Late blooming GPA

reidm
Sun, 24 Oct 2004 13:37:09 +0000

Curmudgeon has the best advice for you. Where you can (interviews, essays, cover letters) you should emphasize the positives (your interests in humanities and social science courses, your strong upward GPA trend, your 690 SAT Verbal score) in your application.

Two other thoughts. . .enlist the aid of your school counselor, both in identifying some good schools for you and even more importantly, generating good, on-message recommendations. Recommendations can be important at LACs, and if they reflect and amplify the positives in your application material it could go a long way. Also, it will help you to visit and interview at schools you are interested in. That can be time-consuming and expensive, but do what you can to get to the schools you are most interested in and have a decent chance of acceptance.

I almost hate to make this suggestion, but something to consider. . .strong SAT II or AP scores could bolster your case, though it is getting a little late in the game for registering and studying for them. (Late registration deadline for SAT IIs is Nov 10 for an early December test date.) 600+ scores on SAT IIs and AP 4s and 5s would be nice additions to your application. But you need to make sure you could do well on any tests you select, by trying some practice tests from review books and talking with your teachers. Finally, don’t do this if this would take too much time away from your regular studying. You need to keep your current semester grades the #1 priority, especially given your current GPA.

Not sure if location means anything, but assuming an eastern one, here are some very good LACs that would be matches or slight reaches for you. Several of them are profiled in books by Loren Pope: College of Wooster, Muhlenberg, Knox, Allegheny, Goucher and Hope. Luther College in Iowa would also be worth a look.