<p>I've been taking all honors and AP classes since my freshman year. I know I could have easily gotten straight A's in regular classes...but because of the rigor of my course selection, I've had practically straight B's throughout my sophomore and junior year, with slight improvements for second semesters of both years. </p>
<p>I'm not going to apply to schools like HYP, but I'm really interested in Emory, Cornell, etc...</p>
<p>My test scores are pretty good, all my SAT's (both I and II) at least 700. I'm going to have about 450 hours of community service, my EC's are good, but not mindblowing like most people here on CC.</p>
<p>How do I make sure that the colleges know that my GPA is low not because of the lack of effort/ability but more because of the difficulty of my class choice?</p>
<p>[EDIT]
I go to a public school. But we always rank as one of the top 100ish schools and have a very high Average Performance Index. and my school sends a pretty good number of students to top colleges and universities. Do those things even matter? I mean, don't schools counselors send our schools profiles along with their recs?</p>
<p>the problem is that kids applying to the schools you’re looking at have taken courses at the rigour you have yet have gotten As. Emory and Cornell and Ivies and such are likely out of your reach, I’m sorry to say</p>
<p>They’ll know, they know AP classes are harder than regular classes and you wouldn’t have been better off with As in regular classes. You didn’t mention if you are at a public high school or a private one. Cornell will be tough but I think you might get into Emory.</p>
<p>Do a lot of the kids from your school apply to top schools and get in? That would be one consideration. There’s nothing you can do to persuade of the toughness of your classes but the school will put in an explanation. Mostly, though, if the schools are familiar with your school, they will already know this. If you check on your naviance system, you will see what the general stats are for kids with your grades and test scores. And that will give you a pretty good idea of where to aim. One other thing, though, please don’t get overly hung up on prestige as a factor…broaden your perspective. There are a lot of really great schools out there. Some are more "known’ than others to you, but many of them, depending on what you want to study, which you don’t know of, are very well known to adults and to grad schools and to hiring authorities, as welll. The aim is to find a place where you feel you can succeed and fit in and stand out.</p>
<p>B-average grades are not good. Plenty of applicants to top schools take the hardest schedule and get straight A’s. Unless your school is renowned for being ridiculously difficult, it will be problematic. </p>
<p>What are your exact test scores? 700s across the board is good, but won’t exactly make up for the GPA.</p>
<p>I’d suggest you raise your test scores, and really rock that essay. Other than that… good luck.</p>
<p>All you need to do is to go on the naviance system for your school and see where kids with your scores and rank and whatnot go to college. Do you have wieghted GPA? Becuase that can make a significant difference in what your GPA will be calculated at. I’m not trying to get your hopes up, and I don’t know what kind of grades the other kids have gotten…but, really, you can very easily answer your own question, and my guess is that you may be a little disappointed, but not as much as you think.</p>
<p>i can raise it during senior year, but that wouldn’t go on my college app unless I get waitlisted or something and have to send in additional info right?</p>
<p>Your first semester scores will go on your RD applications. At least they will have the grades before they make a decision, but one semesters worth of grades isn’t going to make that much difference. Look, you’re going to do just fine. Honestly. The colleges are going to know how tough your school is and you will get a fine acceptance. Truly. Go on the naviance system and report back! I think you will be suprised. In a good way.</p>
<p>I’d say go for it, but make sure you have some good safeties, just in case. Also consider applying early decision (or early action) if you really love a school, because this could increase your chances of admission, possibly. Remember that senior year still counts for something too. I would definitely try to get higher than straight B’s for senior year, as well as making sure you get really good recommendations from teachers who know that you do high quality work and would be capable of handling a college workload. Also, colleges do care about rigor of courseload; your school should send out a summary of the school along with your transcript. However, keep in mind that others in your school have probably taken difficult courses and gotten A’s…maybe think of some schools to apply to that not many people will be applying to. Also, take everything on this website with a grain of salt, including what i’m saying, because honestly, people can only speculate what your chances of admission are, and most of the time, the people speculating are other students who don’t really know what they’re talking about. And just because some of these CC people may have padded their resumes with a million activities does not make them amazingly special, especially because people can say anything they want online. So please don’t feel bad about your accomplishments based on this insane website.
Good Luck!</p>
<p>You should aim to get top marks first semester, because that counts for RD schools (and EA deferred). I think schools are required to submit first semester marks to each RD school in what’s called the “mid-year report.” Correct me if I’m wrong, but my school does this.</p>
<p>If you don’t know about naviance by now, your school probably doesn’t have one. However, for your information, naviance shows the stats of students from your school that were accepted, deferred, and denied from specific universities in the past few years. It is considerably more helpful than stats you find online, because those don’t take into account differences in school rigor. However, since everyone on naviance was in your high school, it is a much better projecter of what you can expect.</p>
<p>And when everyone from my high school looked at naviance, they were pretty depressed. People who had dreams of going to HYPSM (myself) had to significantly lower their expectations. People who had dreams of going to other top schools (other ivies and the like) had to start considering some lesser caliber publics and LACs. etc.</p>
<p>It’s not a completely hopeless case, but if you choose to apply you should know that the chances of getting into those schools with your GPA are tiny. Make sure you also apply to match/safeties that you love!</p>
<p>(I had an all A average in a mostly AP schedule and didn’t get into the Ivies. In the fall, I will gladly be attending one of my match schools).</p>
<p>^But why wouldn’t the OP have heard about it yet? Naviance saves the college counselors considerable time and agony (by not having to tell students they have almost zero shot at a school), so it makes no sense for the OP to not have found out about the site. </p>
<p>If his/her school does have a naviance, his/her counselor is an idiot for not telling him/her about it sooner.</p>
I think you will be suprised. In a good way.</p>