<p>I don’t have a 3.0. I know, shameful. By the time I graduate, I might, but it’s a really close call. I completely blew off my sophomore year.</p>
<p>I was wondering, I am going to have really good SAT scores (600s, 700s) and I hold three leadership spots in clubs…and plan to hold more. I’m in tons of ECs (track, drama, Junior Classical League, key club, debate, Latin certamen, Gay-Straight Alliance…)</p>
<p>I was wondering if it’s possible to get into any semi-competitive school without a 3. By “semi”…I’m thinking Ithaca College, Syracuse University…schools of that standing.</p>
<p>EDIT: By the way, I’m a junior. I have one AP class under my belt and a total of 7 honors classes besides that.</p>
<p>Do schools like that just chuck your application once they see you have, say, a 2.9?</p>
<p>I do Certamen too! (I’m the myth and daily life person.)</p>
<p>Generally, colleges look at your application “holistically,” meaning that they don’t single out sections. They look at your application (which should be a masterpiece, a portrait of you by the way), trying to get a sense of who you are, and they make their decisions on that. Or at least that’s how University of Chicago does it. I’m sure that there are some schools that just say “2.9. Too low. Reject.” You might want to e-mail the admissions officers. Later, though. Not during application-reading season!</p>
<p>P.S. Did you go to Nationals a few years back? Were you wearing lobster hats?</p>
<p>Yeah, I went once when I was a sophomore. We got 5th or 6th in Certamen, and we only had 3 people! It was neat to place well on Daily Life and Grammar in a national convention, but I don’t know how many people who go to Nationals actually study or prepare. It’s a waste of money, I think. Yeah, all the grammar is basically memorizing the endings.</p>
<p>One of the things that gets lost off of this site is that it depends on where you go to high school…the best predictor of whether you can get in somewhere decent is if other kids with similar profiles got in somewhere decent. Kids with 3ish’s from my school got into really good schools, (Johns Hopkins, Emory, Sarah Lawrence, Colgate, …) It depends on the rigor of the high school…If your school has naviance, look at it and where kids got in.</p>
<p>Caveat: Being an athlete that schools really want helps you get in with a relatively low GPA–so while it may be helpful to look at records of admittees who got in with seemingly low grades they may be offering a false sense of security–even schools that do not give athletic scholarships may be giving athletes who will help their teams a boost that carries a lot more weight than the GPA does–assuming adequate test scores and decent high school. keep in mind that development admits and possibly students who offer some degree of socioeconomic diversity may also skew the numbers lower than is realistic for a standard applicant.</p>
<p>You might be able to get into places like Loyola (CHI), DePaul, Syracuse, Clark, etc. It depends on your personality and what you want out of your education, but your GPA might also be acceptable at some liberal arts colleges, such as Hampshire, Bennington, Marlboro, etc.</p>