A 3.6 junior year is an improvement, but not for reaches. I don’t know the OP’s academic calendar, but students here have been back in school for 2 weeks, so I’m guessing many have a 4.0 with no grades yet. Who is to say there will be a 4.0 by graduation.
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Agreed and given what OP wants to do in life, a name brand isn’t necessary at all.
A PG year is a huge investment - money, time, lost earnings.
If it’s right for someone, great.
But does the student or parent want an additional year of pre college ?
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I just don’t see how PG year help OP. Like others said, there are tons of student getting 4.0 10AP 1600 SAT got rejected by IVY+ every year. How is improving GPA by 1 year in boarding school makes any different? Dartmouth acceptance rate is 5.3%. Most students applied there are having W4.0 and above. With 3.1 GPA, we are talking the chance of less than 1% here. Even with 1 more year of 4.0 GPA, we may be talking 1.5% acceptance rate for OP…
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It would help him by putting him in a situation where he might receive “fair consideration” as opposed to right now, where he is likely to find himself in the “auto-reject” pile.
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He mentioned he was on the rowing team. Perhaps a BS with strong rowing ( if he has the potential) may benefit him more than anything else.
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If you really are drawn to schools like Dartmouth, here is a list of less rejective schools that have some things in common with it – in terms of things like vibe, location, and/or setting. (Others, please feel free to add to this.)
- Colgate
- Colby
- Bucknell
- Lafayette
- Franklin & Marshall
- Trinity (CT)
- Union
- St. Lawrence
- Hobart & William Smith
- Allegheny
- Wheaton, MA
- Ithaca
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OP should consider the more realistic list above. A B+ average in 11th after a dismal 9th and 10th, even with a high SAT, is just not gonna work for Dartmouth, ED or not.
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Colby acceptance rate is sub 7%, Colgate’s -13%
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Right – I listed them in (roughly) descending order of selectivity. Colby and Colgate obviously would be high reaches.
Instead of a PG year, OP could attend a solid college next year, do very well, and then try for reach schools as a transfer student. If he gets in as a transfer, great, if not, he’s still at a solid school.
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The upside of a PG year (potentially) is…he can apply with a higher GPA and get in to a better school than he’s likely to get into at present. His current UW GPA is 3.1. If he gets two semesters of 4.0 that goes up, probably to about 3.3? Still not Dartmouth level but definitely better and could open some doors that would otherwise be closed to him.
The next upside is that the OP has two years of improved GPA, with the second “good” year being substantially higher than the first “good” year. This probably won’t get him in to Dartmouth either but should help improve his outcome since he’s aiming for a “prestigious” school. Two years helps more than one. And a year of 4.0 helps a lot more than a year of 3.6.
A third upside is being able to leverage the knowledge and relationships of the counselors at Choate/Exeter or wherever he goes. These people know what they are doing. They will be able to help him identify the schools with the highest level of “prestige” that he is likely to be able to attain. Will that be Dartmouth? Probably not. But will it be “more prestigious” than what he’s likely to get if he applies this year. Almost definitely yes.
I say he’s an ideal candidate for this because he can afford it and it can improve his “prestige” outcome, even though it probably still won’t lead to a Dartmouth acceptance. For a lot of people taking the extra year would not be worth it. And it may not be worth it to the OP. But it can definitely help him land one step higher on the prestige ladder, if that’s what he wants.
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Or- another scenario- this student has his first meeting with his college counselor next October, when he has no GPA at all from the boarding school. None yet. So the list looks like Dartmouth- still a reach, Skidmore, U VM, Hamilton, Colby, Bates, etc.
No boarding school college counselor is going to shove aside the other seniors to make room for a PG senior who is trying to bring up his GPA.
Just being realistic. I think your scenario is possible but not likely.
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And, Exeter, Choate etc are unlikely to accept the OP as most PG spots are reserved for athletes, or kids Yale, say, has identified that they want, but feel that the student needs an extra year. (I am not making this up, it happened at Hotchkiss). These types of schools really aren’t available to kids with low GPAs just so they can bring them up, that is not what a school like Choate needs.
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ED to Dartmouth if you want to… but like I said earlier…submit your other applications as well. If you get accepted ED, then you can withdraw the others. But you won’t be a happy camper completing applications after an ED rejection, if that is what happens.
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This makes so much more sense to me than doing PG for a year.
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I second the suggestion to approach this as an essay topic in a different way.
I don’t mean to sound rude, but you’re not the only person who went through a hard time during the pandemic. When an admissions officer reads you talking about ‘existential depression,’ they’re going to think 'mental health problems, they might not be able to handle it here since our coursework & the students here are intense, plus this student’s GPA isn’t very high, so maybe we’ll defer this applicant and then say no thanks."
Also, the whole “started multiple companies and they failed because of my existential depression trying to figure out what the meaning of life is” sort of screams economic privilege.
I don’t think you should ED to Dartmouth. I think they’ll reject you. But if you really want to give it a shot, go ahead, but expect it to be a no.
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To be clear, I don’t think a PG year will help with Dartmouth. But since OP was thinking of Boston College as a fallback and BC is also highly unlikely, one full year of good grades senior year (even another full year of As&A-s) would solidify the fact 9-10th grade with the C/C+ average no longer applies and the 3.6 was the beginning of a solid upward trend: a college like Babson, Bentley, Trinity CT, Fordham become within reach, SUNY Albany, Rutgers, Penn State, ASU Barrett are real possibilities vs. Cal State Sonoma, Chico, East Bay.
A PG year opens more options.
Of course OP always has the terrific CC → UC option! And it could be a more cost-effective pathway.
I guess you can say the PG year is a more expensive CC → UC alternative where a solid private college replaces the UC.
(And OPs parents may well consider it’s the best pathway financially speaking).
Being able to row for one more year would also matter physically, if OP were interested in rowing D3 in college.
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That’s what I was thinking when the chatter about a 5th year of high school took over this thread. With the CC->UC pathway, the OP can move on to college instead of being a held-back high school student for another year. If the OP continues the upward trend in college, that will allow leaving the high school record behind when applying as a junior transfer to a UC.
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Another perspective is that a PG year at an East Coast boarding school typically is much more socially acceptable than attending a CC for an upper class student/family/environment (keeping in mind “distinction” as in doing sth distinguishing from other socio economic groups, is a defining feature for upper class.)
It may be different in California due to the extensive network of CCs and the real pathway UCs represent.
PG years are not seen negatively, but as a launching pad to help the kid land at the “right” college (socially) when their current situation doesn’t allow them to - less common than for an athlete who needs maturing academically/athletically but still quite a robust endeavor for BS.
(I would stay away from “obvious”/M10 boarding schools, it’s not what their PG year is about. One tier down would be right.)
Whatever OP&family choose, if OP does well, both possibilities would provide OP with more opportunities than his current 3.1 (with a 3.6 junior year).
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I definitely agree with this statement. But, the PG year is very unlikely to give OP enough of a boost to get into Dartmouth, or even Boston College. It will likely expand opportunity, but not to that level. So, if OP wants to go that route it should be with the understanding that Dartmouth is still basically off the table, and that the purpose of the PG is to increase the odds at other schools.
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