<p>2400 and 3.8 unweighted…one “B” per semester. You have the qualifications to apply to just about any school in the US. Yes…if your B’s are in sciences/math, then you might want to take CalTech and MIT off of your list! </p>
<p>Cast a wide net as you explore schools, and be sure to apply early to at least 1 or 2 that are rolling admission or EA…and that you’d be happy to attend. </p>
<p>The women’s schools were mentioned earlier. If you have something interesting to write about in your essays, and have the good non-generic references you mentioned – when added to your scores and grades, you’re likely to be admitted to all of the top women’s schools – certainly Mount Holyoke and Bryn Mawr…and most likely Smith, Wellesley and Barnard, too.</p>
<p>OP-You mentioned the Claremonts and Occidental. We have a D at CMC and S is now looking at several Claremonts. Pomona seems to be the most stats oriented and tends to be a tougher admit for a female, but I agree that your uw gpa is not bad at all! CMC tends to look strongly at other factors like leadership and both CMC and Pomona are top notch for econ…the consortium would be a great place for languages/linguistics.</p>
<p>Scripps could be a fantastic option and does have scholarships. D has many friends there. It is a wonderful, beautiful place with the resources of the other colleges (and plenty of guys) just across the street. Actually, there are many male students in the Scripps classes and certainly in the popular Scripps dining hall! Pitzer is also a possibility. </p>
<p>If you visit, I think the place sells itself. Find a safety or two, but don’t be afraid to dream big. Our D did not have a perfect gpa either and did very well in the process. Good luck!</p>
<p>Find a safety or few that you know you will get into, know that you can afford, has the academic subjects you are interested in, and is a school that you would like to attend.</p>
<p>The free ride for your stats at University of Alabama Huntsville might be a candidate for a safety if it offers the academic subjects you are interested in and you like the school. Free tuition at University of Alabama Tuscaloosa is another possibility.</p>
<p>If you make National Merit Finalist, then there are more options of schools that will give you large scholarships for that status (e.g. Texas A&M).</p>
<p>Once you have a safety or few, you can add any other non-safeties you want to your application list. 3.8 unweighted GPA is still quite good, though if your rank is “only” top 15%, that may be the limiting factor for schools that emphasize class rank in admissions.</p>
<p>menloparkmom - showing interest can’t hurt (unless one is a total pest) because schools would rather admit someone whom seems to want to come, I know it makes a difference for several of those schools already mentioned (top 25 schools), but I agree, it might make no difference at some places.</p>
<p>cd6hb8 - find the essay by Andrew Doctoroff titled “Dear 8th grader” published earlier this year in Huffington post. It might inspire you on what to emphasize as you present yourself in applications and interviews.</p>
<p>Only on CC is a 3.8 a bad GPA. In the real world your 3.8 is fantastic, especially coupled with your SAT score. While I agree that it makes great financial sense to apply to schools that give full rides for NMF, don’t discount applying to the Ivy’s or other top schools if you want to go to those schools. We have a student from our high school that is finishing up his freshman year at Harvard, having turned down Cornell, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, Notre Dame and Stanford to attend Harvard–too bad his 3.8 and his 32 on his ACT held him back…</p>
<p>I think as long as you have a decent mix of ECs you should be fine. Most schools are not looking for the perfect kid but someone that is well rounded and human. And an UW 3.85 is actually quite good - I agree with SteveMA, only on CC is is considered a negative. Just make sure your essay reflects purpose and passion about whatever you care about. Good luck!</p>
<p>I’ll agree that only here is a 3.8 a slacker GPA. Even with a 2400 SAT score. Don’t believe it for a second!</p>
<p>You have a fantastic school record! Think of what you want to do and start narrowing down your choices. Don’t ever think that perfection is the only thing that’s acceptable.</p>
<p>My son is in a similar situation, though his stats are not as good as yours. The discrepancy has him concerned. I think you will be fine. </p>
<p>I have encouraged my son to choose honors colleges w/in large Us that provide great merit for NMF (Bama, Oklahoma, UT Dallas). After that, I am encouraging him to apply to his high reaches. He has a great deal of pressure from school GC to find matches, but he just is not able to find any based upon his stats and his parameters. Just remember, the schools with low admit rates will always be reaches, even if you had a 4.0.</p>
<p>He is also from PA and very much wants a CA LAC. </p>
<p>Oxy and Pitzer appear to be the most forgiving of his discrepancy between standardized scores and GPA. Be aware, Oxy is not the best aid. Very generous under a certain income, but calculates EFC much higher than other schools we have looked into.</p>
<p>I encourage you to look at all the Claremonts. </p>
<p>If CA location is most important to you, you may want to step down in prestige and look at Redlands. The Johnston alternative is interesting.</p>
<p>I do not understand why people are making this comment. Unless I missed something, no one responded to the Op as being a “slacker” or thought that she was one because she had a 3.8 and a 2400.</p>
<p>In fact it was the OP who made the following reference to herself.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>However, what people did say (and I was one of them), to apply broadly, make sure she has a financial safety, don’t rest on her laurels with her score/gpa, because it does not make her a lock for highly selective schools-which is the truth.</p>
<p>It is my understanding that in Canada and the UK, they care more about standardized test scores than in the US. So I would at least apply to some schools in those countries.</p>
<p>Play in a game where the rules favor you.</p>
<p>In the US, because of grade inflation at some high schools, I have seen posts on CC from valecdictorians who only have 1900 SAT scores. They “explain” this by saying that they are “bad test takers”, whatever that means.</p>
<p>My son had high SAT scores. Based upon his experience, I would also recommend you apply to some of the top “out of state” flagship state universities, such as UCLA, Michigan and UNC.</p>
<p>Yes, the OP referred to herself as not wanting to be seen as a “smart slacker”. It was in response to post #2, which said:</p>
<p>“whether you have a diagnosed learning disability, or ADHD, or had some health problems in high school, or started off slow as a freshman but had increasingly better grades as the years went on, or vice versa, or you just slid on through high school with a minimum of effort and never really had to study, or were heavily involved in sports…”</p>
<p>Both the OP and EastCoastCrazy were characterizing a 3.8 as a GPA you’d have if you were with a “smart slacker” – or “just slid through high school with a minimum of effort” – which, to me, is the definition of a slacker. And also, to think a 3.8 indicates a possible learning disability??? </p>
<p>Sorry, but I think that kind of comment has no perspective on what a good/great GPA is. I think what people are trying to tell the OP is to be proud of the 3.8 and even if her school is full of 4.0 kids, to not lose the perspective that 3.8 is still a significant accomplishment.</p>
<p>However, a rank of “only” top 15% may be the bigger issue when it comes to super selective colleges which use rank as a very important criterion for selection. Some claim that applicants to such schools need to be at the minimum top 2% (preferably top 2) to have a chance as an unhooked applicant, and minimum top 10% (higher is better, obviously) as a hooked applicant (typically recruited athlete, legacy, URM).</p>
<p>Indeed, such a rank may be an issue even for some state universities, such as University of Texas - Austin, which admits 3/4 of its freshman class from the top 8-9% of Texas high schools.</p>
<p>OP, my DS had a very high SAT, but the grades didn’t match (they were somewhat lower - I concur that yours don’t rule out any school). He’s also intending to major in linguistics, so the list I’ll suggest is given with that in mind (all these schools offer decent programs in that major), as well as merit/meets-need aid considerations:</p>
<p>Pitt (they’re not real generous with merit $ for in-state, though)
CMU (only if you’re interested in computational linguistics)
Ohio State (arguably the best linguistics program in the country)
U Penn (also very strong, but very Chomsky-ian, I believe)
Swarthmore (ditto)
U Rochester
U Chicago (the core makes it hard to focus on both linguistics and econ, though)
Grinnell
Pitzer
Tulane
Stanford
Miami U (Ohio)
Michigan State*
Baylor*
U Arizona*
U Oklahoma *
U Alabama Tuscaloosa (BUT you will have to do a self-designed linguistics major)*
Northeastern *</p>
<p>Schools with * have guaranteed big merit $ for high stats/NMF. For the record, my son chose U Oklahoma. </p>
<p>I would add UT Dallas with the caveat that you should check into the McDermott Scholars Program. For the right student, it’s a most <em>incredible</em> deal.</p>
<p>One very fine example of CC-induced anxiety. Congratulations on your test scores and your grades thus far.</p>
<p>Regarding the science/math grades – anybody reading your transcript will conclude that (1) not bad at all (you did get an SAT-M of 800, after all), but perhaps not your strongest suit and (2) in spite of this imperfection you are not protecting your GPA but continuing to challenge yourself – bonus points for that.</p>
<p>I agree that, with the exception of the most competitive sci/tech schools, you could apply anywhere and have at least the same expectation of success as most other applicants and greater prospects than most applicants at most schools. </p>
<p>If you have a serious interest in linguistics you will find that requiring a major in that field will narrow the list of smaller schools extensively. This could be useful to you in guiding your search but I would suggest you not let it be too much of a filter because it would exclude schools that might otherwise be very suitable for you. And it is well known that intended majors change frequently over the course of one’s college experience</p>
<p>Look up the list of National Merit Scholarship schools in the CC National Merit Scholarship forum – quite a few offer very generous “automatic scholarships” to NMF’s. (Be sure to send your SAT results to NMSC.) If you aren’t strongly opinionated about where to go then cheap might be a good enticement. At any rate I would suggest you include at least one probable high merit-aid school that you like on your list as a “safety”.</p>
<p>Have you visited any schools in your area to help sharpen your opinions? Try to visit examples of small, large, urban, and smaller-town schools and get a feel for what you prefer. When you visit, try to factor out the serendipitous factors – like whether or not you liked your guide – and focus on the more pervasive ones. It is difficult to give you suggestions without a little more information about your preferences.</p>
<p>OP, I haven’t revisited this thread since my first post… way back on page one… where I said I thought you should be honest about why there’s a disconnect between the grades and SAT scores.</p>
<p>I should have added that your grades are absolutely fine, and I apologize for implying that I thought they are low. They aren’t. You should be proud of them.</p>
<p>What I was getting at, among other things, is that those schools that others on this thread have listed as giving nice scholarships for SAT scores have contingencies about the required college GPA to maintain the scholarship. So it is important to examine, within yourself, the reasons for your GPA, and whether you will be able to maintain the required college GPA to keep an SAT based scholarship.</p>
<p>A family friend had stats similar to yours, not quite as high in either his GPA or SAT as yours, but high enough to be given a big scholarship based on SAT scores to one of the schools Pghmomof2 listed as offering guaranteed merit money. He is now back at home, after a lousy first semester, and a marginally better second semester at that university. His only way of returning and keeping the scholarship beyond the upcoming fall semester (two semesters of probation to earn a particular overall GPA to keep the scholarship) would be to earn a 4.0 this coming fall semester. His parents do not believe that will happen based on his freshman year, and so he will be at the local community college next year. </p>
<p>That family really never reflected on why there was a disconnect between the hs GPA and the SAT scores. If they had, they might have concluded that for their particular child, based on past performance, his chances of being able to keep that scholarship were low, and they might have selected a cheaper school, without a scholarship, to give him a chance to find his way with less pressure to succeed right away. I’m not implying that the OP would have the same troubles.</p>