<p>a good friend of mine has a 2.7 gpa (3.8 weighted) and a 25 on the ACT. His freshman year was pretty much all Cs, but soph/junior year was pretty much As and Bs. He is in IB with me. Do you think he has a strong shot at some public state schools, like maybe University of Illinois (Urbana champaign), or UC-San Diego, or Michigan State? Any other suggestions would be good. He is URM.</p>
<p>well since IB is tough, maybe, he looses nothing with trying so he should try, plus he’s a URM, he should retake the ACT if he has time,
recs,essays and ECs play a big role too</p>
<p>At UCSD, to take one example, 100% of freshmen entering in 2009 ranked in the top 10% of their HS classes; the average GPA was 3.96 (source: UCSD Common Data Set). So no, I don’t think someone with a 2.7 GPA has much of a shot at top out-of-state public universities.</p>
<p>If he wants to go out of state, he’ll have better luck with private schools, which typically place more emphasis on ECs and essays. They may also attach more weight to IB courses, grade trends, and URM status. Check out the Colleges That Change Lives list.</p>
<p>Will he even be able to afford an OOS college? Full pay?</p>
<p>not fulll pay. maybe room and board and a little tuition.</p>