Any chance for a humanities, low GPA, TJ kid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the spike is unusual and interesting enough it can compensate. It probably has to be something rare they want and can’t get from another kid with higher grades.

What’s an unusual humanities spike?

Ballet dancer with a professional company. Being one of the best young oboists in the country.

That’s not a humanities spike

Yes it is. Music and dance are undersubscribed humanities majors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the spike is unusual and interesting enough it can compensate. It probably has to be something rare they want and can’t get from another kid with higher grades.

What’s an unusual humanities spike?

Ballet dancer with a professional company. Being one of the best young oboists in the country.

That’s not a humanities spike

Yes it is. Music and dance are undersubscribed humanities majors.

Tell me you don’t work for a university without telling me.

These are fine arts/performing arts hooks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The one caveat is the gpa. Freshman year was very bad, sophomore not so great, but huge upward trend. Would a 4.3-4.4 weighted gpa be competitive for T20s? How will colleges view a humanities student from TJ, and will they forgive low grades in STEM classes?

I’m curious - why did they attend a STEM magnet high school where they got low grades in STEM classes if they want to be a humanities student and attend a T20 school?

In terms of GPA and what colleges it is hard to say if there are any places your kid’s GPA is more competitive than at first glance because we don’t know the specifics of the grades. For example, the UCs don’t include freshman year and have the A-G area recalculation of GPA. By that formula and looking at the UC data and OOS admissions at the high school level, I knew it was beyond a reach for my kid. But at another college that recalculates GPA by dropping the plus and minus and didn’t rely on weighted GPA as much to quantify rigor, they did really well as someone who had A-grades and not all As and A plus but only one B+. Their private school limited access to AP amd capped the number of honor/APs.

In my opinion, the better road is focus outside of the T20 and either try to transfer after the first year or as other people mentioned, try for the big names for grad school. The T20 undergraduate college admission doesn’t have a lot of grace for late bloomers academically and is no cake walk for kids that had As in rigorous classes out of the gate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC is applying as a humanities/social science major with a major spike. High SAT, all 5s on AP exams, research published in most prestigious journal for major, national awards for major, great ECs and internships.

The one caveat is the gpa. Freshman year was very bad, sophomore not so great, but huge upward trend. Would a 4.3-4.4 weighted gpa be competitive for T20s? How will colleges view a humanities student from TJ, and will they forgive low grades in STEM classes?

Search for schools that throw out freshman grades. Stanford, CMU does this as well./

[Anonymous]

Confusing why a humanities student would apply to - or attend TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Confusing why a humanities student would apply to - or attend TJ.

Many kid haven’t decided yet until later in high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just don’t expect to get in UVA. Lots of good options at others schools where everyone isnt applying.

Don’t be ridiculous, he’s qualified for UVA.

If under 4.4, it's maybe 50/50

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If the spike is unusual and interesting enough it can compensate. It probably has to be something rare they want and can’t get from another kid with higher grades.

What’s an unusual humanities spike?

Ballet dancer with a professional company. Being one of the best young oboists in the country.

That’s not a humanities spike

Yes it is. Music and dance are undersubscribed humanities majors.

Tell me you don’t work for a university without telling me.

These are fine arts/performing arts hooks.

Ok but they got humanities kids I know into HYP. They are spikes that worked.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is applying as a humanities/social science major with a major spike. High SAT, all 5s on AP exams, research published in most prestigious journal for major, national awards for major, great ECs and internships.

The one caveat is the gpa. Freshman year was very bad, sophomore not so great, but huge upward trend. Would a 4.3-4.4 weighted gpa be competitive for T20s? How will colleges view a humanities student from TJ, and will they forgive low grades in STEM classes?

Probably not.
According to Naviance average T20 student accepted from TJ has ~4.55 weighted GPA and 1555 SAT
The acceptance rate for students with those stats or higher was ~30%
In this context, 0.05 GPA is significant. a 0.25 difference puts you in different categories.
Of the Top 20 schools, your best chance is Chicago ED0 if you can afford it and ED1 if not.

If you have an C's you are probably cooked. More than a couple of B's also derails you. The only exceptions I have seen have been recruited athletes.
These admission committees are literally looking at an ocean of straight A students and "but its TJ" does carry much weight when there are more straight A TJ students than they have room for.

But the GPA in Naviance is after the end of senior year, which is typically higher than after junior year. So you need to take that into account. We also don’t know anything else here, other than a vague description of “very bad” grades freshman year which nonetheless may yield a 4.3-4.4 GPA after junior year. Regardless, I’d think someone applying for humanities with this background could create an interesting, if not compelling, narrative.

It's not the GPA as much as it is the Cs and Bs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DC is applying as a humanities/social science major with a major spike. High SAT, all 5s on AP exams, research published in most prestigious journal for major, national awards for major, great ECs and internships.

The one caveat is the gpa. Freshman year was very bad, sophomore not so great, but huge upward trend. Would a 4.3-4.4 weighted gpa be competitive for T20s? How will colleges view a humanities student from TJ, and will they forgive low grades in STEM classes?

Search for schools that throw out freshman grades. Stanford, CMU does this as well./

They don't throw them out. They just don't weigh them as much as sophomore/junior year grades.