I have a 3.5 unweighted GPA, am currently taking 2 AP courses, am a two sport athlete, member of NHS, and scored a 1280 on my SAT’s. Is it worth it to apply?
We get a lot of questions from concerned high school seniors who are having trouble deciding if it’s worth it to apply to Holy Cross. They rattle off their statistics and a laundry list of extracurricular activities and hope we can give them a sense of where they might stand in our applicant pool. Unfortunately, our job is not that simple. Making an admissions decision is not an exact science. There is no secret equation which guarantees admission (oh, how I wish there were!) Students (and parents) who ask this what-are-my-chances type question are probably frustrated by the admissions counselor’s vague answer. Since there are so many variables that change from year to year—the relative strength/weakness of our applicant pool, the institutional needs of the college, the geographic, ethnic, gender breakdown of the current student body etc.—it is difficult for us to gauge a student’s chances when given only a small sampling of their academic record. Additionally, we need to understand your high school, so that we can place you within the appropriate context. Because our approach to evaluating students is holistic and we truly value every part of the application, a brief sound byte such as that above does not give us adequate information about you. It is only when we have your entire application complete that we can begin to get to know you as an individual and determine whether or not Holy Cross is a good fit for you.
So should you apply, or not? You’re the only one who can answer that. If you think you have consistently pursued a challenging curriculum, are happy with the grades you have achieved in those classes, have given back to your high school community, and consider yourself an intellectually curious citizen of the world, then go for it! After all, at the very least you can consider this a “$50 experiment” (perhaps a secret experiment between you and us) and prevent yourself from a life of wondering if you could’ve gotten in…
