What does the University of Alaska Anchorage look for?

UAA accepts about 3/4 of their applicants and typically only looks for a 2.5 or better GPA. Only 35% of students had a high school GPA of 3.5 or better, and about 40% were in the bottom half of their graduating class. So UAA, while a good school, is not extremely selective and therefore attainable for most students.

The most important thing they look at is the rigor of your high school record, so be sure to choose challenging classes. They also consider your class rank, SAT scores, talent/ability, volunteer work, and work experience. If you have a GPA of 2.0-2.49, they can admit you on a probational basis, but they only do this for less than 5% of their students, so don't count on it.

UAA has a unique testing policy under which most students do not have to take the SAT or ACT, but you will need to contact them directly to find out whether that applies in your case. For students who do submit test scores, their average scores are pretty average -- you can see information at http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/Colle... -- so I would not stress over that.

Basically, just do well in high school and you should be all set. You should also visit http://www.uaa.alaska.edu/admissions/ and learn what you can to make sure it is indeed a right fit for you. Good luck!

Can you walk and talk and breathe? Then you're in! Seriously, that's about it. They take pretty much anyone.