<p>I posted a thread somewhere else but got very little feed back. Currently a sophomore in high school. Looking at competitive private universities below the Big 10 (possibly considering if I have a HUGE jump in junior year).</p>
<p>School Type: Competitive and rigorous New England Boarding School, ranked top 20 for all prep schools in the nation and sends many kids to ivies + top universities every year.</p>
<p>GPA: 3.53 UW (school doesn’t provide weighted GPA)
Weakest area is Chemistry and English.</p>
<p>Current sophomore schedule (credit courses only):
Honors Algebra II
Honors Chemistry I
English II*
World History*
Chinese IV*
* = No AP/Honors section offered</p>
<p>Projected senior schedule:
AP Calculus BC
AP Physics II
AP English IV Literature
AP Economics
Independent Studies in Chinese
French II or Spanish II (maybe honors)
Existentialism</p>
<p>Projected 7 AP courses by graduation; 3 in junior year and 4 in senior year. Most demanding course load given the circumstances (school only offers 16 AP courses and very rarely offers AP courses to underclassmen.)</p>
<p>My current EC’s are mediocre: 2 years of running Track and Cross-Country. Recently joined Math team and School Newspaper this winter term. Plan on joining debate and also hope to clock in community service hours beginning this summer through volunteering with Red Cross (I did a lot of community service in my previous school, I didn’t have the time to do it here because I had sports everyday after school.) Summers include doing overseas volunteering service and front desk job at a restaurant. </p>
<p>Additional information: I transferred to my current school from an IGCSE/IB international school in Asia where I studied for the past 2-3 years. I had straight-A’s in my old school as it wasn’t as nearly as academically demanding as my current school, so it took time for me to adjust to my new environment. Will colleges take this into consideration when looking at my sophomore and overall GPA?</p>
<p>I just don’t think you can cut it. If you tell schools that your GPA suffered because you transferred they’ll think “if he couldn’t handle moving up to a harder prep school how is he going to handle moving into an elite university?”</p>
<p>My GPA is on a rising trend now and I hope to increase it by next year. I can handle the school work fine, it’s just that having just recently transferred this year, there were some problems adjusting (common trend for students who come in after freshman year). Obviously moving to a new enviorment, in any situation, it’s somewhat difficult to find your footing again immediately. 4.0 isn’t easy to cut here, only 10% of our last year’s graduating class had GPA’s higher than 3.7, but college matriculation statistics said it was one of our best graduating classes in recent school history.</p>
<p>I’m not saying it’s impossible. I’m just saying that, realistically, there are a lot of students out there from schools like yours with schedules like yours who have stronger GPAs, and, honestly, a lot stronger ECs. You can still be competitive, but you need to get that GPA up, you’ll need a 2250+ on the SAT, and you need to get some strong leadership positions in your ECs.</p>
<p>Having myself transferred to an elite northeast private school I understand what you mean about the GPA. It’s not just a more rigorous academic environment but it’s a whole new kind of lifestyle and requires adjustment. If you have an A- GPA now then you’ve done a great job with that transition I think. The good thing is that the college counselors at these schools often have good relationships with colleges and can help you more than most counselors are able to. Going to such a good school is looked at very favorably by top colleges. I know scheduling can be tough during the year, but see if there are any organizations you’re interested in over the summer (you mentioned Red Cross which is a good start). These schools tend to run volunteer trips during the summer vacation too which are good.
It seems like you’re working hard and doing well so far, keep it up and pay extra attention to English, you’re going to need to really push to get top SAT scores.</p>