What's a good college if you have "excellent" test scores but only "good" grades?

Question

I am helping my nephew apply to colleges. He is very intelligent and has great test scores (35 ACT and several scores of 4 and 5 on AP tests), but his GPA is only about 3.3. He has taken mostly honors and AP classes in high school, and he learns well, but he doesn't keep up with homework and struggles with projects. His main interests are math, physics, and chemistry.

The really good schools he is considering applying to are WashU, Chicago, Rice, Vanderbilt, Williams, Carleton, and Carnegie-Mellon. He is thinking of Illinois, Purdue, Penn State, and Michigan as safety schools.

What schools do you think might be best for a student like him (great test scores, but only a "pretty good" student)? Thanks for your advice.

Answer 1

College will take note of the high test scores your nephew recieved.  Looking at the choice of school he seems like a good fit for most of them - of course depending on the program/ or college within he applies to.  For example, the engineering dept of Carnegie-Mellon would be more competitive than the arts.  So he'd have a better chance getting in the arts/humanities programs.  His safety schools seem to be a guarantee for him, I would say Chicago, Carnegie would be somewhat of a reach school, but definately a good match possibility. (The rest of his choices being a good match).

Answer 2

It's all very well and good that he's got great test scores, but what his test/GPA combo shows admissions is that he's very intelligent, but, as you said, doesn't always apply himself. Thus in addition to the schools on your list, he must also apply to some schools that his GPA is a better fit for, as fit schools. And a couple of backups/safeties.

I am not saying that he shouldn't apply to the schools you have on your list. I think he should. He's not out of the ballpark, and if his math/science grades are higher than that 3.3, or if the 5's he got on the AP exams are in a field related to his major, he stands a very good chance. But his GPA is low for them. He'll need to write a very strong application. I consider them reaches for him. Nothing wrong with that. But please do NOT consider a school like U Michigan as a safety school. They're as selective as Rice.

I actually consider Illinois, Purdue and Penn State as fit schools for him. Michigan and the others you list are reaches - by no means impossible, but reaches.

As of right now, he has no safety schools on his list.

Other fits I think he could consider, and which fit his interests in math and etc. well, include Rensselaer Polytechnic, U Texas Austin, Ohio State, U Florida, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Bucknell, U Wisconsin Madison, Virginia Tech, and U Maryland College Park.

Another reach I think he might want to look at is Harvey Mudd. Maybe Olin College of Engineering, if he wants to be an engineer. Rose Hulman Institute of Tech.

Schools he could consider safety schools include Rutgers, Clemson, SUNY Stony Brook, UMass Amherst, U Delaware, Drexel, U Colorado Boulder, Arizona State U, Northeastern, Worcester Polytechnic, Embry Riddle, Kettering U. I am pretty darn sure he'd get into those. I'm not saying he has to take any schools off his existing list, but it he could include at least one real safety, that'd be a very good idea.

Can you see what I'm doing? I want him to apply to reach schools, where his ACT fits the school, but his GPA is low; to fit schools, where his ACT is maybe a bit high for the school to make up for the fact that his GPA is maybe a bit low; and safety schools, where his GPA is actually a fit for the school, but his ACT is high for them. But in every case, I've prioritized his interests in math, physics and chem in my selection of schools. Just because, for example, I consider Arizona State U a safety school for him, that doesn't mean it's not a top ranked school in his areas of interest. It is. It's just a bit easier to get into than, say, Harvey Mudd or U Michigan.