It would be great to know whether these schools are very out of reach (especially the highly selective ones) or if I have a chance! Thank you in advance, and please feel free to be honest. ^.^ I would also love advice on how to strengthen other areas of my application to make up for shortcomings.
Brief: low-income minority, female, first-gen college student, EFC of 0
Intended Major: computer science (B.S.)
Schools: Northeastern University, McGill University, Williams College, Bowdoin College, Brandeis University, University of Massachusetts - Amherst, MIT (applying to WIlliams, Bowdoin, and MIT through Questbridge, others through CommonApp)
GPA (weak): 3.63/4.00 (W), 3.44/4.00 (UW)
Grades: upward trend (Bs/Cs 9th, As/Bs 10th & 11th, As 12th)
AP Courses: Statistics (4), English Language (5), Biology (4), Computer Science A, Calculus AB/BC, English Literature, Physics C: Mechanics
ACT: 36C (35 Math)
SAT: 1400 (680 M, 720 R/W) - retaking Aug.
SAT II: Math Level 2 (710), Biology/M (690), French w/ Listening
ECs (small):
- NSBE
- team manager (volunteer)
- coding club leader
- cross-country
- digital art
- language learning
- ensemble/orchestra (violin and piano; nonprofessional)
Awards/Recognition:
- school wide annual science fair participation award (9th/10th/11th/likely 12th)
- computing scholarship from a polytechnic institution
- AP Scholar award
- award for excelling in music (doesn’t have a particular name)
- Biology Olympiad participation award
- selected for National Academy of Future Scientists and Technologists Award of Excellence and another award from a similar organization
- student of the month for academics
@luciole With a 36 you haven’t been offered admission at any of these schools yet?
@whenderson272 I’ve yet to send applications.
With an unweighted GPA of 3.44 McGill is out of reach, Also with a 0 EFC you would not be able to afford it.
You are asking for your chances at various schools, but also say that you got A’s in 12th grade. Are you taking a gap year, or is your 12th year grades a prediction rather than “already done”? Are you from Massachusetts?
McGill won’t care about 9th grade, which means that your 3.44 won’t apply there. What is your GPA for 10th through 12th grades? I agree with @TomSrOfBoston that affording it is highly questionable with an EFC of 0.
Being a URM with a strong upward trend in grades is going to help you, as will being a female going into computer science. UMass Amherst has a very good computer science program as I expect that you probably know.
I am not sure whether UMass Amherst is quite a safety for you, and I don’t think that I would call the other safeties. I am wondering whether you should add one more safety. It is hard for me to know how much being URM is going to help. We would have considered a few of your schools (Amherst, Williams, Bowdoin, and MIT) “reaches” or “high reaches” with an unweighted 4.0. Nonetheless I think that I would just add one more safety and that you will do well.
@DadTwoGirls My 12th year grades are a prediction. I’m from Massachusetts, so out-of-state increases in tuition are not a problem for the most part. My college list has been revised significantly, and schools that could be considered “safeties” ended up providing inadequate financial aid. This current list is devoid of safety schools. ^^;
Without 9th grade, my unweighted GPA is 3.68 (better, but not best). My low EFC was a concern for me as well (which is why I’m using Questbridge), but net price calculators estimate substantial institutional aid if I apply to the CSS Profile. I also intended to do work-study and regularly apply for outside scholarships.
Update: I’ve added Wheaton College and Clark University to my list as schools I’m more likely to get into, as well as Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Did you consider and/or run the NPC for UMass Lowell? I would expect you to get into UMass Amherst (and some of “Wheaton College, Clark University and RPI”), but Lowell might be a possible backup just in case.
Adding Clark and RPI is a great idea, perhaps add WPI too.
MIT is out of reach with a 3.44 GPA. Brandeis and Northeastern are high matches to low reaches. Not really familiar with other schools.
“MIT is out of reach with a 3.44 GPA.”
IMHO attending MIT would be a disaster for any student with a 3.44 GPA (weighted or unweighted). Fortunately MIT admissions knows this.
Apply to more LACs, especially women’s colleges, though Questbridge and thriugh Common App.
However, despite a significant upward trend, your 3.44 UW is going to hold you back.
Applying to colleges that don’t consider 9th grade would help, too - I was thinking of Simon Fraser or Mount Allison or Bishop’s in Canada but their lack of financial aid likely makes them unaffordable. Not sure what affordable colleges don’t consider 9th grade in the US.
Don’t retake the SAT - submit that act 36 instead and retake Biology, add French or English to score above 700.
@DadTwoGirls A disaster?
@MYOS1634 I already retook the SAT, but my college guidance counselor has also advised not to worry about it and focus on my subject tests instead, especially Math II. I also think a college not considering 9th grade is extremely rare within the US.
Thank you for all the advice so far. I know my chances at top universities are incredibly low if not non-existent (unless I transfer). However, I also feel that I’ll be more fine than this thread is making my situation out to be, naive as it may sound. x)
If you have an ACT 36, you don’t need to su MIT the SAT at all, only subject tests and since your grades are comparatively low scoring higher than 700 (740+) is very important for your ambitions.
You need to find good, affordable match schools.
Have you looked at Questbridge?
@MYOS1634 (applying to WIlliams, Bowdoin, and MIT through Questbridge, others through CommonApp)
I’ve also already finalized a list of match schools with my college counselor.
“@DadTwoGirls A disaster?”
“Unpleasant” might have been a better word than “disaster”.
University is going to be more difficult than high school. MIT and McGill are a lot more difficult than the average university. The effort that is sufficient to produce an unweighted 3.44 in high school is not sufficient to do okay at MIT or McGill for most students.
If there is some good reason for the 3.44 which is not going to repeat in university, then a student might be able to do well at these schools in spite of a 3.44 in high school. I did meet some students who had straight A’s and mostly A+'s in math and science in high school and B’s and a few C’s in other subjects, then went to MIT and only took hard courses in math and sciences (there at least used to be some easy humanities classes there for math and science majors; there probably still are). I know at least one such student who did “okay” at MIT but hated it, and another who dropped out. I do know someone who did worse than a 3.44 in high school and then did much better than a 3.44 at McGill (there was a year in between elsewhere which allowed them to get into McGill), but there was a good reason for their poor showing in high school which did not repeat.
Unless there is some identifiable reason why a student is going to do a lot better in university, I would not recommend MIT or McGill for any student with an unweighted 3.44 out of high school.
@DadTwoGirls In that case, I feel like I’m fine. ^^ Thank you for clarifying!