hands out As like candy"
-This type of school would not have good reputation at all. Actually, I do not know any HS that does that. Once they are in college, this would be very evident. Words spread relatively quickly, it is NOT in HS interest giving As for nothing at all. AP examps are standardized anyway. I agree that "smart slacker" has little chance of doing well in college. But D. indicated that some majors are not that "busy", business and English were certainly less busy than some others.
But anyway, choosing college thru soliciting opinions of others will backfire big time. Got to visit and see for yourself and better visit several times. Checking ranking / selectivity / asking others for your chances is not going to place anybody to college that matches his personality and wide range of current and potential interests.

[artloversplus]

To op
If you are from Mission SJ, Lynbrook or MV, don't worry, you are not doomed. My nephew, he had similar scores and he got into UCLA (he did not apply for any OOS schools)

[ohiobassmom]

Miami, one HS in our area bases a lot of a grade on completing homework, for example, even if exam scores are low and few papers assigned. As a result kids from there can have higher GPAs than kids from here but lower ACT/SAT scores.

Colleges often do know it, looking at Naviance I see "college A" has an average accepted GPA of, say, 3.8 but for kids from our HS it's 3.3. And standardized scores are comparable. That tells me they know grades are harder to get at our HS than the "average" they pull from.

There is a good argument that kids with higher grades and lower scores know how to work hard or don't test well, but there's also an argument to be made that kids with lower grades and higher test scores are capable of more challenging college work. I don't think there's a one size fits all answer to that... of course it's best to have high scores AND high grades

[LBowie]

Following CT1417, I also looked up University of Maryland College Park on our schools's Naviance, and the average unweighted GPA for accepted students was 3.45. Average SAT 1600 was 1300. (These would be out of state admits.). There were slightly fewer students than in his/her sample at our school, but the similarity in the numbers is interesting!

[eastcoascrazy]

UMd -CP has an obligation to admit students from every county in the state. If they did not do that they could fill each freshman class with students from just a few counties, and/ or just a few of the most competitive high schools in the state. So the admit stats for some schools in, say, specific high schools in Montgomery County, will be much, much higher than those in other areas of the state. You can't really compare stats between high schools within the state. Our own high school has had kids with stats similar to the OP's turned down in recent years. Out of state applicants are competing for a smaller number of spaces, but I don't know the average stats for out of state admits.

[chocchipcookie]

I didn't read each & every post, but my question is: why CMU or NYU as your two top picks?

I know nothing about NYU, but I do know that CMU is a very tough academic environment. You need to ask yourself if you want to be in a school setting that is quite rigorous or a school setting where the academics are tough, but not pressure-cooker tough and then have the time for more ec's.

CMU is known to be quite a pressure cooker. We do know people that are happy there, but they did exceptionally well in high school.....and seem to be overall pretty prepared for the academic challenges.

[cobrat]

why CMU or NYU as your two top picks?

I'm kind of wondering that myself as CMU's strengths are mainly hardcore STEM subjects in the engineering/CS/math areas or Dramatic Arts. Heard from many CMU alums themselves that the humanities and social science departments didn't compare and actually discouraged their kids from applying if their interests laid outside of those strengths.

NYU's econ department is respectable, but here the question is why NYU considering there are many other colleges that are comparable or even stronger in that/related fields and yet, won't be so miserly with FA/scholarships. Some of them are probably located within the Californian public university systems.

Also, their econ department tends to be very quantitatively oriented so if you prefer writing to crunching numbers or are otherwise more qualitatively-oriented...may not be the best department for you. A similar issue in a related social science department is one major reason a college classmate refused to consider NYU for grad school. Also knew of a recent undergrad who switched out of poli-sci for history after a year because he felt their quantitative-orientation was too narrow and blinkered philosophically.

[1214mom]

Regarding UMD College Park, I just pulled info. From their website. Avg. GPA of students admitted for fall of 2012 was 4.11 weighted, and the 25 - 75% range for SATs was 1250 - 1400, and avg. ACT was 28 - 32. I was told my an admissions person that only 32% of applicants were admitted directly to the engineering college, and those admitted had an average weighted GPA of over 4.2, and math SAT scores averaged over 700. It seems to be getting harder to get in each year. My son was accepted this year, but I worry that my younger son, currently a junior, may not be accepted with similar stats, and it's currently his 1st choice (and our state flagship and where I attended, so I'm hoping one of my kids attends there).