I agree that you should drop a number of your reach schools from the list. However, if you are interested in Emory, I would keep that on since I believe they do not count freshman year grades when calculating GPA (or at least that’s how they used it do it - check to be sure).
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I wonder if OP has visited other “top” schools - like Emory - it has a beautiful, compact campus, great b school, in a great city, really nice kids - so maybe it would click too. And if OP is interested in NYC finance and/or consulting, they’ll perform better than CU and IU - so shows their outcomes.
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If you want to study Business (BBA program), I’d remove those that do not offer it (or a closely equivalent program), and perhaps add:
- Carnegie Mellon (Tepper)
- SMU (Cox)
- Boston College (Carroll)
- Fordham (Gabelli)
- U of Richmond
- Lehigh
- Bucknell
- Washington & Lee
(all private, I know – you have a bunch of strong public business schools on your list already, one of which is a safety and another a match.)
I think that if you would be happy at CU or IU, you’re fine. Any other admit would be gravy. But if you want to study Business – courses in Accounting, Finance, Marketing, Operations, International Biz, Org Behavior, Strategic Mgmt, etc. – then look for schools that offer the major. Or dive deeply into the course catalogs of your Econ schools to see if they offer some electives in the aforementioned areas. Northwestern obviously has a famous MBA program at Kellogg – see if undergrads are able to take some of the classes. Or if there are equivalent lectures for undergrads.
Edit: removed Lafayette
Id look at career outcomes. Is your goal to work in accounting? Investment banking? Consulting? general finance?
If you want accounting, you can go almost any major school with an accounting program and potentially get a job at a big 4 accounting firm. If you’re interested in IB or MBB consulting, look for target or semi target schools.
Many kids who want to “study business” aren’t interested in the academic aspect but the career outcomes.
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To be very blunt, for the most selective colleges, not taking the most rigorous possible curriculum at your HS is a potentially large issue, and I think potentially a particular problem since you are also asking them to excuse a lot of grades not up to their normal standards.
Personally, I would eliminate all the colleges without Business. I gather Business is what you want, and you might have your best chances with Business programs as well.
I’d then start finding more business programs at private colleges where they regularly admit people without near perfect grades and top rigor. That can be a little hard to investigate, but Poets and Quants lists an Average GPA, and I think you want to be looking for ones they list right around 3.8 or below.
Like Richmond, for example, is reported at 3.81. And I could see Richmond maybe taking a chance on your story given your high test score. Trinity University (Texas) is at 3.7, same deal. Fordham they actually have at 3.64, very promising. Bucknell 3.6.
Then if you want to keep some Reachy privates as well, OK. I personally think privates are your best bet to get a close look despite superficially low grades. So, Emory (3.84) is a good thought. USC (3.87). Georgetown (3.85).
Finally, if you also want to apply to a Wharton or Stern, OK! Stranger things have happened!
I think with a list like that, you would have a good chance of some interesting offers.
As a final thought, Pitt and Minnesota both have rolling admissions, so you could do one or both of them with a very early application. If it worked, that could really help focus your efforts. If it didn’t, well, it would be a warning to rethink a bit. ETA: And by early, I mean within the next 1-2 weeks if possible.
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SMU is a good option for business. With your strong EC’s IMO it would be a match school. They have a very strong ALTs program and they seem to have a connection with GS in Dallas.
The only caveat is SMU’s primary influence is within the DFW area so if you dont want to work in Dallas, it may not be a great fit.
SMU Cox punches above its weight for business job placement.
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Laf doesn’t have business. Bucknell does though.
Dickinson has finance and Intl Bus.
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Oh, you know what – the “Lafayette Business Major” search result returned UL-Lafayette on the second line, and I saw that and assumed it was Laf College. haha
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do we have any idea how Northwestern calculates GPA (or even if it recalculates at all?), or how OPs school calculates it? careful with making any sort precise calculations here when we do not know this…(and I suspect we do not?).
I would wager OPs GPA is below average, however it IS pretty standard accepted GPA for my own kids HS. I actually just checked their naviance… AND at my kids high school (actually both my kids HS) they count an A- as a 3.7 not a 4.0 so it is a bit hard to compare .. but once again, another reason not to compare so precisely. We just don’t know. Asking numbers of Bs in core courses makes more sense.
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PandaXPanther has classified his current GPA as “BAD” since many students at his high school have higher GPAs due to grade inflation. The bottom 25% is a reasonable assumption.
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I would never base any decision on an assumption.
@PandaXPanther did you ever list all the courses you have taken in high school? What you wrote above doesn’t tell us the courses you actually took. Could you please give us that information?
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He said:
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The last time Northwestern reported this, in their 2023-24 CDS, they said 94% of enrolled students that reported rank were in the top 10th. Of course not all schools report ranks, but I still think this supports the conclusion Northwestern is usually looking just at the top students in a given HS, unless perhaps they are hooked, or it is one of those high schools that regularly sends a lot of kids to highly selective colleges (most of which don’t report rank).
What that means in terms of GPAs and curriculum choices then depends on the HS. But the OP has confirmed neither their GPA nor their curriculum counts as the top level in their HS.
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All PIB, Honors, or Ap courses. No normal courses have been taken, and I have taken Digital Art & Design 1&2.
This does not tell us what courses you actually took. It would be helpful to know those…as well as which ones were B grades. It might make a difference in terms of the recommendations you receive here.
And again…what have your parents told you is your annual budget for undergraduate school.
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My response has been misinterpreted. Bottom 25% is referring to HS GPAs of the admitted class to Northwestern, not his class percentile rank. The majority in this pool will be >3.9 GPA unweighted, with all GPAs standardized on the same scale. The more “B” grades he’s earned, the greater the disadvantage stats-wise.
Do you have a source for this statement? NU does not recalculate GPA for admissions purposes, nor publish admitted GPAs AFAIK.
NU also does not include average or mid 50% GPA of enrolled students here on the class profile or on Q11 of the CDS.
I do agree that OP’s GPA is likely low for NU. NU will count OP’s non-A’s, and also compare their stats to the classmates who are applying to NU (which OP said there were several.)
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