<p>During my freshman year my grades went down alot. B's and C+'s. =/ Over the summer I did retake Biology and Algebra and received very high A's. I pulled my average to about an 89. I know it isn't great, but I had a tough year...</p>
<p>*btw, the other classes were Spanish 2 (87), Honors Global (78), and Honors English (83)
It was hard for me to adjust, AND I missed tons of school because my mom has glaucoma, and had many surgeries throughout the year to keep her from losing more eyesight; which in the end didn't really work anyway. =/ She's not 100% blind right now, but it's enough to hinder her everyday life. (less than 10% on one eye, and about 18% left on the other)</p>
<p>Anyway, I really actually hate to use an excuse as to why my grades were so horrible, but it really is the truth... I've been told using an excuse sometimes makes students look bad... Is this true? </p>
<p>Anyways, my main question is: Do I still have anyy chance at being accepted at an Ivy League at all? Since then my gpa has been about a 96 average, and every quarter it keeps raising.</p>
<p>Be brutally honest; do I still have a chance as far as gpa? </p>
<p>Even with an 89 freshman average; i think my unweighed average will be about a 3.8.</p>
<p>Don’t misinterpret what Swim18 said. You are fighting an uphill battle now because your grades are not going to be as competitive as thousands of 4.0’s out there. Don’t be deluded into thinking an uphill trend is better than having a flawless transcript. And you’d better make it damn clear that your reason for getting C’s (seriously?) is legitimate – if the adcoms have an inkling of suspicion, they will not give you the benefit of the doubt because there are thousands of other sparkling applicants to overlook you for.</p>
<p>Take a look at the Harvard results threads, and you’ll see that it’s very, very rare for admits to have a transcript dotted with B’s and C’s. </p>
<p>When you’re applying to Harvard, there is no room for error. Everything you can control better be damn perfect, because you’ll most likely be rejected for something else. Even if your stats are perfect, you’ll probably be rejected just because your Adcom simply doesn’t like you better than the other similar applicants vying for that spot.</p>
<p>Don’t even think about being confident about being accepted. Do your best, and don’t worry about the application process until it comes around, if only because the anxiety will tear you apart emotionally. Be invested in what you do and let your passion (Jesus I hate that word) take you as far as it can.</p>
<p>Alright It was 1 C btw andd in an honors class, but still 1 C too many. And even though I posted this under Harvard, I actually really love Columbia the most…
Anyway, thanks for your honesty. Everyone keeps kind of sugar coating it, and you actually told me the truth. Thank you :)</p>
<p>I’d never say not to apply, but the fact is that there are plenty of people who have also dealt with extremely difficult circumstances who have 4.0’s. Also, the fact that you’re taking Algebra as a freshman doesn’t bode super well for your chances - unless it was Algebra 2?</p>
<p>It was integrated Algebra… (both in 1 year) I’m taking Geometry right now; Trig next year and Calculus AB my senior year…</p>
<p>Is Columbia as competitive as Harvard? Or is it a little less competitive? (I know it’s highly competitive, but compared to Harvard, is it a little less competive?)</p>
</p>
It was 1 C btw andd in an honors class, but still 1 C too many. And even though I posted this under Harvard, I actually really love Columbia the most…