Demographics*
California/San Francisco Bay Area
Public School
Male Asian
US Citizen
Public High School with ~2400 students across 4 years.
Intended Major(s)
CS, Data Science, Engineering and Pre-Med. STEM related.
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores
Current Grade: Junior(11th) Semester 2
Unweighted GPA: 3.66
Weighted: 4.26
ACT Composite: 35
School does not publish School Rank.
Honors Courses: 3
AP Courses: 8
AP Scores: Calc BC(5), AP World History(4)
Planned Courses(Summer and Senior Semester 1)
AP Courses: 6
Total AP Courses: 14
Honors Courses: 3
Course Rigor STEM
9th Grade
10th Grade
11th Grade
12th Grade
Maths
Honors Pre-Calc
AP Calc BC
AP Stats
AP Multivariable
Chemistry
Chemistry
AP Chemistry
Biology
Biology
AP Biology
Physics
Physics
AP Physics C
Computer Science
AP Comp Sci
Economics
AP Economics
Awards
AP Scholar with distinction
Scholar Athelete
Extra Curriculars
Junior Varisty Basketball team played since 5th grade in school team till 10th grade.
Varsity Golf team(11th and possibly 12th)
Impact Project involving 100+ kids at School district over 18 months.
Wrote and Published two research papers on Data Science
Founded a new club at his high school
Cost Constraints / Budget
None. Prefer private schools and can commit to Early Decision
Schools
Skidmore College
Wesleyan University
Grinnell College
Washington and Lee University
Middlebury College
Carleton College
Dartmouth College
Bates College
Williams College
University of Virginia-Main Campus
Haverford College
Northwestern University
Macalester College
Amherst College
Hamilton College
Vassar College
Claremont McKenna College
Harvey Mudd College
Northeastern University
Brown University
Colby College
Boston College
Hillsdale College
Swarthmore College
Columbia University in the City of New York
Pomona College
Duke University
Rutgers University-New Brunswick
Ohio State University-Main Campus
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Georgetown University
Tufts University
Rice University
Yale University
The University of Texas at Austin
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus
Summary: Lower GPA(unweighted) is due to non A’s received in Freshman(4) and Sophomore(8) while Junior was almost perfect As. Additionally 4/14 non-As were in English as he had the same tough grading teacher freshman through junior.
Biggest concern with shortlisting schools especially, selective private(less than 15% admit rate) ones is the lack of published information on GPA. Additionally how Rigor of secondary school record(Section C7 CDS) is calculated or compared with other kids is also not available publicly.
While understanding the holistic admissions rubric(specifically impact of gpa) would be divine, help in shortlisting/filtering from these schools will be very much appreciated. Apologies in advance if I didnt include details or follow any specific instructions for posting. My first time posting -
Some of the private schools on the list are highly selective and expect both a high GPA and a high SAT/ACT score. Note that some of the private schools on the list do not offer engineering majors.
If you mean “score blind public schools” to say UCs and CSUs, some of the UCs and most of CSUs are likely to admit a student with a 3.66 unweighted GPA.
While it’s true that the UC schools are score blind, most public schools are test optional. There are many great public schools that might be better options than a lot of schools on this list. A 3.66 GPA would make many of them very high reaches. You need to find some match and safety schools.
Most of the schools are your list - almost all of them - are reaches. They are reaches because the vast majority of them have overall acceptance rates below 20-25 percent and because they vast majority of people they admit are in the top 10 percent of their class.
You son’s rigorous course work and ACT score are excellent, but his GPA is low for most of these school. For schools that don’t publish GPA in the CDS you could also look at what percentage of the students they admit are in the top 10 percent and top quarter of their class. A lot of the schools on your list admit 90%+ from the top ten percent. Even though your school doesn’t rank, it sounds like your son is probably not in the top 10% so almost all these schools are reaches.
A couple that stand out to me as possible targets just based on overall stats and acceptance rates are Macalester, Rutgers and maybe Skidmore. I really don’t know much about their CS programs though.
ETA my D24 had a slightly higher GPA (3.75 UW) and somewhat lower test scores (32). She was not looking at CS but her target schools included:
There a lot of schools on your list. Have you done research to see if they are the right “fit”?
Lesson I learn from S24’s process: do not apply to a school without intimate knowledge of what the school has to offer and why if accepted, student will be a good fit for both parties.
Most of these schools will want to know the “why us” and if you can’t answer them, you won’t have a chance.
Edit to say, don’t rule out the UCs since you mentioned his “Non-A” grades were 9th and 10th. It may be worthwhile to calculate his UC GPA and see.
Can you please list ALL of the courses he took already…not just the stem courses. Colleges will look at the rigor of his entire high school schedule regardless of his intended undergrad major.
With a 5 on AP Calc BC and 35 on ACT, your kid is clearly intelligent. Not sure how and why he had so many “non-A” grades. Was he just not motivated at those times?
If my kid has the same profile, I would seriously start a discussion about going to community college for the two years. Assuming he stays motivated, UCLA/Berekely/SD as well as some of the OOS privates are not unrealistic.
For some, it is an excellent recommendation as it opens up a lot of UC possibilities that would not be available out of high school due to GPA. That is, IF the student is interested in that. It is definitely a solid option.
I guess you have not been following the threads here with many angry Bay area parents complaining their high stat kids getting rejected everywhere.
It’s a conversation. I had that conversation with my S24 last year. If you find it shocking community college should be considered as option, I suggest you keep reading.
That makes sense but with such high stats Why wouldn’t he consider going to a four year college and then transferring, if he wants to go UC route. Is it easier to transfer from specific California Community colleges?
It is a very established pathway. Some UCs have guaranteed admission for CC students who meet a very achievable minimum. Even those UCs that don’t participate in TAG often have significantly higher acceptance rates for CC transfer students. High school graduates who wouldn’t get a second look from Berkeley or UCLA have a VERY realistic shot if they take their two years at a CC and apply as a transfer. It is a fairly popular option around here - and it saves a TON of money, if that is a concern (may not be for the OP, but is for many).
I don’t see any UC’s on his list. It doesn’t seem like that’s a goal. Most of the schools on the list are small private schools. There are literally so many private colleges he can get into with those stats.
Your list is very top heavy. Rather than worrying about how these schools look at GPA vs. test scores, your time would be best spent identifying a couple of schools that are both academic and financial safeties where your child can flourish and where they’d be happy to attend. If he applies as CS, I’d say nothing on your list is a true likely, with OSU and Skidmore being the best chances (based on the results of a friend’s child with even higher stats). Also, if looking at Skidmore, you might want to add Union.
Schools that are more GPA friendly (but not small privates) would be RIT, University of Vermont, Colorado State or University of Colorado (both are WUE schools) and Iowa State or University of Iowa. You can plug his stats into the RAI calculator for Iowa State/University and get an immediate answer. With rolling admissions, he can apply this summer and get an acceptance within a week.
Smaller private schools that might be a match are Clarkson, St. Lawrence (CS but no engineering), Union, WPI (test blind, but if GPA goes up 1st semester senior year, they will look at that), and Whitman (CS, no engineering).
Yes I definitely understand the money issue (not mentioned as a concern for OP) but he doesn’t seem interested in UC schools based on the list. So to go to a California Community College to transfer into a UC seems out of left field when there are so many other 4 year options. But who knows, may community college is appealing to him
