ACT: Composite 34 (M 35, E 35, R 32, S 35)
SAT Subjects: 800 math II, 770 Physics, 770 Chemistry
GPA: UW 3.67 Weighted: 6.67
APs: total of 12 APs. Mostly 5s
Income: top
Recs: Pretty good. My science teacher wrote a very GOOD rec.
ECs: President of the math club at my school, president of a service club, future business leaders of america, physics club, science olympiad, varsity tennis, varsity swim
senior year courses: Ap Calc BC, AP Physics C E&M, AP Physics 2, AP chem, AP Lit
essays: good
Summer activies: LOADS of volunteering and math competitions
How the (redacted) do you have a weighted GPA nearly double your UW?
The good news is tat your ACT and SAT II scores are competitive for all the schools you’ve listed, as is your course rigor. The bad news is that a 3.67 UW is quite low for JHU and UPenn (I don’t know the exact UW figures for Vanderbilt or UNC Chapel Hill, but I gather 3.67 would be on the low end there as well.
I’d put your chances at the acceptance rate, with the GPA canceling out the boost from your test scores and ECs (more or less - to call chancing an inexact science is to give the practice more credit than is due).
My weighted GPA is almost double my unweighted because my school district inflates the students’ GPAs.
The average GPA for JHU and UPenn around 3.75. Is my 3.67 really that bad? Also, when you say you’d put my chances at the acceptance rate, do you mean the ED or RD rate?
Average GPA at JHU: 3.88
source: http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=1509
Average GPA at UPenn: 3.94
source: http://www.collegedata.com/cs/data/college/college_pg01_tmpl.jhtml?schoolId=67
If you’re getting the figures of ~3.75 from the Collegedata admissions tracker, note that that’s the average GPA of students interested in the school - and not accepted students.
No college is going to take a 6.67 GPA at face value. This is a perfect example of the reason most colleges place a greater weight on UW GPA and determine course rigor for themselves, rather than trusting a school’s wGPA calculations. I don’t know why your school district is doing this, as it will ultimately have little to no effect on admissions decisions.
I think you’re an average applicant at both these schools. If you apply ED, you’ll get a typical ED boost (chances will be slightly lower than the ED acceptance rate because that’s propped up by athletes, triple legacies, and applicants with 4.0/2400/36/800/800/800 and a raft of extracurriculars). If you apply RD, you’ll face the same odds as any RD applicant.
Average GPA for JHU Admitted Class 2019: 3.92
http://hub.jhu.edu/2015/03/27/johns-hopkins-class-of-2019
Remember that these stats are averages, and 50% (or so) of accepted students had LOWER GPAs than this. It looks like you took a rigorous course load and scored well on the AP tests, which suggests these courses were actually demanding at your school. I would’t discount yourself. Did you get 5’s in math and science APs? Did you get any C’s in science or math coursework? Assuming you don’t have any red flags then I would say you’re a qualified candidate with a fair shot of being accepted.
Hopkins will reformulate and recalculate your GPA by their own internal standards to level the playing field. I’ve heard of students who received grades for lunchtime in high school… so of course that needs to be addressed.
@NixonDenier Lunchtime??? Are you actually serious? Where did you hear that? That’s hilarious.
It was a common anecdote thrown around the admissions office. Who knows if it was true, but it’s silly to think that all high schools in our fine country were created equal, let alone internationally.