Low GPA w/ Hard Course Load and High SAT. Chance me?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

I’m a classic lazy student with B’s but smart enough to make it seem like I know what I’m doing. Also an asian male living an affluent area in Virginia, so I definitely have no hooks.

Test Scores:
1530/1600 SAT w/ 20 essay
34 ACT
800 SAT Math 2
760 SAT Chem
Commended National Merit Scholar

AP courses have a +1 weight and honors have +0.5
Cumulative W GPA: 3.5 (I’m too scared to try to calculate my UW GPA)
Junior Year W/UW GPA: 4.1/3.2

I went to top 10 school in the country my freshman and sophomore year. Most of the courses had automatic honors 0.5 weighting even if they were the “regular” options. My grades were pretty bad as my work ethic was on and off. No APs were taken, but I did self study for AP World History and AP Environmental Science my sophomore year to earn 4s. Even though it was a hard school, grades were still really bad compared to the rest of the school.

I transferred to my base school for my last two years of high school, which is still pretty competitive, albeit much less than the magnet school.
Junior Year Courses (AP scores if applicable):
Unweighted Physics
AP Chemistry (3)
AP Calc AB (5)
AP Comp Sci (5)
AP Macro/Micro (3/5)
AP Language and Comp. (3)
AP US History (5)

Senior Year Courses:
AP US Government
AP Biology
Unweighted Debate
AP Literature
AP Statistics
AP Physics C M
AP Calculus BC

A lot of my ECs were messed up since I transferred schools midway through high school. If I stayed, I would of had multiple leadership positions. Hopefully colleges notice that.
ECs:
Current chess club secretary. Helped old school’s chess team to 1st place finish in state tourney freshman and sophomore year. Lead current school’s chess team to 2nd place from 11th place finish the previous year.
Founder and president of a generic non-profit that teaches chess to elementary school students on weekends with a bunch of other chess players in the area
Worked at Kumon junior and senior year
Internship at the Center for Construction Training and Research over the summer(basically helped conduct research but didn’t really do any research)
Some club memberships like Young Democrats, Key Club, Environmental Club etc.

Essays: 9/10. I think my writing was phenomenal for the common app essay, but the topic was somewhat generic as I talked about how I was bedridden by an unknown illness when I was young and how that motivated me to self learn and challenge myself. Disease is a somewhat cliche topic. Supplements were either great or close. Main supplement essay that is a one-size-fits-all type of essay was about my love of reading, which is also somewhat cliche, but true.

Recs: 8 or 9/10. I asked my CS and physics teacher write my recs. Both are stellar writers, but I could have done better in improving my relationship with them. For physics, I finished my work fast and went around helping everybody out, which I’m sure she noticed. However, there were too many instances where I turned in HW late (whoops). For CS, she loved me since I basically did my work and came after school to help everybody else out. I didn’t interact too much with her besides asking questions on other’s behalf, but I did fill out a brag sheet for her though.

I’m applying to schools either as a CS major, biology major or undecided. My essays/supplements suggested that I am interested in bioinformatics. My real career interests are CS (no surprise) and/or policy making (figured this out late last year). The school I will ideally go to would have good programs in CS, math-based economics and political science; and would allow me to explore my interests. Good premed programs are a plus to convince my parents.

Ivies are a complete no lol but please chance me for some of the below schools that are mostly reaches and maybe suggest a few others that are safer. I would prefer to be in a state that isn’t below Virginia in terms of latitude since I love cold weather, but I’ll welcome all schools. Financial aid is a concern to me since I’m planning to go to grad school straight after college and will have two other siblings in college by my 4th year in college. I don’t want to put too much of a strain on my parents.
I probably should have asked this before I applied to some of these EA but whatever:

EA (already applied):
Northeastern (dream school considering my GPA)
Wisconsin-Madison
Rutgers
UMD-College Park

Everybody else (Virginia schools are in-state):
UVA
VTech
VCU Honors College
W&M
Emory
Rice (have a fee waiver given to boost selectivity. Am still applying despite that lol)
Case Western (have shown interest besides visiting and there is no application fee)
Maybe Colby since they have free-ish apps, but we’ll see
TBD

Thanks in advance if you managed to get through everything!

2

Your stats are a lot better than you think! Your SAT/ACT scores are really high, so your “low” GPA won’t even matter that much. You took all of the hardest AP classes and still got a 3.5 GPA? That’s impressive. You have great chances of getting into those colleges, so don’t even stress about it. And besides, even if you don’t get into your dream school, all of those AP credits will help graduate from college faster and save you tons of money.

3

The 3.5 is weighted though. I looked at the GPA ranges for a bunch of schools and 3.5 is usually one of the lowest weighted GPAs.

4

B

5

Last bump, I swear

6

I disagree with the previous poster. GPA is very important at top schools. Your test scores may by a little higher but a 32 ACT with a 4.0 weighted would be about the same. So would like a 4.5 weighted and a 30 ACT.

We need your UW GPA. It is more important. No one can give you real chances without it. If you had a 2.2 UW GPA, you most likely would get into very few of the schools listed.

Also, how’d you get a fee waiver at rice? I thought those are need based.

Have you thought of Vanderbilt? I’ve heard they’re extremely test heavy.

Do you have a budget? You say affluent family, but your EFC with two siblings in college will drop dramatically giving you a financial edge needs met schools

7

It’s most likely slightly above 3 at 3.1ish give or take. 1 since most of my classes as an underclassmen had B’s.

8

First impression when reading your list, WOW, impressive stats especially AP’s and test scores.
Second impression, will the colleges worry that you may slack off when on your own in college?
Third impression, sense from your concern about your parents having money for your siblings shows maturity.
I’m very impressed with you overall. You seem to be a student who may want to apply to many colleges, but I’m guessing you will get into some pretty good schools.
Don’t let the things you don’t do well, affect the thing’s you do, do well.