I am applying to T20 schools for the RD cycle (MIT, Stanford, Brown, CMU), and I recently received my grade in a math class I took outside of high school at a large state university, which was a 3.8 (basically an A-, but a little bit higher; not quite an A). I was wondering whether or not submitting this grade would help or hurt my application to the aforementioned schools.
For context, I have a 4.0 UW HS GPA, 4.0 community college GPA, and a 1570 (790 Math/780 EBRW). This is the first non-A grade I have received.
My prior mathematics preparation has been pretty strong (5 in Calc BC as a freshman, multivariable/diff eq/linear algebra/stats at a community college). This class has prerequisites of diff eq and linear algebra, so it is fairly advanced.
My options are this: leave the course on my college applications (the ones I havenât submitted yet) as âin progressâ, or input the 3.8/4.0 as my grade.
Thank you all in advance for your guidance. To students viewing this thread, I wish you the best of luck in the RD round!
Sincerely,
mithopeful22
P.S.: I do have an affordable safety that I would honestly love to attend almost as much as any of these high reaches
I would also like to add that my prospective major is computer science, so math courses are important for my major, (maybe) making this class a bigger deal for me.
Agree with @momofboiler1- and going further to say this is a gentle introduction to something you will have to face if you go to CMU, MIT or Stanford: saying good-bye to having straight As/4.0 (5.0 if MIT). In ascending order of typical difficulty (approx!): HS â Honors â AP/DE â 4 year college/university. You might be one of the very very few to manage it, but 1) probably not and 2) itâs not an important success metric coming out of those schools so not a good priority.
And as the father of an applied math concentrator at Brown, and in spite of popular beliefs, straight As at Brown arenât easy and are far from the normđ
OP submit your grade it wonât adversely impact your application.
Thank you very much for your guidance. I know all of these schools are a very, very long shot (was deferred Harvard REA ), so I wonât be heartbroken if I donât get in anywhere. Just curious, do college AOs realize that grading is more difficult at large state universities than community colleges? I think I will submit this as long as it wonât be a dealbreaker, which it seems like it wonât be.
I know for sure that if I do end up getting rejected, it will most certainly be because of my ECs/essays
I believe that once completed, you will be required to submit the transcript for this college course. Just put the grade down now. Really, that one lower grade wonât be the reason you are rejected from a college. You should understand that as you had a perfect GPA and very high SAT and still were not accepted REAâŠright?
), so I wonât be heartbroken if I donât get in anywhere. Just curious, do college AOs realize that grading is more difficult at large state universities than community colleges? I think I will submit this as long as it wonât be a dealbreaker, which it seems like it wonât be.