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Stand-out applications showcase achievement, merit, and previous academic success. Taking honors classes or AP courses can give you a significant advantage. Most colleges generally prefer applicants with a B in an honors program over those with an A in standard courses because it shows initiative.
A high GPA (relative to what admitted students have) and a rigorous curriculum. Strong test scores (relative to what admitted students have) A specific, honest, and well-written personal statement. A unique extracurricular interest or passion (a “spike,” as we like to call it)
First, UCLA looks for students that value education. Successful applicants will have a stellar academic record and a history of challenging themselves. UCLA also values research, meaning that applicants should not only have academic interests, but they should also be passionate about applying those interests.
Colleges look for more than just grades and test scores. Of course, high school grades and standardized test scores are important. But there’s also your extracurricular activities, your course selection, and some other things we detail below. … Preparing for college is a lesson best learned backward.
Colleges compare applicants with similar backgrounds to each other: … All students will be in more or less the same environment in college, so the admissions committee wants to evaluate how fully an applicant has made use of his or her resources in a given environment.
No, colleges will not look at your grades from middle school. Colleges focus on your grades from high school, which will be shown on your high school transcript.
Yes it matters. Most colleges will view your application in context and where you have lived is a big part of that context. It can make it much more difficult or less difficult to be accepted at certain schools.
Last year, the reported average GPA of an admitted high school student at Harvard was a 4.04 out of 4.0, what we call a “weighted” GPA. However, unweighted GPAs are not very useful, because high schools weight GPAs differently. In truth, you need close to a 4.0 unweighted GPA to get into Harvard.
The average high school GPA for admitted students at UCLA is 3.89 on a 4.0 scale. This is a very competitive GPA, and UCLA is clearly accepting students at the top of their high school class.
It is harder to admit to USC than UCLA. USC has a higher submitted SAT score (1,445) than UCLA (1,415). USC has higher submitted ACT score (33) than UCLA (32). USC has more students with 46,287 students while UCLA has 44,589 students.
Most colleges still send acceptance letters through the mail, though many colleges inform students of their admissions decisions beforehand using email or application portals, that let them know if they’ve been accepted, denied, deferred, or waitlisted.
Does getting mail from a college mean they are interested in me? No. It means they’re interested in something about your scores or demographics. In the early stages of the admission process (sophomore and early junior years), colleges are just looking to initiate student interest within target groups.
Your character and the personal qualities you can bring to a college are important too. That’s why you need to think about your goals, accomplishments and personal values and figure out how you can best express those in your applications. Colleges look for qualities like leadership and a sense of social responsibility.
For most students, it might actually be easier to get admitted to college this year. Data from the Common App shows that applications were up 11% nationwide through March 1. … Rinehart serves as vice chancellor for enrollment, has accepted 5% more students for fall 2021 compared with last fall.
Judging Against Others in the Same High School
More often than not, these students are very different in personality, interests and academic strengths. However, colleges cannot help but compare applicants from the same schools, often evaluating them together. … However, this is out of the student’s control.
A high school does send information regarding their school when they send your transcripts to a college. Therefore, colleges do know how your high school holds up against others. Furthermore, it’s pretty easy to look up the rankings of a high school. A college admissions office may or may not take the time to do that.