<p>So I'm applying to Yale, Brown, and Vandy, but I have a 3.7 unweighted GPA. It's a 4.96 weighted (it's not uncommon for someone to get a 5.6 or so at our school) and will be around 5.4 by the time I graduate if I maintain all As. I'm ranked second in my class and am wondering if one year can ruin my chances. It was all junior year. I took AP Chem, AP Physics B, AP Calc AB, AP World, AP English Literature, and AP Environmental Science all in one year (along with Spanish and choir). It was quite the load and my GPA shows it. I had a 4.0 before... Before I got 5 Bs and 4 Cs on my transcript. So will this one year ruin it? It's pretty bad... But I also have a 34 ACT, am Hispanic, will have good recommendations, have quite a few ECs with elected positions, and will hopefully have good essays. The fact that I have a 3.7 even with 9 bad grades should be good, shouldn't it? Or is this wishful thinking and I should just not expect to gain admission?</p>
<p>All the top schools accept applicants with lower grades than average. Your grades are certainly a little lower than those of most admits, though not by much. So you do have a chance, but only if your ECs and essays are well above average.</p>
<p>You should have a decent chance. You are an underrepresented minority, which will help, and you got those grades in AP classes. They look as much for rigor as they do for grades. Had you gotten Bs and Cs in regular academic level classes, your chances would be slim.
They will also take into consideration that you took 6 AP classes at once - some of them worth 2 college classes over the course of the year. Your performance that year would be a good indication that you would be able to handle a full set of college level classes at the same time, and you were able to do so as a HS Junior.</p>
<p>Your best bet is Vanderbilt, a match in your situation.</p>
<p>What’s your safeties?</p>
<p>New Mexico State University and University of New Mexico are my admission/financial safeties. (I’m from NM, another advantage?) Texas A&M would be an admission safety, not necessarily financial. And University of Rochester, which I consider a match. I’m also NMSF if that helps.</p>
<p>Also, my rank is out of ~365, so top 1%.</p>
<p>“I took AP Chem, AP Physics B, AP Calc AB, AP World, AP English Literature, and AP Environmental Science all in one year (along with Spanish and choir). It was quite the load and my GPA shows it.”</p>
<p>I am obviously not an admissions officer, but it’s possible that they wonder, “if he can’t handle this course load, how will he handle university which is harder?”. </p>
<p>Yale seems like quite a long-shot to me. Perhaps you will make it into one of the other two. You better apply to more than just those three–that would be foolish.</p>
<p>How could you possibly be ranked second in your class if you’ve gotten 5 B’s and 4 C’s throughout high school (no disrespect haha)? I want to transfer to your school…</p>
<p>Either than that, your Hispanic status and 34 ACT will definitely get you somewhere. I would apply to some schools of less prestige just in case…</p>
<p>johnb45, I would never attempt to take that same combination in college, though. Physics, calc, and chem all in one semester of college wouldn’t be too smart. Also, it wasn’t really that I couldn’t handle it, I just got lazy. And if you see the above posts, you’d know I’ve applied to 3 safeties and a match in addition to these schools. I didn’t ask for criticism or condescension, just affirmation that it is or is not likely that my chances of acceptance are severely lessened.</p>
<p>Well I’ve been asked that quite a few times. You see, each AP class and test (if you take it and pass with a certain score) will give you an add on of 0.1 to your GPA all year. Pre-APs will get you 0.04. So I had taken 9 AP classes and tests and 7 Pre-APs. This was the second most of all of my classmates. Also, my unweighted really isn’t that bad… I will still have a 3.8 UW when I graduate. Also, even though I had really bad grades, I’ve passed all of my AP tests except for one with at least a 3. And my school is relatively competitive for like the top 10, but drops off significantly after that.</p>