Will I have a chance for prestigious colleges for a UW 4.0 and W 4.2?

Applying to College
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I feel like I don’t have a big chance.

The GPA I submitted to colleges is a unweighted 4.0, but a weighted 4.2

Freshman year, I took all CP classes, and got straight As in all of them. In middle school, I would not say I was academically well so when I got to freshman year, honors/APs were not my interests.

Sophomore year, I tried one honors math class, but it was extremely hard so I dropped. Our school has tremendously rigorous honors math courses. After that, I got scared of honors or APs so I did not take any, except for Second Semester, I took Honors Chemistry instead of CP Chemistry and got an A- in the class. It wasn’t too bad.

Junior year, because I succeeded in Honors Chemistry, I believed in myself and took 2 APs and 1 Honors, and the rest 3 classes were CP classes (there is an AP/Honors class limit). I ended up getting straight As for all classes for both semesters, even though it was the hardest high school year of my life. Unfortunately, I got a 3 on one of the APs, but got a 5 on the other AP.

Senior year, I am taking 6 APs to catch up, and I got 5 As, and 1 B.

Will more prestigious colleges not want me due to my GPA because I used to be a CP-class student? Will my Extracurriculars, Essays, and others help me to have a chance if they are good enough?

I heard under 4.5 GPA weighted seems to not get accepted into prestigious colleges, so I am scared because I at least want a chance.

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Is CP college prep?

Define “prestigious” because there’s no such thing - well, it’s a descriptor and everyone has a different definition.

Rather than chase a word, why don’t you find the right college for you.

Start with budget - how much do you have to spend a year? $10K, $50K, 90K?

What do you seek - small, mid size, large, urban, rural…a specific geography or weather? What major?

The premise of your question is coming from the wrong angle.

I don’t know what prestigious is - and why does it matter?

My kids both chose safeties (and both got into prestigious as they defined it). You know why? Sure, the prestigious schools were good - but they weren’t what they thought were the best fit. Bonus for dad but not the reason - they were less expensive.

Start with budget and other things - and go from there - and don’t worry about what schools will or won’t do.

You took the right classes for you - and you’ll find the right college for you - whether you deem it prestigious or not. I do know this - prestige is gone the day you walk on campus - being miserable at what you consider a big name is pointless.

Good luck.

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For the top ranked universities in the US, admissions is very difficult to predict, is very, very competitive, and is not solely just based on merit.

However, there are a large number of very good universities in the US (and more elsewhere). You will be able to get into a very good universities with the stats and course selection that you listed in your post. At least in my experience both hiring managers and graduate school admissions have noticed that very good students graduate from a very wide range of undergraduate universities.

I think that you will do well. Whether you will get accepted to a “top 10” or “top 20” university is very hard to predict, but really does not matter. You can do very well with a degree from any one of a few hundred very good colleges and universities.

When applying to universities, make sure that you are applying to at least two safeties, look for schools that are a good fit for you, keep your budget in mind, and you should be fine.

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Yes, you have a chance. Just like other kids with a 4.0. You have a nice trend of challenging yourself as time went on. That being said, it’s a reach for anybody and hard to predict. That’s why everyone should have affordable and academically likely schools on their list.

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So you have already applied? I hope you had colleges that were a good fit for you and that you can be pretty sure you will be accepted. It is fine to apply to “prestigious” schools but noone can expect to get in. There are, of course, many reasons to apply to schools besides prestige :slight_smile:

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What state do you live in?
What’s your budget? Can your parents afford their SAI/EFC?
Have you been admitted anywhere yet?
Where else have you applied?

The reality is that top 50 universities and LACs expect all honors/AP/IB/DE and even post AP classes when available. So if you attended a high school where Honors and AP classes were available and you didn’t take them, you’ll be at a great disadvantage. I’m sure you can see it was easier to get an A in a CP class than in an AP class and that you learned way more in the honors or AP classes than in the CP classes.
Since you have excellent grades and started increasing rigor, it means you do have a shot at various very good schools - definitely your flagships, depending on where you live.
That’s why it’s important we know what state you live in (VA, WA, or PA will treat your transcript differently than ME, NE, or NM) and where you’ve applied.

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I echo many of the above comments, adding do you know your approximate or actual class rank?

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There is one thing that I left out in my earlier response, which I think is worth mentioning.

I think that it is wrong to think of the highest ranked universities as “better”. Hundreds of colleges and universities are very good. Hundreds of colleges and universities have excellent professors and a lot of very strong students. Hundreds of colleges and universities have all kinds of opportunities, such as research projects and internship opportunities and study abroad opportunities. Every university, even the top ranked ones, will have a very small number of bad professors.

This will depend upon which highly ranked universities you are considering, however, in general you should think of the higher ranked universities as academically more challenging. Classes will go faster. Exams will be tougher. Competition for grades will be tougher.

A highly ranked university such as MIT or Stanford is not a good fit for all academically very strong students. They might be a fit for an academically very strong student who wants to work very hard for a full 4 years with no let up.

I can give you two examples. I took an introductory course to Probability and Statistics at MIT. One of the homework assignments was an unsolved research problem. There was no one in the entire world who knew how to solve it. The professor did not know how to solve it. This was a homework assignment in an introductory course for undergraduate students. In this same course the professor had said on the first day that the top 1/3 of the class will get an A, regardless of how many points on exams or homework problems is required to get into the top 1/3 of the class. Competing with MIT students to try to get into the top 1/3 of the class is not easy (and this particular class was definitely not easy, but was the class that taught me that I just happen to like probability theory).

A second example. As a graduate student at Stanford I was taking five classes. One class had a homework assignment with five problems. One problem took me six hours on a Saturday (from late morning through about 5pm). Let’s suppose that you spent six hours on a Saturday doing one homework problem out of 5 on an assignment. Would you be thrilled that you solved it, or would you think that you had just wasted 6 hours out of what could have been a Saturday doing homework, and you still weren’t done?

“Prestige” matters to high school students. If you ignore management consulting and investment banking, it mostly does not matter to hiring managers, graduate school admissions, or normal adults who have a job to do.

And this is exactly right. There are hundreds of very good colleges and universities. The ranking of the university where you got your degree will not buy groceries and will not get you a date for Saturday night. Finding a university that is a good fit for you will however help you to get a good education and to enjoy your four years of university.

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Do you have a chance? Sure? Is it guaranteed acceptance? NO.

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A digression, but this reminds me of the true story where a student solves such a problem!

One day in 1939, George Bernard Dantzig, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, arrived late for a graduate-level statistics class and found two problems written on the board. Not knowing they were examples of “unsolved” statistics problems, he mistook them for part of a homework assignment, jotted them down, and solved them.
Said Dantzig “A few days later I apologized to Neyman for taking so long to do the homework — the problems seemed to be a little harder than usual.”
The Legend of the 'Unsolvable Math Problem' | Snopes.com

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I actually had the very good fortune to meet George Dantzig once. We sat next to each other on a bus from a conference to the nearest airport. I found him to be very smart and very personable. We had a great chat. He mostly wanted to ask me about what I was working on.

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I got into a couple of colleges already. I agree, I think that tons of colleges are absolutely fantastic and have the opportunity to give great academics.

I don’t apply to prestigious schools because they are “prestige.” No way I am going to apply just for the “prestige,” I don’t define prestigious schools special. I am offered way more financial aid compared to more of my safetys and targets, which I truly really need even though I am applying to scholarships, neither I can guarantee I can get these scholarships.

Sure, I didn’t do any APs/Honors freshman year unfortunately, but if I jump to AP/Honors to Junior year (Junior year Honors English 3 for example would obviously be harder than Honors English 2, right?) and I actually got an A, doesn’t it show that I can still do academically well when I jump difficulty extremely quickly? I mean, doesn’t it show something at least? I am pretty sure they also look at the courses and rigor, not just the GPA, right?

I am fine with absolutely any college. All I really wanted to ask was if I can truly get into the harder selective colleges with my GPA? Trust me, I’ll still go to my safety if I have to, I’ll still go to my target if I have to, I really don’t care. I wanted to get a reality check to see if my GPA will absolutely destroy my application.

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I mean, my friend had a way higher GPA (probably around 4.5 or higher), over a 1500 SAT score, got deferred to the college I got accepted at and I applied test-optional. It just seems too situational. Oh maybe the college thought that this was his safety so they declined him? He was too overqualified? I am not trying to be too comparative here, but too many reasons, too unpredictable like said. Maybe I just got lucky?

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Closed at the request of OP