Anonymous
Post 04/07/2026 21:31     Subject: Rejections
Anonymous wrote:Op here.

I understand his gpa isn’t good.

But I have seen a lot of these statements below and thought perhaps there is hope somewhere.

“Colleges would rather see a B in a challenging class than a B in an easier class.”

“They want to see you have challenged yourself to the hardest classes your school has to offer.”

We know better now and yes have learnt a lesson.

To a pp, his only EC was not only a Scioly.
He has awards from his sports which he has done since Freshman, has leadership role, TSA, and more.

His scioly medal was from state level after getting the gold in regional.
I am not saying that he is excellent, he is not; but am clarifying to a pp that he did have more than one EC.

He picked 2 Stem teachers for his recommendations in classes he got As in and had good rapport with.

Again, I see the biggest issue has been his unweighted gpa. I honestly don’t see whats wrong in his app, except his gpa and that he didn’t take 4 years of a foreign language.



Hi OP,
Unfortunately these schools are not transparent in terms of what they are really looking looking for, especially from unhooked kids. Statements like "we'd rather see a B in an AP" don't apply equally to all applicants and probably have to be taken with a grain of salt for anyone not FGLI or rural. It's not reasonable to expect students and parents to do the level of research some on this forum are chiding you for.
On hopefully a more helpful note, do research strong letter of continuing interest and ask your counseling office to make an advocacy call for your son to their top waitlist choice- while it is a long shot there are things you can do that will improve chances of getting in off of the waitlist. Don't look back, move forward.
Good luck
Anonymous
Post 04/07/2026 21:23     Subject: Rejections
Anonymous wrote:Op here.

I understand his gpa isn’t good.

But I have seen a lot of these statements below and thought perhaps there is hope somewhere.

“Colleges would rather see a B in a challenging class than a B in an easier class.”

“They want to see you have challenged yourself to the hardest classes your school has to offer.”

We know better now and yes have learnt a lesson.

To a pp, his only EC was not only a Scioly.
He has awards from his sports which he has done since Freshman, has leadership role, TSA, and more.

His scioly medal was from state level after getting the gold in regional.
I am not saying that he is excellent, he is not; but am clarifying to a pp that he did have more than one EC.

He picked 2 Stem teachers for his recommendations in classes he got As in and had good rapport with.

Again, I see the biggest issue has been his unweighted gpa. I honestly don’t see whats wrong in his app, except his gpa and that he didn’t take 4 years of a foreign language.



There’s nothing wrong with his app, it’s his list. They’re almost all reaches. Really for everyone. There are thousands of strong kids. I’m sorry you didn’t have better guidance on list making.
Anonymous
Post 04/07/2026 17:45     Subject: Rejections
Anonymous wrote:Op here.

I understand his gpa isn’t good.

But I have seen a lot of these statements below and thought perhaps there is hope somewhere.

“Colleges would rather see a B in a challenging class than a B in an easier class.”

“They want to see you have challenged yourself to the hardest classes your school has to offer.”

We know better now and yes have learnt a lesson.

To a pp, his only EC was not only a Scioly.
He has awards from his sports which he has done since Freshman, has leadership role, TSA, and more.

His scioly medal was from state level after getting the gold in regional.
I am not saying that he is excellent, he is not; but am clarifying to a pp that he did have more than one EC.

He picked 2 Stem teachers for his recommendations in classes he got As in and had good rapport with.

Again, I see the biggest issue has been his unweighted gpa. I honestly don’t see whats wrong in his app, except his gpa and that he didn’t take 4 years of a foreign language.



Ok—so, in the future, do actual research and don’t rely on a bunch of DCUM commenters who probably haven’t even gone through the college application process. GMU and VCU are fine schools and good fits for his stats. You’re only bent out of shape about those schools because you listen to anonymous opinions on this board.
Anonymous
Post 04/07/2026 17:16     Subject: Rejections
Maybe it was his major! He looked weak compared to the competition
Anonymous
Post 04/07/2026 17:02     Subject: Rejections
Op here.

I understand his gpa isn’t good.

But I have seen a lot of these statements below and thought perhaps there is hope somewhere.

“Colleges would rather see a B in a challenging class than a B in an easier class.”

“They want to see you have challenged yourself to the hardest classes your school has to offer.”

We know better now and yes have learnt a lesson.

To a pp, his only EC was not only a Scioly.
He has awards from his sports which he has done since Freshman, has leadership role, TSA, and more.

His scioly medal was from state level after getting the gold in regional.
I am not saying that he is excellent, he is not; but am clarifying to a pp that he did have more than one EC.

He picked 2 Stem teachers for his recommendations in classes he got As in and had good rapport with.

Again, I see the biggest issue has been his unweighted gpa. I honestly don’t see whats wrong in his app, except his gpa and that he didn’t take 4 years of a foreign language.

Anonymous
Post 04/07/2026 15:25     Subject: Rejections
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:DC had a 1590 SAT, 4.95 WGPA, stellar internships and recommendations. Accepted at just 1 Ivy, WL in 2 and rejects at others. flagship state schools were either a WL or acceptances. Surprised with the outcome.


How do you get a 4.95 weighted GPA?

You can only take AP foreign language once


Because weighted GPAs are done differently everywhere. In our previous school district, kids were given 0.06 for AP and 0.04 for honors added to the overall GPA.

So, for example, my kid will take 12APs and 8 honors classes, so if he’d stayed at that school and had a 4.0 unweighted. His weighted would be:

4.0+.72+.32=5.04. And that doesn’t even get into the fact that A+s get 4.33 basis points. So, a GPA of 5.3 or higher is possible.

Whereas at his current school—the same classes with the same grades, would land you around a 4.5.

This is why colleges aren’t directly comparing GPAs across schools and someone saying their kid has a 4.3 weighted is meaningless.
Anonymous
Post 04/07/2026 15:17     Subject: Rejections
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:op again
sorry about the typos on my previous post.

Which OOS public did he apply to? All high reaches?


Case Western, Ga Tech UMd


Looking at the TJ scattergram (because almost everyone is applying engineering or other stem)

Case Western Median SAT 1530 Median GPA 4.4
Most kids with 4.1 and 1550ish were waitlisted or rejected

GTech Median SAT 1560 Median GPA 4.6
Lowest admitted GPA 4.16 with only a handful of students below a 4.5 admitted

UMd Median SAT 1530 Median GPA 4.4

Overwhelming majority of 4.1 GPA rejected.

I'm sorry to say none of these are head scratchers if you were applying STEM. Case Western might still work out for you if they waitlisted you.
In prior years, they pick up all the kids who want engineering and thought they could go to their state flagship for engineering.


+1

Do not rely on the USNWR SAT quartiles if you are applying to STEM. The difference between UMD Stem and UMD Humanities SAT scores is fairly large.
Anonymous
Post 04/07/2026 15:08     Subject: Rejections
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:OP, hopefully this will teach him that he needs to get serious and work to his potential. He can do/be anything he wants coming out of either of those schools. If he can get a 1540 the potential is there, he just needs to figure out how to live up to that potential.


I truly don't understand the nastiness, what is up with parents (presumably) on this thread piling on and criticizing a kid or taking pleasure at their mistakes?
For the record there are lots of studies showing that boys at this age on age are 18 months behind girls in terms of maturity, HS and college apps come at an unfornate point in their development.


And yet, tons of boys who get 1500+s also have perfect grades. Should OP’s son motivate to do better in college or should he just go flat and whine that success is out of his control?
Anonymous
Post 04/07/2026 14:33     Subject: Rejections
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:DC had a 1590 SAT, 4.95 WGPA, stellar internships and recommendations. Accepted at just 1 Ivy, WL in 2 and rejects at others. flagship state schools were either a WL or acceptances. Surprised with the outcome.


How do you get a 4.95 weighted GPA?

You can only take AP foreign language once


MCPS gives +1 for honors.
Anonymous
Post 04/07/2026 14:33     Subject: Rejections
Anonymous wrote:OP, hopefully this will teach him that he needs to get serious and work to his potential. He can do/be anything he wants coming out of either of those schools. If he can get a 1540 the potential is there, he just needs to figure out how to live up to that potential.


I truly don't understand the nastiness, what is up with parents (presumably) on this thread piling on and criticizing a kid or taking pleasure at their mistakes?
For the record there are lots of studies showing that boys at this age on age are 18 months behind girls in terms of maturity, HS and college apps come at an unfornate point in their development.
Anonymous
Post 04/07/2026 14:32     Subject: Rejections
Anonymous wrote:I thought UVA was our biggest reach and the rest may have been low reach at some ….
thought all wrong of course.


GA tech was probably your biggest reach.
Anonymous
Post 04/07/2026 14:31     Subject: Rejections
Anonymous wrote:DC had a 1590 SAT, 4.95 WGPA, stellar internships and recommendations. Accepted at just 1 Ivy, WL in 2 and rejects at others. flagship state schools were either a WL or acceptances. Surprised with the outcome.


How do you get a 4.95 weighted GPA?

You can only take AP foreign language once
Anonymous
Post 04/07/2026 14:31     Subject: Rejections
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:3.8uw is kind of the minimum……rigor isn’t as important as everyone thinks


Minimum for what? Many kids get into college with lower GPAs than a 3.8uw. The problem seems to be that OP’s kid applied to 2 safeties and bunch of reaches. Why would he apply to VCU and GMU but not JMU? Is OP trolling?


Op here.

Highly regret not having applied to JMU.

UVA came through as a deferral first round at ED results and we then had hope for some positive results for the other colleges then.


It was dumb to waste ED on UVA with that gpa. I always feel like I could be doing more as a parent, then I read things like this and figure I’m doing alright. At least I knew enough to not have my kid do a throw away ED app.

I see people on here ignoring the advice of— whole package, essays, sat, grades, targeted ECs, 4 years math, science, English, history, language over and over again. If you want your kid in at top schools, YES this is all necessary. If you don’t care, that’s fine, just stop wasting everyone’s time whining about how your kid can’t get into a top schools with his crap grades.

And yes, his recs were probably crap. No teacher is excited to write a rec for a kid who underperforms.


Are you this nasty in real life or only on anonymous message boards? Her kids could be super engaged and curious and all sorts of wonderful things that aren't reflected in his grades.


No, I’m realistic. Most kids are getting crap recs because it’s hard to stand out when your teacher is writing 100 recs. You really need to have concrete things that the teacher can put in the rec AND be a student that the teacher connected with on some level to get a great rec. OP’s kid had so so grades and his EC is one SciOly medal, so yes, the recs were probably blah.



Anonymous
Post 04/07/2026 14:29     Subject: Rejections
Anonymous wrote:3.8uw is kind of the minimum……rigor isn’t as important as everyone thinks


It's important but only if you are getting As. Getting B shows the school where your ceiling is.
Anonymous
Post 04/07/2026 14:28     Subject: Rejections
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:op again
sorry about the typos on my previous post.

Which OOS public did he apply to? All high reaches?


Case Western, Ga Tech UMd


Looking at the TJ scattergram (because almost everyone is applying engineering or other stem)

Case Western Median SAT 1530 Median GPA 4.4
Most kids with 4.1 and 1550ish were waitlisted or rejected

GTech Median SAT 1560 Median GPA 4.6
Lowest admitted GPA 4.16 with only a handful of students below a 4.5 admitted

UMd Median SAT 1530 Median GPA 4.4

Overwhelming majority of 4.1 GPA rejected.

I'm sorry to say none of these are head scratchers if you were applying STEM. Case Western might still work out for you if they waitlisted you.
In prior years, they pick up all the kids who want engineering and thought they could go to their state flagship for engineering.