<p>Hello all, I have taken 14 ap's through the course of my school year (not even including senior year) and have maintained a 3.75 gpa unweighted (not sure of weighted) I've gotten B's in my history classes basically, ap world, ap us history, and ap government. I have a terrible time with the social studies and this is mainly what brought down my gpa. I have however done fine on the ap tests, with seven 5's five 4's and two 3's A 3.75 isn't very stellar though, and obviously my rank is affected because of this so I was wondering what do you think? Is it ok? My SAT scores are well in the 750+ range on all subjects for SAT II and all sections of the SAT I, and the math/science courses I've taken I've maintained straight A's ......Should I mention my problem with social studies in the "optional info" section? Let me know! Thanks!!!</p>
<p>no. you should hope harvard takes pity on you and thinks you're that cool slacker-kid.</p>
<p>That's exactly what I was going for. Thanks for the good advice.</p>
<p>14 APs is quite a lot! I think they'll understand. A 3.75 isn't bad at all and your SAT scores are excellent. </p>
<p>Don't mention problems, a few B's won't hurt you.</p>
<p>Were you able to fit all those APs in your school schedule?
how many AP classes did you take in school?</p>
<p>I actually was able to fit it all in....took 3 freshman year, 4 sophomore year, and 7 junior year (5 classes, one being gov which has 2 tests and then i took ap physics c e+m test by self-studying) Senior year I'm working with a professor from a local university on some research projects and taking college classes.</p>
<p>Why didn't opt for at the most 8 AP classes? You would have had a much higher GPA. Common sense and a little humility goes a long way.</p>
<p>Yeah I suppose, but my ap grades were fine and i can get tons of credits at any college and get advanced standing in Harvard if I make it in...and aside from the history classes, math science english comp sci I kept all A's (and in the other classes that weren't ap like foreign language and jazz band) I guess we'll just have to see what happens.</p>
<p>you may have taken a lot of ap's but you only got 5's on 7 of them so they probably will think you cant handle a college level course. combine that with your low gpa, they'll probably think you're just a slacker. you're a legacy/athlete i hope?</p>
<p>AP credits aren't everything, as you will soon find out in college. The AP class hardly the equivalent course in college. Also, your grades matter much more than the AP scores themselves...</p>
<p>MIT will understand that your courseload was very difficult: this you dont need to explain in the additional info section. Everybody has weaknesses and certain subjects we aren't too strong at. A 3.75, while indeed a bit low for MIT, in your case is understandable. In my mind, I don't think you should have taken so many APs in the first place because ensuring a solid GPA with a rigorous courseload is more impressive than overloading and slipping by. But just don't worry too much about these things: what's done is done.</p>
<p>^Umm we're talking about Harvard here buddy.</p>
<p>Hmm, the relevant question here is does your school rank students according to a weighted GPA system or does it only consider unweighted GPA?? If your rank is still low if your school calculates weighted GPA, then that basically means some kids at your school took as many AP classes as you did but performed just as well as you, which is pretty amazing but possible I guess...If this is the case, then your chances of getting admitted to Harvard are lowered greatly since the college wants to see how well you performed in relation to your peers in HS, unless you go to like Exeter or Andover which might give you more leeway.</p>
<p>You can still get accepted though since I know kids with like 3.5 UW HS GPA's get in simply because they had other stuff going for them. You can't control your GPA regardless so focus on writing a kickass essay and refining your EC's. Good luck!!!!</p>
<p>
Hate to break it you, but some people actually care more about learning and gaining knowledge than having a spotless transcript. Is it commons sense for you not to challenge yourself with the most rigorous curriculum available at your school?? COMMON SENSE would dictate that had the OP taken fewer AP classes, his/her rank would have probably slipped further if the school weighted GPA. </p>
<p> [quote=ballerina] AP credits aren't everything, as you will soon find out in college. The AP class hardly the equivalent course in college. Also, your grades matter much more than the AP scores themselves...
The OP never said AP credits were everything but it's definitely beneficial to have them than not for both financial and self-fulfilling purposes. If the AP class isn't equivalent to a course in college, imagine how "prepared" the OP would have been for college had she just taken honors or regular classes god forbid. Grades may matter more for admissions purpose but you aren't doing yourself justice if you don't know the material well enough to perform well on the AP tests and focus on grades rather than the joy of learning, which is probably a key to greater success later in life.</p>
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OMG ONLY 5'S ON 7 AP'S BY JUNIOR YEAR...yep she definitely can't handle the rigors of college.:rolleyes: Definitely a slacker with that "low" GPA and those "poor" AP scores!!!! You're just mentally retarded or suffer from an incurable birth defect I hope?</p>
<p>In general, the posters on this thread just make Harvard look bad.</p>
<p>lol i love cc because people never recognize sarcasm or jokes</p>
<p>this one is a good example too <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=230838%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=230838</a></p>
<p>For the most part, well said evil<em>asian</em>dictator.</p>
<p>
[quote]
In general, the posters on this thread just make Harvard look bad.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I don't get this though...not everyone who posts on this thread goes to Harvard...and not-well-informed opinions are posted on every thread on this board...so how does that reflect badly upon Harvard?</p>
<p>Oh wow...I've been spending so much time on the MIT threads lol</p>
<p>Thanks for the comments everybody, yeah my school does do the weighted gpa and with that I'm in the top 10% of my class with a graduating size of 348 people. I guess I'll just see what happens, nothing to do about it now, what's done is done...I have no regrets though, I hate social studies classes haha my transcript with B's in those history classes tells a lot about my interests. And the other AP classes were worth it and I kept the grade so hey it's all good.</p>
<p>Evil asian Dictator, you're screwed up--you're totally twisting my words. </p>
<p>"Hate to break it you, but some people actually care more about learning and gaining knowledge than having a spotless transcript. Is it commons sense for you not to challenge yourself with the most rigorous curriculum available at your school?? COMMON SENSE would dictate that had the OP taken fewer AP classes, his/her rank would have probably slipped further if the school weighted GPA. "</p>
<p>You can still "gain knowledge" and "challenge yourself" by taking a smaller amount of AP classes, and actually doing well in them. And no, common sense would not dictate that the OP's rank would slip...he/she would be able to get higher grades, duh. </p>
<p>"The OP never said AP credits were everything but it's definitely beneficial to have them than not for both financial and self-fulfilling purposes. If the AP class isn't equivalent to a course in college, imagine how "prepared" the OP would have been for college had she just taken honors or regular classes god forbid."</p>
<p>Dude, do you understand the concept of AP credits? They're meant to place you into a higher level class. Obviously, if the kid stuck with JUST honors level classes, he/she would not place into the higher level class, and just stay in the intro.</p>
<p>"Grades may matter more for admissions purpose but you aren't doing yourself justice if you don't know the material well enough to perform well on the AP tests and focus on grades rather than the joy of learning, which is probably a key to greater success later in life"</p>
<p>And you aren't doing yourself justice if you don't perform well in the class. "focus on grades rather than the joy of learning, which is probably a key to greater success later in life" That part doesn't even make sense. What's the difference between focusing on grades and focusing on your AP scores?</p>
<p>ballerina quiet down, you are clearly wrong.</p>
<p>AP scores > grades? Ok, good luck getting into any good colleges.</p>