Okay, so I didn’t do as well as I would have liked first semester of Juinor year.
Latin 2: B
Algebra H: B
AP Physics: B
AP Macroeconomic:B
AP Lit: A
AP Human Geo: A
Mentorship: A
Next semester I’m taking in place of Econ and Human Geo and the Mentorship that where all a semester long AP Psychology and an Intro to Health Science class that is a two hour block.
If I got a 5 on the Econ exam the teacher says he will change my grade to an A because I had been really close to getting it.
Algebra I could easily get an A in, but I’m worried of Latin and Physics.
With Latin I honestly don’t know, I need a chance to self study the second part of the first year. I jumped into Latin 2. And the teacher doesn’t really go over the stuff the students learned in class last year. And I need a language so I need to take it.
Should I drop AP Physics to regular for an easy A? I barely managed to get an A. If I drop it I could potentially manage to get around a 3.7 for the end of my Juinor year. But I’ll also go from taking 4 AP classes first semester down to 2 second semester.
@TheDidactic Even if I want to apply to Harvard, Yale, etc??? I’m forced to stick with Latin and I feel like I could pull off a high B/A, but with Physics even if I work hard I honest doubt I could get higher then a B. If I get 2 B’s next semester than I’m stuck with a 3.68 for Juinor year and that will be what I have to put in my college applications. If I do drop it and get an A in regular I could still be able to get 1 B next semster while going up to an 3.71.
There’s not that much difference between a 3.68 or 3.71 (or 3.6 and 3.7 if your school rounds).
Work to get those grades up as much as possible and you should be okay. There’s no guarantee but I’m sure it’s not the lowest GPA those places let in. If you drop the AP and get the A in the regular to bump your GPA up, they’ll know and judge accordingly. Your GC would also have to say you didn’t take “as rigorous as you could have.”
What you should do is get over the fixation on Harvard and Yale and start thinking about more realistic reach schools where you’d be a good fit and get the most out of your four years. HYPMS turn away enough 4.0 10 AP class kids to fill their class many times over, because those kids just aren’t that unusual in the applicant pool. Jockeying your GPA for that extra .25 just isn’t going to make a difference.
I’d drop the AP Physics to regular physics if you have no interest in the sciences - that is, this is the last physics class you plan ever to take and you aren’t majoring in science. Then I’d use the extra capacity it creates to get your other grades up. If you do plan to do anything in the science area -or anything that has a strong math component (like Economics), then I’d stick with the AP physics because you need the skill set that goes with powering through that kind of quantitative thinking.
@3idek3 no, not necessarily, but I think what N’s Mom is saying is not to fixate on ivies and enjoy high school, make a realistic list of colleges you fit well into and that fit your GPA/scores.
Of course if you want to apply to ivies, no one is telling you not to–just measure your expectations, look into other places and have a plan b. What N’s Mom is probably worries about is that you’re one of the people who come to these forums and only aim for HYPSM with stats that are only average for that caliber of schools. When those people get rejected, they have nowhere else to go and more importantly they are shattered by rejection from their dream school.