Ok, so I am currently a freshman, and my grades are in the dumpster. Can I still get into Harvard with these grades?
9th Grade (Predicted End-of Year):
93
94/95
96/97
85
97
94
90
94
90
Help plz. I feel worthless.
You are only in 9th grade. Work hard during sophomore and junior and see if you still want to attend Harvard. While your freshman grades aren’t stellar, it is still pretty decent and I don’t think your chances at Harvard are over. Continue to work hard in school and participate in extracurricular activities.
Selective colleges just doesn’t look at YOUR grades, they also look at COURSE RIGOR and they compare your course rigor AND grades to every other student at your high school.
When you apply to college your guidance counselor submits two documents that will tell an Admissions Officer where you stand in the pecking order at your high school:
- Secondary School Report, also known as the SSR. See page 2, especially top right hand section where your GC is asked to rate your course rigor and grades against all other students at your high school: http://admissions.duke.edu/images/uploads/process/school_report.pdf
- High School Profile, which is basically a rubric that allows an Admissions Officer to decode the grading system at your high school, and also supplies other data such as the range of grades, how many AP classes are offered, the average number of AP classes taken, SAT scores etc. Ask your guidance counselor a copy of your high school's profile that is sent to colleges. Here's a sample of a high school profit: http://stuy.enschool.org/ourpages/auto/2013/3/7/37096823/Class%20of%202017%20profile%20-%20compressed.pdf
Without those two pieces of information, no one can say whether your grades are in the dumpster or whether you’re fine.
Would you say they are too low? Next year, I am probably transferring out of my magnet school for my home school district, and I predict that I will have a 4.5 GPA because of the crazy honors/ap weighting. These grades won’t be factored into my GPA. Is this a good idea or should I just stay at my school now and bring my GPA up (which is about a 92-93/100)?
For some very competitive high school’s, your grades could indicate that you’re a top student at your high school, possibly even ranked #1. At other high schools, you could be in the middle of the pack. The only one that knows for sure is your GC. Ask your GC!
The average for our school (unweighted) is a 91.5/100. My school is unranked.
Our valedictorian has a GPA of a 98.5/100
Then your GPA indicates you are slightly better than average. However, other students – who presumably took the most rigorous course schedule available to them – had a much higher GPA. FWIW: even if your high school does not rank, nothing precludes an Admissions Office from putting all applications from a high school in GPA order and comparing the course rigor. In that way they get a relative ranking of all students applying from a specific high school. Bottom Line: hunker down sophomore year and try to ace all your classes. If you don’t understand something in class, go find a top student who can help you get a better grasp of the material. Best of luck to you!
I am afraid of being gullible here. Not so sure about this thread.