<p>By the end of this year (junior year), my unweighted GPA will probably end up to be 3.57 and my weighted GPA 4.14 or so. It's just a shame that I overloaded myself with a bunch of honors/APs, then find out that unweighted GPA is more important than weighted GPA. By the end of my high school career I'll have taken 7 honors classes, 7 AP classes, and 8 regular classes (4 of which were freshman year when honors/AP wasn't available to me, while the rest were advanced electives). I honestly do prefer honors/APs because there's a HUGE disparity between honors/AP and regular classes at my school; honors/AP students are barely sleeping every night while regular students complain about never having any homework.</p>
<p>I feel like I've done myself a disservice and I'll have to reconsider all of my college options because I feel like such a subpar student. But I'm in at least the top 18% of my class (confirmed by my admission into a certain AP class). I don't feel like I can get into any UCs especially, since they have such a weird system and my UC GPA ends up being like 3.63 or something. The thing is, I'm actually a really good student, but my school's just really unreasonable. I worked really hard to get only A's and high B's this semester, and that was going fine until my grades randomly started dropping right as the year's about to end. For instance, in my Lit class, I aced every essay except for the last one (I got a C) and it dropped my high A all the way to a B+. All that hard work got invalidated by just ONE bad grade.</p>
<p>Sorry this is so disorganized. My thoughts are so jumbled. But in conclusion, do you think I'll be able to get into any college? Am I considered a "good" candidate or not so much? Did taking all those honors/APs really do me a dissservice or am I just being paranoid?</p>
<p>"do you think I’ll be able to get into any college? "</p>
<p>You are kidding, right? Of course you can get into college somewhere. Whether you can get into a particular one that you are interested in is a whole different thing. Make a sensible list for your self that includes a couple dead-on safeties where your GPA and test scores flat out guarantee you admission, and that you know you can afford. Everything else will be gravy.</p>
<p>Keep taking the hard classes. It will be fine.</p>
<p>Admissions is always about a balance between rigor and GPA. The UCs are a specialist topic better handled by our UC crew, but you have not done yourself a disservice by taking all those tough classes - it will pay off come admissions time. The problem may have been that you took one too many, or took a combination of time-eaters that was a bad idea, AP Lit (I assume) being one of them. One grade should not have dropped you all the way from a high A to a B+, unless it was highly weighted, but talk to your teacher and see if there’s any way to get back over the A-/B+ divide.</p>
<p>As always the idea is to have both rigor AND a high GPA, but there comes a point where too much rigor leads to a lower GPA. Take a look at your senior year schedule and see if there’s any way to pull a 4.0 with a reasonable amount of rigor - may not help for the UC application, but it could help for elsewhere.</p>
<p>Agree. It is a FAQ to adcom that whether it is better to get 4.0 in GPA or taking the very rigor curriculum. The answer from the adcom of top schools is “both”. There is not fixed scale or conversion table for course rigorous vs GPA. The general idea is to keep your DNA as close to 4.0 as possible while taking as many AP/Honors classes as possible.</p>
<p>while it may seem counterintuitive, a 4.0 in easy classes > 3.6 in hard classes. however, im 100% sure you can still get into some great schools even with a 3.57! just keep doing your best.</p>
<p>@jen123: You do have a chance at some of the UC’s. If your current unweighted GPA is 3.57, your UC GPA would be in the range of 3.77- 3.85 since you get 8 extra points for 4 of your AP classes. That weighted GPA would give you a good chance at UCM/UCR/UCSC. I would also apply to UCI/UCSB depending upon your major. Don’t be discouraged since there are many good schools beside the UC’s, that would love to have you. My younger son had a UC GPA of 3.73 with 10 AP’s and 2 Honors classes and he was accepted to 7 good schools in California. Good Luck and don’t give up. Study hard for the SAT/ACT, work on your UC essays this summer and enjoy your Senior year.
Good Luck!!</p>
<p>What’s your senior schedule?
A rule of thumb is not to take an AP class where you’re not sure you can get a B or more.
If not sure, take the Honors version.
With 7 Ap’s, you could take just one or two AP classes next year and be perfectly fine for all schools in the country (the most selective ones like to see 4 to 8 AP classes, the rest Honors as much as possible).
With a 3.8 (roughly) UC GPA your odds are good at most UCs, provided your EC’s and essays are strong of course. Not a slam-dunk but within reach. </p>