Potential top tier student or inflated ego?

Applying to College
1

Hi,

I’m looking for an opinion on whether or not I qualify for top tier colleges…
So as the time to apply to colleges is nearing my insecurities inflate. I have always taken rigorous AP classes inside and outside of school and piled on extracurriculars and academic awards left and right…but my (unweighted) GPA…well…

Ninth grade year I took AP Human Geography, AP Art History, Algebra 1 Honors, Math Analysis Honors, Biology Honors, Latin 1 Honors, P.E, English 1 Honors, Spanish II Honors. I passed both my APs, passed all my classes with As and Bs ranked #17 out of 532 students, and took two more classes than the rest of my peers.

Tenth grade year I took AP European History, AP World History, AP Psychology, Geometry Honors, English II Honors, Culinary, Chemistry Honors…this is when things went downhill…I struggled horribly in Chemistry, I even failed second semester.(I got As and Bs otherwise) Thinking it wouldn’t hurt my GPA too badly I didn’t take any classes over the summer to mend the damage.

Eleventh grade year was rocky. I took AP U.S History, AP Macroeconomics, AP Studio Art, AP Environmental Science, AP English Language and Composition, Physics Honors, Art Criticism Honors, Algebra II Honors, Anatomy & Physiology Honors. First Semester messed up my GPA even more because my mom became very ill and I missed weeks of school at a time. Second Semester I rebounded very well and returned to my normal A and B status’, and even agreed with my teachers that they would fix my first semester grades due to the circumstances I was in.

Nonetheless my GPA is at a 2.8 unweighted!

It’s not the lowest its ever been but it sure is low… I was cautioned that my GPA will be recalculated over the summer but there’s no actual way it’s going to miraculously jump to a 3.5 or a 3.7

My weighted GPA is much better and I wonder if I could just use that to apply to colleges?

My classes have always been rigorous and I have various leadership roles within school. I’m VP of National Art Honor Society and Junior State of America. An urgent action officer for Amnesty International. Co-Founder of Photography club. And I won 5th place in a national European Economic tournament (the EuroChallenge).

Outside of school I’ve volunteered at a local nursing home. I also hosted/created a Charity Fashion show for breast cancer awareness month and raised over +300 articles of clothing. I created a program in Khartoum, Sudan which I go to over the summer and educate and empower young women to achieve their full potential. The Charity Fashion show and Empowerment Center were of my doing, there was no organization that gave me the blueprint on how to start these programs, I did it from scratch (not to brag, I’m trying to convey that I have more going on for me other than my GPA)

I won the country literary fair, the county science fair, and a congressional art competition.

My baseline SAT Score was 1780 and I’m planning to retake it in October and have been studying and gotten tutored. My goal score is 2100. I took two SAT Subject tests Literature (530) and U.S History (650). I will not take the ACT.

Do I have a shot at institutions such as University of Chicago, Vanderbilt, or Barnard? Or am I aiming too high?

2

Your stats indicate that such schools are pretty much out of reach. You need to set your sights lower to more realistic options.

3

Thank you.

4

Read the thread in College Search & Selection called Being Realistic - When Your Matches are also Reaches.

Realistically you should be looking at schools in the second tier, which still is a good place to be.

5

Thank you! I’m not opposed to second tier colleges like Syracuse or University of Miami…

6

Syracuse maybe, I doubt Miami but you can try.

Your list needs to have schools where your stats are in the middle 50% and more importantly some where you are in the top 25%. Also you need to target schools with at least a 50% admit rate.

Where are you from? Your state schools would be a good place to start.

7

I’m in Florida, that’s why I mentioned University of Miami. They accept locals easily.

8

Your SAT scores are in the bottom 25% and 79% of Miami students had GPA of 3.75 and above.

9

If you want a smaller liberal arts college, you might be within range for New College, and they are affordable for FL students.

10

You don’t get to choose this. Colleges either use weighted, or unweighted, or they recalculate it on their own.

Any chance you’re a URM? Not that it will make that big a difference, but it would make some.

UMiami is a private school, so it doesn’t offer in-state preference the way many publics do.

BatesParent means state schools like Florida State, UCF, FIU, etc.

11

My weighted GPA is a 4.4 and yes I am a URM
And thank you that clarifies what BatesParent means now

12

A 2.8 unweighted GPA with a 4.4 weighted GPA just means that your high school has a very exaggerated weighting system. While there may be a few colleges that accept whatever weighted GPA they see on the high school transcript, it is likely that most of the more selective schools will either recalculate GPA with their own weighting method or just holistically look at the courses and grades, either of which will look more like a 2.8 than a 4.4.

13

My high school calculates weighted gpa throughout the school year but they calculate unweighted gpa only once at the end of the year towards summer, hence they’re never in sync until our senior year.

14

In picking realistic schools, you need to work with what you’ve got, not what what your goal is. That your subject test scores are in line with your SAT scores would indicate that a huge increase in future SAT is unlikely.

15

I am sorry but a 2.8 is REALLY low for any top tier school. Heck a 3.8 is low for a top tier school. If you can’t even average a B in high school then you shouldn’t even try to go to a top university.

16

Too many lower stats candidates are focused on “can I get in?” and don’t spend enough time considering “once admitted, will I be able to keep up?”

17

If you were my daughter, I would suggest that you read Loren Pope’s “Colleges That Change Lives,” and visit the website. You obviously have “got the goods” as they say. Chem? That’s on you. But missing all those classes last autumn and the ongoing instability you must still live with on a daily basis- a compassionate admissions reader may be able to see that as a inconvenient growth episode and piece a story around it.

Your difficulty is two-fold: Weaving your story so that it can be understood and digested, and convincing yourself and everyone else that you will succeed when you are admitted. I think you have a golden story with your ECs. I think you can tell a story with your grades. Your current SAT II and SAT I scores will shut you out from the top tier. Why not try the ACT? In any case, do whatever it takes to improve your skills and reflect those improvements with standardized test scores.

There are plenty of schools where you would be happy and would thrive. Post #5 gives good advice!

18

Mco1997 kind of awkward how I’ve gotten nothing but A’s and B+'s in my APs and Honors classes but that isn’t reflected in my GPA :slight_smile: I average higher than a B.

19

ItsJustSchool,

Thank you for your response that has been the most insightful. I know it’s a reach to attempt many of these schools and I hope by the time my GPA is recalculated it won’t be TOO bad. I just went on the website for Colleges that Change Lives, thank you again!

20

The Florida public universities all re-compute GPA using the same formula (core classes plus a couple extra upper level electives). That GPA is weighted 1/2 point for Honors and 1 point Dual/IB/AP. This is the GPA they use for admissions purpose - not what your school reports as weighted/unweighted.

If you are a Florida student, you may also see your personal status at https://www.flvc.org/CCRE/hs_accessbf.jsp