US Citizen
Baltimore County, Maryland
Blue Ribbon Public High School
Cost Constraints / Budget: N/A
Intended Major(s): Public Policy, Political Science
GPA, Rank, and Test Scores:
Unweighted HS GPA: 4.0
Weighted HS GPA: 5.68
Class Rank: I think 28 out of 450 (top 7%)
ACT/SAT Scores: ACT 33, SAT 1530
12 AP courses - of the 10 he’s already taken he had a 2 (Spanish), but then 2 were 4’s and the rest were all 5s and he expects to get 5s on his remaining ones.
List your HS coursework:
(Indicate advanced level, such as AP, IB, AICE, A-level, or college, courses as well as specifics in each subject)
English: AP English 12; Creative Writing
Math: (including highest level course(s) completed) AP Calc II AB
Science: *(including which ones, such as biology, chemistry, physics)*AP Envir Science GT Physics; GT Chem; GT Bio;
History and social studies: AP Euro History; AP US Gov’t and Politics; AP Human Geo; AP US History; AP World History; AP Psych
Language other than English: (including highest level completed) AP Spanish 5
Visual or performing arts:
Other academic courses: GT Internship with our US Congressman; Hon Philosophy; Hon Military History
Awards
AP Scholar of Distinction; AP Scholar; Honor Roll; Selected by his school to be nominated for the Jefferson Scholarship (re: UVA)
Extracurriculars
Founder: school’s Red Cross Club; Leadership roles in: Model UN, Student Government, RoChi (Social Studies Honors Society); Active in: Nat’l Honors Society; Varsity Soccer, Varsity Track; Summer work as Head Life Guard; CPR Certified
Essays/LORs/Other
Writing is a strong suit so essays should be pretty good; got a coveted LOR from a teacher who rarely gives them
Likely: U. of Maryland (EA), Ohio State (EA), Penn State (EA), Virginia Tech (EA)
Toss-up: Tulane (EA); Boston College (EA)
Lower Probability: UVA (deciding between EA and ED); U of Michigan (EA)
Budget - N/A - not applicable (sky’s the limit) or not available (we don’t know)?
Given the typical standard formula’s of +0.5 for Honors and +1.0 for AP, not sure how a weighted 5.68 happens (typical range is 4.0-5.0) - but given the 4.0 unweighted, clearly your student has done very well.
Just given the EA acceptance rates for Tulane and BC, I would move those to Lower Probability. Your student has all the qualifications of the typical students of those schools but it’s tough to tell.
Tough to tell exactly but would think UVA applying ED would be “likely”.
Obviously, the weighting is heavier than the assumed method above. Since each high school can weight differently, weighted GPA tends to have little meaning without knowing the weighting system.
I might quibble with some of the categorizations, but overall that seems like a really solid list to me.
Did you consider William & Mary? Obviously it is fine if you did and eliminated it, but they are a particularly good school for such interests, and at least to some people feel more like a private than the usual public.
Definitely apply to all the Honors Colleges at your likelies.
I’d move UVA to a toss up/match and move Tulare&BC to low reach (possible b cause he’s got all the qualifications they’d need but must be considered unlikely because of the low acceptance rate).
Why VTech and not William&Mary?
No DC university beside G’town (AU, GWU)?
I think no W&M just to drive mom crazy
He didn’t like the lack of a campus feel at the other DC schools - I thought they’d be a great match for him but we did a tour of GW and walked around American and he didn’t like either.
Thank you. N/A as in we are in a very privileged place where we will make it work if the school is a good fit for him and he loves it.
As for the weighted - I just put what his school’s weighted grade is - I don’t know how they calculate that though.
5.68 is meaningless and will only give you false hope
I only know of one school that uses a scale higher than 5.0
So you need to recalculate your GPA
You can look at each school you are applying to website and see if they list a formula
or to get a general idea add 1 point for college level classes in core subjects plus FL and .5 point to honors
this will give you a general idea of where your GPA stands
But look at website for exact formula which should be similar ie. some count more things in core or only certain DE etc
If you are applying UC’s or Georgia don’t add extra weight to Honors
Some schools will say they use unweighted GPA but at the schools you are looking at they account for rigor they just don’t tell us their formula to do this
So are you able and willing full pay for example University of Miami is over 90K a year now
or will you need Financial aid and merit to attend if you do you need to run the net price calculator for each school to see if it is feasible financially
You need to really know these two things before moving forward
