<p>I don’t think being from NOVA is a big disadvantage at all… 48 kids from my school got into UVA last year. This class is simply the top of the bubble and there are a lot of students applying for a limited amount of spots this year. I don’t think the difficulty of getting into college now is limited in any way to NOVA and in-state schools, but to the country as a whole.</p>
<p>As for the student in the article, he had a low GPA with high SAT scores. I really don’t think colleges like to see this because it shows that a student is smart but they don’t work as hard. He might not have done an effective job of conveying his reasons for the low grades his first two years. I don’t think this one example at all demonstrates what applying to college is like in NOVA in general.</p>
<p>That kid (from the article) must have a pretty inflated opinion of himself. Woop-de-doo I got a 2270 and NMS as well, that doesn’t make me an automatic acceptance anywhere decent. One has to fill out the rest of their application nicely, and that includes writing good essays and showing that your ECs mean more to you than just one more item on the list. I can’t say I buy the whole fantasy story writer thing either … if he was actually any good and sent in an example of his work, he probably wouldn’t have been denied all those places. I hate it when communities believe that they have some genius and then, when their “genius” falls, they go and exaggerate all of his qualities to make it look like the colleges made the mistake. Sorry about the rantiness, but I’ve seen this junk one too many times.</p>
<p>i think this shows how much colleges look at your entire gpa, including freshman and sophomore years, although junior year is stressed especially.</p>