I think it’s irrelevant unless you have something of note to explain (reason for a grade dip, Challenging family, circumstances, etc.). Georgia Tech says they are not looking for people that are tangentially involved in tons of extra activities, but to focus on 3 to 5 activities and become heavily involved. I wouldn’t think putting extracurricular stuff in there would be needed, or even desired, in most cases.
I’ve always thought of it as a place to explain life circumstances, like taking care of a needy family member, a negative change in living circumstances, the death of a parent, severe medical situation, etc. I personally don’t think it should be used as “extra space” for more activities.
My daughter just started her freshman year at GT and loves the school. We are OOS. Her stat is very similar to your daughter. She did have a perfect ACT score and was a national merit finalist. My daughter didn’t apply EA. She tried MIT and got waitlisted. :)I think your daughter has a very good chance of getting in. Good luck to you.
My son OOS is planning to apply for BME this fall EA. Goes to Magnate Stats 4.31 W, 1520 SAT, Good Essay, Decent Extras, Ex. Research Intern at Georgetown Lombardi Cancer Center, Research Papers, 200+ Volunteer hours at hospital, Boy Scouts, Debate Mentor What are his chances? 11APS’s including mutltivar.
Out of state Georgia Tech admission will likely be below 10% acceptance rate this year. It is a reach for everyone. Also very difficult to tell without an unweighted GPA. Also difficult to tell without an idea of his class rank. Even when schools don’t rank, the school profile will give a GPA range for various percentile, so Georgia Tech will have a rough estimation. That GPA could be valedictorian at some schools or top 50% at others.
That is not true. Many HSs do not have the staff to put together a school profile. Even if they do, it often has no GPA context on it. Many schools that don’t rank (which is most schools) purposely do not share much in the way of GPA info.
Very interesting. Dean J from UVA shares school profiles with some regularity, and also emphasizes how important it is in the analysis. When we met with the UVA alumni office with our high school students - a service they give to children of alumni - they required a current transcript and a school profile. The school profiles I have seen all follow a standardized format, which includes a GPA breakdown, usually by decile, and the number of students at that GPA.
I’m not saying most HSs don’t have a school profile but plenty don’t (those without tend to be less advantaged schools with high student counselor ratios.) There is no standardized format, so the ones that do exist run the gamut from barely any info to best demonstrated practice. Getting back to the point many schools don’t share much in the way of GPA…and remember, the GPA is the graduating GPA (so full 8 semesters) from the prior year’s class. Some schools share median GPA, some mid-50%, some deciles. Many schools are very facile at obfuscating student relative standing. Some schools don’t even put a GPA on the transcript, let alone publish GPA ranges.
Thanks. That was what I thought. If a school does not rank for a reason there is no way they will provide enough information for others to calculate an estimated ranking.
That said, colleges might still use historical data they have from the area or school district to estimate a rank.
Well, that is definitely not true. My high school does not rank and never has, but issues a school profile in deciles. My children’s high school does not rank, but also issues a school profile in deciles. This is true of a lot of schools. I’m sure this is something that falls through the cracks at some schools, but it is a key component for college admissions offices being able to decipher GPAs and compare them from school to school. A 4.27 GPA is meaningless unless you know the context and the school profile provides the context. I’ll look and see if I can find the series that Dean J from UVA did on this
That’s the thing though, many AOs/admission processes do not compare applicants across schools. Applicants are only compared within their HS cohort, and obviously AOs would know all the GPAs of the applicants from that HS. At the school where I read apps we don’t recalculate GPA so could never compare across schools even if we wanted to, which we don’t.
And this is a school profile for Andover. A lot of the big boarding schools like Andover, Choate, Exeter, etc. all publish these. Very easy to decipher approximate class rank. Most schools do not make it public, but some do and you can find a lot of information by just googling the school name and school profile. https://www.andover.edu/files/SchoolProfile2023-2024.pdf
Schools that don’t make it public do send to colleges with counselor letter typically. Very easy to ask your counselor to share with you if you are curious where your applicant stands
That’s exactly why the school profile is important. It gives you context for the GPA within that particular school. Dean J goes into that in her blog.
By comparing them from school to school, I mean a 4.27 may be at the very top of the class at one school but it could be top 50th percentile at another school. The school profile will let you know that. And with a school profile, you know that one kid is at the very top of his class, the strongest level at the school, and the other kid is a middle of the road student.
In our school report to colleges, there is a section on GPA percentages of our previous high school class of 2024. For example, UW GPA 3.80-4.0 (xxx%), 3.6-3.79% (xxx%)… So, although our HS doesn’t rank, the colleges will know by comparing the applicant’s GPA to our school report to get an idea of where the applicant stands.
Thank you so much for the reply. His unwieghted gpa is 3.76. He has 4 years of Latin
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