College App Question: SAT scores vs. GPA

[furyshade]

how does it look to colleges in this situation? for instance lets say someone gets a 2250+ and has a 3.3gpa, or at the other end has a 4.0 and a 2000. how do colleges look at these situations? is it better to have one than the other?

[Bork]

Case 1: they know you are lazy-ish.
Case 2: they know you are a hardworker and probably not as smart as case 1.

I think most undergrads will prefer case 2. However they also tend to use index scores which vary depending upon school.

[Ganjasaurus Rex]

Case 1: It depends on where you went to high school. A 3.3 means many different things depending on your school. They know you're smart enough, and they'll want to know how hard it was to get a 3.3 at your school.

Case 2: Again, it depends. A 2000 certainly does not mean you're dumb, and if you got a 4.0 at a decent school, you're going to be fine. Otoh, if you got a 4.0 at some retard school, it doesn't do you much good.

[TheSalche]

Depends on your high school, also depends on how your GPA got to where it was. For example here I'd rather be the 2nd person if my GPA had been increasing since sophomore year, I'd hate to be the 1st guy if my GPA was a 4.0 freshman year.

[furyshade]

bumping this cause i got my SAT scores, it looks like i fit case A perfectly, 800 math, 760 writing, 690 reading for 2250 and my gpa looks like it will shape up to between 3.35-3.4. my highschool is a small private school where i am definitely taking the harder classes i can in everything except english. this quarter i have 5 A's and 1 B unweighted so hopefully i can carry that to the semester.

for reference here is the list of school im applying to in no particular order, and all schools except chicago im applying as EE major

1. Stanford
2. Berkeley
3. Harvey Mudd
4. UCSD
5. UCLA
6. UC davis
7. UCSB
8. u Chicago
9. Lafayette
10. Carnegie-Mellon
11. USC
12. Cal Poly SLO

[willw9]

EE will eat you alive at every one of those schools.

[Ganjasaurus Rex]

As someone who helps to make these decisions, a 3.35-3.4 GPA doesn't look impressive even if you are from a prep school unless it's a really top-notch place. Otoh, it doesn't look like you're a retard either, especially with those SAT scores. If i were looking at a cold application like this, i'd have to guess you were somewhat lazy. Someone who get those SAT scores should get a 3.7+ GPA.

To be sure, this is not meant as an insult. I'm just telling you how we make these decisions. It's an imperfect system, but unfortunately, it's the reality that you need to deal with.

Btw, why not include Illinois on your list? Best value for the buck in almost all engineering depts.

[furyshade]

[ QUOTE ]
EE will eat you alive at every one of those schools.

[/ QUOTE ]

im aware of this, but my GPA tends to be lower due to language and english classes, i have tended to do very well in math/science classes. right now im taking number theory which is typically a sophomore level college math class; modern physics, a class in which i am the only student and is focused around essentially physics in the last 100-130 years; and physics with experimental design, which is based around the idea of learnign the physics behind real world things rather than just theoretical circumstances. id take an AP physics but the only one my school offers requires me to have already taken calc BC last year. i also took honors physics last year. over the last summer i took java programing, a basic astrophysics class, and cognitive psychology at stanford in a high school summer program, all for transerable credits as if i attended the school as an undergrad. also two summers ago i worked in a lab at the UNC-chapel hill school of public health doing basic research and have worked every year on the los angeles marathon, hopefully this gives a better idea of what colleges will see

[furyshade]

[ QUOTE ]
As someone who helps to make these decisions, a 3.35-3.4 GPA doesn't look impressive even if you are from a prep school unless it's a really top-notch place. Otoh, it doesn't look like you're a retard either, especially with those SAT scores. If i were looking at a cold application like this, i'd have to guess you were somewhat lazy. Someone who get those SAT scores should get a 3.7+ GPA.

To be sure, this is not meant as an insult. I'm just telling you how we make these decisions. It's an imperfect system, but unfortunately, it's the reality that you need to deal with.

Btw, why not include Illinois on your list? Best value for the buck in almost all engineering depts.

[/ QUOTE ]
it originally was, but applying out of state just cost so much more and state apps tend to require a lot more work for a school i didn't really intend on going to seemed pointless. most of my schools are on the coast for a reason

[ohioguy218]

whatever happens ... don't go to U of chicago ... Northwestern FTW