<p>Okay, so I’ve got a kind of weird problem that’s been bothering me. I’m an African American male from Texas applying to mostly top liberal arts colleges and a couple larger universities, like Pomona, Amherst, Northwestern, WUSTL, Carleton, etc. The thing that’s been bothering me is that I have a really large gap between my test scores and my GPA, and I’m worried that it will affect me negatively in admissions decisions. My SAT scores are 2070 (660 M, 730 CR, 680 W, 9 essay) and 2310 (710 M, 800 CR, 800 W, 12 essay) and my ACT is 32 (36 English, 30 Math, 33 Reading, 30 Science, 10 essay). All of those were done with no prep. My GPA, however, is a 3.53 UW/3.7 W, or something along those lines. As you can see, there’s obviously a pretty big gap between them. So my question is, how does this reflect on me to adcoms? I’m worried that it’ll make me look like just a smart but lazy kid who didn’t put much effort into his schoolwork, which isn’t true; I go to a very challenging and competitive school and have very strong, dedicated ECs. So how will this come off?</p>
<p>I would not call that a gap … depending on the competitiveness of your HS that may be perfectly in alignment with your school. Colleges will look at you relative to your high school profile and how you compared relative to those students. At a high school that is top notch that prepares kids to go to highly selective colleges, your GPA may make sense, as all the top 50% may be capable of 4.0 GPA’s a other high schools, which seems to be your case. Colleges will realize this and will look at your GPA knowing you have been more than adequately prepared for challenging college coursework. </p>
<p>You can use a few online tools to estimate your changes at your list of colleges (■■■■■■■■■■, parchment.com and there are others). You can also search the common data sets for these schools and compare your stats to those of admitted students over the last few years. The schools that your GPA and SAT and ACT scores in the middle 50% (25 to 75th percentile) are the schools that will give you the best chance. Once you are in the running on the stats, then the colleges will look at your ECs and leadership and other attributes that make their college what it is as a student body. </p>
<p>Good luck … if a college passes you over, then they will miss out and you’ll pick the school that appreciates what your bring to their campus. Don’t forget to also have not only a safety, but a financial safety or two on your list that you would want to attend. The list of schools you are showing are highly selective, so even when your stats match, it is never a sure thing.</p>
<p>Your GPA is actually pretty solid… Does your school rank, and if yes, do you know your rank? That might be a more reliable indicator of how your academic performance will look to adcoms. In any case, your test scores, especially your SAT–I wouldn’t bother submitting the ACT if I were you, if I could avoid it, because your SAT superscore is much better–will probably stand you in very good stead in admissions. Carleton has had some trouble attracting high-performing* minority students for some reason, and Amherst is known for its earnest commitment to diversity, so I think these two may pay extra attention to your application. Again, though, your class rank, if any, is an important piece of the puzzle. Good luck!</p>
<p>*high-performing in terms of standardized testing, which is admittedly a very narrow definition of high performance</p>