<p>My son’s unweighted GPA was in the 3.3-3.4 range, but he always took the most rigorous classes. His school doesn’t weight grades, but his weighted GPA was probably close to 4.0. He is a candidate for an IB diploma at a respected private boarding school. His SAT score was 2060, and composite ACT was 31. He was accepted early at Eckerd ($19k Presidential scholarship), Guilford ($15k academic merit award), Willamette (originally offered $14k, but they recently added $5k, for total of $19k), and Tulane (no merit aid, and eventual aid package was limited to loans and did not meet our EFC). He has since been accepted at New College of Florida ($15k merit scholarship), Occidental ($12.5 need-based award), UC San Diego (loans only) and UC Davis (loans only). He was rejected by Claremont-McKenna and UNC-Chapel Hill, and wait-listed at Reed and UWashington-Seattle. We are still awaiting notifications from UC Berkeley (long shot), Pitzer, and Whitman. Right now, New College and Willamette look very attractive for financial reasons, but we aren’t ruling out the UCs and Occidental. </p>
<p>Sugar ski,</p>
<p>In the interest of full disclosure, I am a UVA grad from a long line of UVA grads. I never had any interest in my children following those " dirt roads" that lead to Va Tech. Had a fit when, out of over 4000 colleges in our country, and a half a dozen other strong acceptances, our son was Va Tech bound. As much as i hated accepting it, the campus is beautiful, the feeling of community is strong, and the education and internships and career opportunity support is all outstanding. It is a great school for our son.</p>
<p>Thanks again @dowzerw! I have a good friend who went to Tech, albeit 20+ years ago, and she reports much the same. So glad your son is happy there!</p>
<p>Echoing Dowzerw. My step-son was denied at UVA, but accepted to Tech’s engineering program. I was determined to be positive and supportive while snorting derisively at the place when we went to the admitted student day. I was stunned. It was lovely in its own way, the deans who spoke to the parents were on top of everything including what seemed to be so far away, but wasn’t- eventual employment, and I ended up being really happy for him. He absolutely enjoyed his time there. My D was not interested in Tech, but had her heart set on UVA last year and is there now, so I’m happy again. If I’m lucky, we’ll be able to add my other Virginia favorite to the stickers on the car. Hoping S14 has some of the love he feels for JMU returned this spring. :)</p>
<p>That’s great to hear, @89wahoo! Good luck to your son!!</p>
<p>PS- my daughter now has a collection of 3 waitlist spots: Smith, RPI and U Richmond. </p>
<p>sugarski, we have two now in college and having gone through the process twice, found that with wait list spots, it was important to keep an ongoing dialogue and to express clearly a willingness to matriculate if a slot was offered. Though I would choose VT and some of her other options over Smith (and I respect Smith), if it is still your daughter’s first choice, she should let them know that (and let them know where she is accepted). There is always something worth sharing as an update as an excuse to communicate. If any of those three are top choice, have daughter work it. And good luck!</p>
<p>(but the VT Ind Design is a definite score worth seriously considering)</p>
<p>My daughter is right at the bottom of this scale. Her GPA was 3.3 when applying (now up to a 3.4). Her SATs were 710 CR. 600 M, 630 W. Almost non-existent ECs. Her list looks a bit all over the map but she had rationale behind it. She liked the programs offered at large schools but for some of the smaller schools, she liked the community/environment. For her, study abroad and strong art programs were her top considerations.
Accepted:
University of North Carolina Asheville
Appalachian State
University of Alabama
College of Charleston
Gettysburg College
Louisiana State University
University of South Carolina</p>
<p>Still waiting on University of Georgia.</p>
<p>Hi dowzerw, thanks for your continued help. It’s much appreciated. I told my D what you advise as far as a waitlist action plan. 
I am also curious about which of her choices you prefer to Smith! Care to elaborate? (She is considering VT very seriously, but ATM it is the most expensive of her options at close to $36k for tuition, fees & room & board.)</p>
<p>3.44 UW / 3.63 W / 27 ACT. PA resident.</p>
<p>Accepted<a href=“with%20merit%20aid%20amounts”>/u</a>
Allegheny College ($15K)
Juniata College ($21K)
Ohio University ($7K)
Bowling Green State ($8,654) - Honors program
IUP - no merit offered but was invited to be a late applicant for Cook Honors College, which I assume would come with at least some $$. </p>
<p>Deferred
Ohio State</p>
<p>Offered a satellite campus at Penn State, which was turned down.</p>
<p>Southbel, my daughter is a junior with stats similar to your daughter’s, and the list of schools she likes is VERY similar to that list. We’re going to visit several of them during spring break next month.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>When she narrowed down to these choices, I looked at it and couldn’t see the commonality but we really let her drive the requirements for schools. Great to hear someone else has a similar list. Her guidance counselor at school (a bit of a jerk to be honest) told her that her list made no sense. Humph. For her, it was always about very particular things each of these schools brought to the table. Oddly enough, she wasn’t caught up in the prestige or lack thereof of any of the schools either. I was actually impressed with her maturity in the whole process.</p>
<p>My daughter is the same way. She knows what she wants (which may change, of course, after she visits).</p>
<p>
If your student is wait listed, letting the school know where she is accepted is not going to make her more attractive. As a matter of fact, if the schools she’s accepted are higher ranking, they would think why give her a spot. Unfortunately, when it comes to WL, the biggest hook is not needing FA. Otherwise, send in a new packet with additional essay to say the school is still her #1 choice, additional LORs, updated transcript and awards.</p>
<p>All results are in for my brother now.
3.48, 2190 superscore after 2 sittings (M>CR>W, all 700+), weak curriculum, strong HS, narrow EC’s, significant leadership</p>
<p>Acceptances:
SUNY Buffalo (Honors)
Stony Brook
Northeastern (applied EA)
University of Miami (applied EA)
Syracuse </p>
<p>2 rejections, no waitlists. Fin. aid awards are delayed, but NEU awarded a 16k scholarship with the acceptance. </p>
<p>Fun to have been back on CC for a bit 
</p>
<p>Figured I would share some tidbits that I learned throughout researching the schools this cycle:
- Of the five schools, the privates require 2 years of dorming, and the publics have no restrictions
- He picked a tentative major, but also looked to see that all have colleges of engineering (with Miami’s seeming the weakest), colleges of business (with Stony Brook’s seeming the weakest), and solid pre-health programs (with Miami seeming the strongest).
- Miami does really interesting things with the curriculum, offering 1 major and 2 more “clusters” of classes (<a href=“Undergraduate Admission | University of Miami”>Undergraduate Admission | University of Miami), and has a neat internship program that matches students up with a mentor in their first year (can’t find the link!). Miami also has a former secretary of health as its president. Miami also makes it easy to switch between different schools.
- NEU’s co-op counselor sends out its students resumes to prospective employers, which I think shows that the college is taking responsibility for these opportunities, which is rare; it also oversees the quality of co-ops, which is just dandy</p>
<p>oldfort, I disagree. Schools want to know they are your first choice because they care about yield. Letting them know you are in at other places, especially if they are stronger, but stating the school you are addressing is your first choice means a lot in context. I did not suggest saying “You should accept me because these other schools did”. It should be more of a “even though these other schools accepted me, I’d rather go to your school.” Why mention the other schools? To let your audience know other schools are confident in your ability to succeed.</p>
<p>in my opinion…</p>
<p>My kid just under 3.3UW/3.6, SAT 1520 (CR+M), 2200. Great SAT II, APs (5). Very competitive public school, great ECs.
Accepted: Gonzaga (13K merit), U of the Pacific (6.5K merit), Chapman (20K merit), LMU (8.5K merit), Santa Clara U (8.7K merit), Trinity U (19K merit), Cal Poly Pomona, Drexel (16.5K merit)
Rejected: Cal Poly SLO
Waitlist: Northeastern</p>
<p>My S weighted 3.28, SAT 1850, in at UVM, rejected at UConn, Accepted at Syracuse this week. (All of us in this house are shocked and thrilled by the Syracuse acceptance, and were a little disappointed about UConn)
Perhaps a hook: He’ll go into Engineering or CS; “CEO” and co-founder of the high school’s Robotics Team which has made it to the National Level of Competition. I’m not sure but hoping he chooses 'Cuse.</p>
<p>
Those adcoms are seasoned professionals, they don’t need outside validations to do their jobs. Adcoms reject an applicant for many reasons, other than academic. Common sense tells me that by telling adcoms you are accepted at higher ranking schools may actually hurt you rather than help you.
WL process is such that someone would call the WL student to see if he/she would accept the offer before an official offer is sent out. Applicant would often have less than 24 hours to decide.</p>
<p>Final results:</p>
<p>GPA 3.46 (with explanation of extenuating LD/mental health circumstances which affected GPA)
a bit over half honors & I.B. classes
SAT 2100
SAT2s: Literature 790, World History 720
Recommendations: probably excellent
Essays: excellent
ECs: fairly normal school-related, with outside passions (art, etc), but nothing huge</p>
<p>ACCEPTED:
Mount Holyoke College (attending)
Bard College
Hampshire College</p>
<p>WAITLISTED:
Wellesley College (she was happily surprised and will definitely stay on the waitlist. She was super inspired by her visit there…)</p>
<p>REJECTED:
Skidmore College
Smithe College</p>