One of the most frustrating elements of the application process to those of us at selective institutions is the notion that admission can be predicted. From students asking about GPA all the time (see why it’s not a good question), to the “chancing” that goes on in certain online forums (cough-cough College Confidential cough-cough), to [...]
Well, we had another highly competitive year for admission and, as is always the case, we had many more qualified applicants than we have space for in our class. Those of you who have been offered a spot on the wait list are students whom we believe are fully qualified and would contribute greatly to our campus but for whom we don’t, given our size limitations, have space at present. Selective admission is a difficult process for us, as we try to select a class from among many strong, similarly-qualified applicants.
Our average GPA is a 22.96.
Seriously.
We’re asked that question so frequently – “What’s your average GPA?” – that we thought we’d actually go ahead and calculate it. So we took all of the enrolled students in our current first-year class and averaged together all of the GPAs that their high schools reported to us last year. And the golden number came out to be 22.96.
Okay, now that it’s January 15 and our application deadline has arrived, all seniors applying to college (and their parents) should begin thinking about the next step – applying for financial aid. This means a few things: (1) consider getting your taxes done as soon as possible to make sure everything goes smoothly; (2) start work as soon as possible filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA; and (3) check whether the schools where you’ve applied require any sort of supplemental financial aid application (you can find ours here).
I love autumn. It’s my favorite season of the year. The brisk days, the changing leaves, apple cider… it’s an exciting and invigorating time. And now that I’m working in college admissions, autumn brings back fond memories of my own senior year in high school – the campus visits, the final decisions of where I would apply, and the act of actually, really, truly applying to college.
