Thought I’d post some detail on my kid’s results because of the lopsided application and because I’ve seen how “Chance me” threads take 2 seemingly contradictory directions: students with a low overall GPA are told they need a good standardized test score to validate an upward trend in gpa, but then also kids with a low GPA and good score are told “you can’t expect a good score to outweigh low gpa”. C26 has below middle 50 gpa for most schools they applied to but near or above 75th percentile SAT (and at or above for all specific schools within the colleges). Below is their journey, what worried us most, and some thoughts about what we inferred from where C26 was and wasn’t awarded merit.
If you want to skip the rest the summary is: poor grades in one period don’t define you, a transcript that is a little messy can be overcome, but you need to show colleges why you deserve consideration in spite of that. A good score can at least partly offset low GPA. Be realistic with your college list, but don’t be afraid to throw in a reach or two.
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School choice was constrained by geographic preference and availability of desired major (4 year architecture degree). With the constraints of overall GPA, this pretty much limited the list to OOS publics (CA resident). Thought the list was mostly targets but hard to know with architecture. One reach (UIUC), though the one collegevine had as the least likely admit was Pitt with ~25% chance. No second choices listed - it was architecture or bust. When we started the journey kid had their heart set on Boulder, but I was worried because someone on CC with similar GPA (though I believe TO) was deferred from EA then waitlisted for the same course there the previous year.
“Chance me” stats etc:
- HS said to submit weighted academic gpa from transcript = 3.4.
- SAT 1500 (740V/760M, one and done).
- Awards - National merit commended scholar, a few state and one national Latin awards, high school arts distinction, CSF sealbearer (latter not finalized at time of application though)
- Average ECs - kid just did what interested them rather than “building a resume”, but when they put them together for the common app realized that they mostly told a cohesive story of creativity and deep interest in STEAM through the years. No leadership positions, but some responsibility - STEAM camp counselor, babysitting
- Teacher rec - physics teacher (junior & senior year) - from feedback we got from teacher expect this was very good
- Essays - I’d say good, but not outstanding
Long explanation for context of ADHD and effect on rigor/classes here that you can skip if not interested or not relevant to you: Counselor explained low freshman grades/late ADHD diagnosis in counselor letter. We got mixed advice about whether or not to use the additional info section on common app for this as well but as 2 of the common app schools did not accept rec letters we decided it was best to have this info there too. Brief explanation along the lines of: this was the issue, this is how it has been resolved, you can see results since then to validate. After ADHD diagnosis near end of freshman year, they were placed into an IEP. One of my transcript concerns was that the IEP required a “learning skills” class that took the place of an elective in sophomore and junior year (moved off IEP end of junior year). Another was C26 insisted on 2 VPA electives senior year (along with 4 core academic subjects + compulsory gym class) whereas I felt they should have “caught up” on a missed academic elective, especially as they had only done 2 years of LOTE. Final concern, was a D- in one semester of freshman history - grade recovery via summer school (to A), but both grades listed on transcripts obviously. In short - a messy and not ideal transcript in a few ways.
That said, it did have the right trend: GPA went from below 3 in freshman year to around 3.8 in junior year. Rigor of 1 advanced, 2 honors and 3 APs (mostly math and sciences, backloaded - all APs and one honors taken in senior year) below average for competitive Bay Area high school -IEP focused on improving grades first before adding rigor (context: school does not allow AP or honors for freshmen). One thing that gave us some hope when applying was how colleges talked about trends in grades, and that (bearing in mind C26 was not aiming at elites) suggestions that actual GPA outcomes were somewhat favored over rigor. Two examples below that led us to this thinking:
- UIUC: “We recommend taking the most challenging course work available at your high school, provided you can be successful. Grades earned later in your high school career have more of an impact on your admission decision than grades earned freshman year, and in-progress coursework is also evaluated, so continue to work hard and take challenging classes your senior year.”
- Boulder: “Please note: a challenging schedule will not outweigh a non-competitive GPA, as your grades ultimately remain the single most important factor in your admission decision. Additionally, any grades of D or F on your transcript—especially in your junior or senior year—would be cause for concern and should be addressed in your application”
Still… at schools with many tens of thousands of applicants you never know how closely AOs are really going to look at the details.
Results
I’ve included high school context from Maia (although C26 was mostly an outlier in the lower right quadrant on the charts so that somewhat limited its direct usefulness). Because of uncertainty about architecture admit rate vs overall, we didn’t consider anything a safety except ASU. (Also had an effective second safety via the community college route, where there are well-defined pathways for architecture in California.)
- ASU (safety, rolling)- admitted - $15500 merit per year. Transparent merit calculator showed SAT added $3500 per year to merit - they may be test optional but SAT pays handsomely. Didn’t look at high school context as auto admit on stats.
- Pitt (rolling, target/maybe low reach) - admitted (in just under 3 weeks, in line with many on CC). The quick admit was a bit of a surprise given collegevine low chancing, though it did look more of a target on Maia. No merit yet & not expecting any. School context: small sample but typically 80-90% admit rate from our high school vs 58% published. The few denials all had much lower SAT than C26.
- UIC (target, EA) - admitted with merit (exact amount yet to come but “over $8000” p.a.). The merit was a surprise as we’d read on Reddit that UIC is not very forthcoming with merit. Have to assume SAT was important here as GPA was around the 25th percentile. School context - none, no applications on Maia in prior years.
- Boulder (target, EA) - admitted. No merit - looking at others on CC who were awarded, the low GPA dinged here. The vast majority we saw with merit had lower SAT, sometimes by quite a bit, but all had GPA significantly higher. School context: very popular option at our school, typically 85-90%+ admit rate from our high school vs 76% published. No-one with C26’s SAT has been denied, though a number with higher GPA have (assume for engineering?)
- UMN (target, EA) - deferred. Bottom of the list anyway because competitive secondary admission to major was always going to be an issue if had other good options (and the gopher creeps C26 out!). School context: small sample but typically 80-90% admit rate from our high school, vs 80% published.
- UIUC (reach, EA) - admitted! This one was really unexpected. They value strong math performance for architecture applicants so presume that helped along with SAT. Not expecting any merit. School context: admit rate (small sample) typically 60-70%, vs 36% published.
- No rejections
Bottom line: a successful round showing that colleges do look at trends in GPA, that they take into account the reasons you give them for poor grades, that SAT can indeed at least partly make up for lower GPA, and that essays & letters of recommendation matter. Also noting that our high school typically does better than average admit rates at these schools, I assume that school reputation helped some.
A last note… I also wanted to mention C26’s summer program experience. Often, when people ask about these on CC the responses talk about “selectivity” being important and diss “pay to play”. Maybe if you’re aiming top tier that’s something to think about but for us it was worth every cent even as a “first come first served” program. An intensive month spent in a college architecture environment (6 days a week, lots of studio, lectures on one day a week going till 9pm) was invaluable in confirming that this was what they want to do, and it also gave them solid material to talk about in the “why this major” essays. Tbh, I have no idea what C26 could have answered in the first UIUC supplemental without this experience, and it formed an integral part of the others.
Now we have some visits to do and C26 has decisions to make! This is light years away from the end of freshman year when we were thinking community college might be their only option… it’s been a journey, and we are very proud of our comeback kid. Also want to thank those on CC (it’s been a while and I don’t remember who exactly) who helped with coming up with a suitable list of colleges to consider.
Happy to answer any questions…left out a lot of details as the post was already pretty long.
I am very happy for your daughter 
so many great choices 