I have been interested in some LACs for their high marks in undergraduate enjoyment, quality of education, graduate school placement, and atmosphere. I have visited and/or will visit Gustavus Aldophus, St. Olaf College, Oberlin, Grinnell, Carleton, and maybe Macalester or Kenyon.
St. Olaf a fairly good match, the rest of my list goes downhill fast. Oberlin, Grinnell, Kenyon, and Macalester have ACT scores of 29-32, and average GPAs of a 3.7+.
At most of these schools I beat out their 75th percentile handily with a 34 (99.34th Percentile as of 2013). In my other standardized tests, being APs, I stand at the 95th Percentile. The problem is, I have a 3.5 UW GPA due to a variety of factors, including having to sell a house, playing sports, and unfortunately, sheer boredom. When I wasn’t being challenged by the material, I wasn’t compelled to do busywork. (I know that’s bad.)
I know that generally ACT and GPA are supposed to complement each other, but when they are so discordant, will colleges be willing to look past the GPA provided I explain why it was so low?
Basically, will my GPA bottleneck my ACT and prevent me from attending high-caliber schools?
Additionally, I will have excellent essays, supplemented with one or two stellar recommendations (one from a Euro teacher who taught her class as 2 100-level histories) and a decent counselor letter showcasing “the most rigorous schedule [she] has ever seen”.
Do you know what your class rank or percentile is?
@Querty568, Yeah, I’m awfully stupid after work sometimes. XD
I end up just below the top 25% (3.5 vs 3.53), but above our top 30% cutoff.
@International95, I may add that to my list if I head all the way to the West coast to visit Whitman, or can find another school to visit on the way. From you avatar, I can see you’re a fan.
It’s less selective by numbers than the others by percentage, but has higher test scores, minimizing my advantage at the other schools. That being said, 1400 students may well be too small, but I will look into it. Thanks.
Two questions then:
1.) In regards to the initial question, do you believe that when scores and grades are discordant, there is any leniency in admissions? Is failure in that category of the application a fatal flaw?
2.) Why Reed specifically over the others?
Is your GPA an upward trend? That is, are your lowest grades in 9th and 10th grade? Schools often cut kids some slack for a weaker performance early on, assuming they’ll mature and eventually get the hang of what’s expected of them in high school. Second, yes, LACs do a holistic review which means they take into account your overall record including mitigating circumstances. Your test scores may be seen as offsetting, in part, your GPA, especially if your GPA has been improving and your teachers make a strong case for your intellectual curiosity when you are challenged. (Talk to your teachers explicitly about this issue - they may be willing to speak to your work ethic and any other concerns admissions might have about you being ‘smart but lazy.’ In fact, the more information they have about what you need from them, the better.) Lastly, check the Common Data Set, Section C for each school you’re interested in and see how you GPA and class rank compares to the admitted student population to see how you fit.
Lastly, Reed is a great fit for ‘angular’ kids: Those are kids who are often very bright but have an aversion to ‘going with the program’ which means they sometimes have lop-sided transcripts - excellent grades in areas that interest them, so-so grades in subjects that don’t. They are the very definition of quirky and non-conforming (sometimes to the point of silliness, but that goes with being 18-20). While Reed is small, it is also in a city, Portland, which has a vibrant culture and lots of kids take advantage of it for both internships and entertainment. The primary downside (my bias here) is the amount of rain. (Reed admin is a bit angular too, by the way. For years, they have refused to play ball with the USNew ratings game and it has hurt their rankings - but is a credit to their focus on what really matters to the school.)
For reference, my son had a similar profile and did very well in admissions to schools including a few listed above. He was wait listed at Reed, though we both thought he fit the description of the type of person who was a perfect fit for Reed, and his interviewer even told him this. Go ahead and apply and write good essays and find a safety or two just in case.
My son had a 3.3-3.4 unweighted GPA, with a 31 ACT, and he was waitlisted at Reed. He got into Whitman with a modest ($7500) merit award. He also got into Pitzer, but with no aid, and to Occidental. He had excellent ECs and recommendations, and he demonstrated interest.
@N’s Mom, my grades will be generally upward.
9th: 3.9 / 3.9
10th: 3.11 / 3.11 (Selling house, football, hospitalization)
11th: 3.78 / 3.67 (+ A in a summer school class)
I can guarantee myself a 3.7 first sem. next year. Who knows if they’ll even take it into account though.
Thanks for your help. Even with an upward trend, even if they take into account a 3.7 first-semester senior year grade, my GPA and class rank fall far behind at most these schools, they average 3.7+GPAs, with 60% in the top 10% of their class. The problem is that most schools list scores and rank both as “very important”, making it hard to determine where exactly scores are more important.
@madamecrabster and @woogzmama, thanks for your background. It is appearing more and more that at the very selective schools, admissions is some part chance. This seems more the case with smaller schools, without the capacity to house and educate every spectacular applicant they get. That being said, both of you suggested I have a decent chance at some of these schools. Maybe I won’t be wasting my application money after all. XD
As for safeties, I will be looking into Gustavus Adolphus as an LAC safety, but other than that, the only high-caliber schools that I can consider safeties are some of the state ones. I need to find which ones have the smallest class sizes and highest academic rankings. Thanks to all of you.