<p>Hi guys, so I have a very low unweighted gap, 3.24, but did well on the sat, 2170. Although I have a low gpa i did take a lot of honors classes at my school, which is known for having tough honors.
Freshmen year: honors math
Sophomore: Honors math, Honors chem, Honors programming, Honors french
Junior: AP chem( got a 4 on the AP), Honors precalc, Honors biology, honors advanced programming(took the AP got a 4)
Senior year: AP physics c mechanics and AP physics c E and M (one class), Ap BC Calc, Honors IOS programming
I also took the Sat 2’s and got: 780 chem, 720 math 2
As for extracurriculars, I did swimming competitively throughout high school(11 hours a week full year), but recently quit; however, my times aren’t/weren’t great. I also play piano but do so more as a hobby than anything else. I also got the national hispanic scholar award. I’m interested in engineering, I was wondering what sorts of schools I would have a chance at getting into? I’m currently interested in Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, University of southern california, Georgia tech, university of texas at austin, university of michigan ann arbor, university of Illinois urbana champagne, UCSB, BU, northeastern, northwestern, and university of wisconsin, madison. If there’s any other schools that I should look into I would appreciate it.</p>
<p>How much can your family pay? That GPA and SAT score will get you nice merit-based money at a number of places. Go to the Financial Aid Forum and read through the threads pinned at the top for ideas.</p>
<p>Congrats. That, indeed, is a solid SAT.</p>
<p>Purdue, IIT, Rose Hulman, RIT, Colorado Inst of Mines, maybe Case Western. Your GPA will be your downfall for the more selective ones. And of course – what can you afford (like happymom says above). I’d say Cornell, CMU, NU, UTAustin and UMich are big reaches at this point. GaTech, USC, BU would be tough too.</p>
<p>Money isn’t really an issue, although obviously any financial aid I can get is great. And ok perfect thank you I’ll look into those schools</p>
<p>Do you attend a highly selective HS? Ask your GC or look at Naviance to see where similar students attended.</p>
<p>It’s a public high school so it’s not selective, but it is one of the best in the country (I think it was ranked around 250th in the country). While I can look at naviance the issue is that my weighted gap 4.03, is relatively high compared to my unweighted gpa so its hard to compare myself to most people on naviance. Some colleges may take the unweighed gpa into account more than the weighted.</p>
<p>What has your own guidance counselor told you? That person should be able to help you interpret the Naviance results.</p>
<p>Ok I’ll talk to her and ask. Thanks for the help</p>
Just in case anyone comes across this in the future, just wanted to update. I got into usc, carnegie mellon, uiuc, wpi, rpi, and bu. denied ed from cornell, denied regular from northeastern and ucsb
Just in case anyone comes across this in the future, just wanted to update. I got into usc, carnegie mellon, uiuc, wpi, rpi, and bu. denied ed from cornell, denied regular from northeastern and ucsb
That’s awesome, man! Those are all great schools.
Thanks, yeah I’m really happy with my outcome
Thanks for the update. Congrats on your acceptances. Now which school will you accept?
I have no idea. You can check my post on this for more details lol but I’m basically deciding between usc cmu and uiuc
Congratulations on your good weighted rank in class and on your strong test scores. Now get ready for the bigger game, but don’t be intimidated!
I worked in college admissions for ten years a long time ago. The terminal computer stations were new, but we did a lot of validity studies comparing freshman grade performance as a function of WEIGHTED HS rank (HSRIC) in class, SAT scores, achievement exam scores and unexplained variance. Consistently, year after year, the WEIGHTED HS GPA was a far better predictor of freshman GPA than the SAT scores. The old achievement exams were better predictors than than the SAT scores, but still less than half as important as the HSRIC.
The HSRIC and SAT together only predicted about 50% of the first year performance (leaving 50% NOT explained). In the sophomore year effectiveness of the predictions dropped to about 25% (leaving 75% NOT explained). By the third year of studies, there is no significant relationship between grade performance and HS performance.
Weighted HSRIC reflects, to some degree, the academic rigger of the courses taken. Colleges know this. They also know that schools that send 80% of their students on to four year colleges tend to be more rigorous than schools that send 20% on to four years colleges.
All this means that your college grade performance is predicted by much more than your SAT scores. If your goal is to grow, learn, succeed and to have a positive experience in college, you should make an effort to find the environment which FITS YOU.
I attended and worked at a very selective engineering college. One grand-niece recently graduated from one of the most highly selective schools on the planet in a double major with honors. She was not happy about her experience. The fit was not for her, but her hard work got her into a graduate school in a different field. She advised her younger sister to select a different college. Not all students survive a bad fit.
If you have an interest in behavioral mathematics, ask yourself: do college GPA’s actually predict professional success?