<p>Haha, I got mostly B’s in my first semester during my junior year and that’s because my school was almost a semester behind me in all my science subjects.</p>
<p>@Jimmy, but do you not plan to at least mention the efforts you put forth? As you said the admissions people would connect the dots.</p>
<p>I think you made a choice on how to allocate time, and it might be nice to hear why, even briefly. An excuse to me is more like ‘I would have gotten A’s if I didn’t do so and so’. </p>
<p>Basically I think it is the student’s choice on how to explain, and in a case like the OPs, explaining special circumstances seems good.</p>
<p>I’m mentioning the SAT courses in the midyear report. I don’t know whether they’d think ‘Oh okay so he was preparing a full curriculum instead of studying for social sciences’ and I’m not sure it’s a good thing if they do, even. I’m just going to write that I was prepping for the courses (i.e give an update in the midyear report that my school asked me to give a few talks/courses about the SAT to sophomores and juniors and I worked on it), and that it was within that timeframe. My counselor’s going to mention it on his midyear recommendation too, so I’m just leaving it at that. I hope they don’t see the grades as slacking off though, that might kill my chances.</p>
<p>This is only my style, but I would ask myself why I chose to spend my time that way, and say this. I would assume you rather wanted to spend that much time. </p>
<p>Usually you will yourself know whether you had good reasons, and can be frank. Or you may find you did not and be at peace with that. Maybe it will lead to refining your philosophy.</p>
<p>I think dismissal is always worse than honest confrontation.</p>
<p>^I do think everything I did was worth the time. The curriculum I was preparing did take a lot of work, and I had other stuff on my mind as well, but I didn’t study as much as I could have for the exams - I guess I was just tired. Never liked social sciences at all anyway. Studying for 3 subjects that will have little to no influence in my daily life, or preparing a way to help those younger than I am get into college (top colleges in the country take the SAT as 50% of admission decisions here, so it really makes a big difference, and I honestly think that I can help direct those who are willing to work to a better score.) You tell me, what would you have chosen?</p>
<p>I guess I was pretty adamant about letting basically nothing come in the way of doing well in school, so I wouldn’t (likely) have even let myself make that choice. </p>
<p>However, I would slack as much as I could in social sciences, since I didn’t really like them either. I don’t think I ever really seriously listened to a lecture in a social science class. </p>
<p>My view is you made the right decision, and I’d not call it whining for you to mention any of this. It says something about you that you made that decision, and really you’ve shown you can do well in something if you think it’s worth it, and you’re putting effort into applying. I think it’s clear you would try to pass your general requirements at MIT or any other school, even if you might choose not to excel in them (in favor of doing something else). Your overall GPA is probably mainly an indicator as to how good a student you are, but it also very much indicates how you allocate time. Intelligence can be measured by hard exams, but overall school record tends to reflect choices we make on how to spend time.</p>
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That seems fair. I personally look for excuses not to study social sciences, so it was a pretty easy decision for me. Plus as you said I’ve already shown I can excel in those subjects when I want to, so I hope these 3 C’s don’t really affect my application. Somehow I doubt it’ll be seen that way though.
Ditto. :D</p>
<p>tmann, I can tell you are not a quitter and you sound like a person that can be counted on. IMHO you are so conscientious that it is now becoming a liability. Why didn’t you let the previous leaders know that you couldn’t handle it either? Certainly there are other capable students at your school. If you’re really the only one then it might be time for the club to fold.</p>
<p>I am sure you can do an excellent job at any one of these positions but no one is capable of doing an excellent job at all of them. I get the swim team sucking thing (I go to a small school where we cannot sometimes field a complete team) but it sounds like your coach has created this problem. Why would people make swimming their priority if the coach doesn’t value commitment? It is not your fault, yet you step in and try to fix everything (sounds like a pattern).</p>
<p>Maybe what you could write about to MIT is what you have learned from this whole experience–how you have to have balance and boundaries. That you know you are a team player but you have learned that you need to set priorities and allow others to pick up some slack (delegating). You would be a dream come true for most colleges with your sense of dedication but not if you don’t understand when your plate is full.</p>
<p>I hope you get some relief soon!</p>
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<p>We both know that if I were doing admissions, I would cut you plenty of slack on this ;)</p>
<p>Honestly, it shouldn’t matter, but I wonder if in a really competitive admissions process, sometimes one has to eliminate candidates somehow or the other, because in the end the class that is picked will be good. There isn’t necessarily always a great consensus on how to eliminate candidates based on who is ‘best’ for the school.</p>
<p>Well no doubt it shouldn’t, in my opinion one’s extracurricular activities success is more important than social sciences success, because one’s likely to minor in the former at MIT (drama, music, etc.)
If it were up to me, future success at the institute would be decided by scientific subject grades and rank, then languages grades and rank, then ECAs, then the SAT scores, then social sciences grades. Of course, I doubt MIT does anything like this. Wish it did though :D</p>
<p>Anyway I’m fairly satisfied with my MIT application - aside from my rank, which was easily brought down by my social sciences grades across the years. But I’m counting on that not to be the deciding factor come mid-March. I honestly think it’s ridiculous if I’m not accepted based on low grades in one semester for subjects I will never use or see again in my educational life.</p>
<p>^I think you should be fine. Your C’s should’nt hurt you too much. There are far more important things MIT Admissions looks for, and as long as you come across as viable, they’ll look at your strengths more to find the bit of passion and potential they’re looking for. IMO, of course. </p>
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<p>Seconded.</p>
<p>I still have an A-equivalent average across the years, mainly because my sciences grades are so high and weigh far more in my final average than social sciences. Math alone is worth about double their weight.
That said, a C is hardly a good thing, let alone in numbers, and we don’t know that the admissions officers wouldn’t see them as a bad thing anyway, even if considering my time allocations and such. It’s hit or miss, really, much like the rest of the application. I’m just going to finish up my midyear report during this week, fax my recommendation, and give it a rest till decisions; I’m really tired of applications and such, haven’t had much time to enjoy senior year and I feel like I’m missing out.</p>
<p>^Hahaha, I know exactly what you mean</p>
<p>Would it truly be a good idea to send in a quick note showing how I’ve been stressed and how I learned from my mistakes in an effort to assuage my two C’s (they were in Alg II and Calc, however I got an 88 in Pre-calc (which came after Alg II)).</p>
<p>@limabeans, re: post #28 …</p>
<p>Wow, limabeans. I think you’re a student, not a parent, right? I am so impressed with your response! To me, it demonstrates incredible wisdom, maturity, and self-awareness. And, as a parent, I couldn’t agree with you more. (You just said it better than I could have!) :)</p>
<p>@tmanne … what limabeans said</p>
<p>^I should say the same about answer #28. It’s hard to find such deep counseling on CC.</p>
<p>thanks for the compliment simplelife and sandro,can you tell I have been a peer counselor since the 9th grade? I guess I learned something after all those trainings and “interventions”. </p>
<p>I was also in a similar position as tmann is awhile back and had to learn the same lesson. So I’ve done a lot of soul searching on the topic.</p>