Expert: Bill Taylor - 9/6/2009

Question
I'm a junior in a small, but very academic private high school. My GPA is 3.4 on a 4.0 scale, but im only ranked 33/147 in my class. I have 3 varsity letters in Cross Country, Track, and Swimming, and I have over 300 community service hours working with various organizations to aid the mentally and physically handicapped. I got a 32 on my act and a 2210 out of 2400 on the SAT. I am involved in student council, Latin club, enviornmental club, biology users group, CAP(civil air patrol), and am active in Boy Scouts. I have a reccomendation letter from my congressman, and have taken six advanced placement courses, including U.S. History, Chemistry, Biology, Physics, European History, and British Literature. I was curious what you think that my chances of acceptance would be, and if my extra-curriculars made up for my GPA deficate.

Answer
It's good to hear from you, Kevin.  Thanks for your interest in West Point.

As you know, West Point is looking for well rounded young men and women who are good students, good athletes and good leaders.  Having a balance in all three areas is important.

In the arena of academic evaluation, the most important metric is your rank in class, followed by SAT/ACT scores and last by GPA.  Your SAT/ACT scores seem excellent (the writing part of the SAT is NOT considered for Admission to West Point; only the math and critical reading scores).  

For a good comparison check out the statistics for a recent West Point class at:

http://admissions.usma.edu/moreInfo/classprofile.cfm

Your record as summarized here seems to be well balanced, which is a good start.  My best recommendation is to take on the toughest challenges you can find in all three areas and perform to the best of your ability in EVERYTHING you do!  When you are successful at that you will most certainly be competitive for admission in your senior year.

Good luck in your quest, Kevin.

Best Regards,

Bill Taylor
Gambrills, MD