I have received 2 B’s my freshman year, 4 B’s my sophomore year, 2 B’s my junior year, and it looks like I’m going to get 2 B’s my first semester senior year.
My 9-11 UW is 3.81 and W is 4.10. My 10-11 UW is 3.78 and W is 4.25. My school doesn’t offer any honors/APs for freshman’s, thus my 9-11 W is a lot lower than my 10-11 W.
Are my chances pretty much done for if most of the colleges that I’m applying to are in the top 20? Does my first semester senior grades get added into my overall GPA (my school doesn’t finish our 1st semester until the end of January…)? Will I be knocked out of the “first” round of admissions, where colleges presumably weed out those who don’t meet their academic standards (I have a 35 ACT as well)?
@rdeng2614 My school doesn’t rank, but I know that I’m somewhere in the top 10-15%… My school is also ranked in the top 100 in Cali if that helps a bit.
Literally, a few B’s will not hurt you. It seems like a consistent trend in your grades, getting a few B’s here and there.If you were getting straight B’s or even C’s. then yes, they will hurt you. And yes, first semester senior grades are factored into most RD admissions, but so is course rigor. My school restricted weighted classes for 9-10 (I only took 2 Honors and 1 AP during those years), so obviously I went all out with my AP classes junior and senior (despite the fact that my GPA went up Junior year). Senior year is my first year in an all-AP course load, and colleges will understand that you have a life outside of school (including trying to actually get into their institution) and that you’re particularly busy during this semester. Calm down. A few B’s will not hurt you.
Will I be knocked out of the “first” round of admissions, where colleges presumably weed out those who don’t meet their academic standards (I have a 35 ACT as well)?
Easy answer to this: Go to the Common Data Set, Section C for the schools you are interested in. (Google it). Compare your stats to those of the admitted students. If your GPA or class rank places you in the bottom quartile of the admitted students, you will need to have something very significant (like an ACT with a 35) to offset the weakness.
And frankly, you need matches and safeties in any case, so make sure you are spending us much time selecting them as you are your reach schools.
Lately on these boards the tendency is to reassure nervous students that B’s won’t matter to elite school admissions. While this is often the case, selective schools are… selective. At one point it does make a difference. The OP is talking about 10 B’s on their transcript. We need to be honest that this may matter at “top 20” schools. A bigger question to me would be why OP doing such a limited search and why they feel the need to go to a “top 20” school, when a couple hours of thoughtful college research can put so many myths to rest.
@NSmom I looked at one of my reach school’s common data set and it said that the more 90% of admitted students had a 3.75 UW or higher. Is this what you’re referring to?
How can you have 6 Bs with an UW GPA of 3.81? You would have to have 26 A+s to balance that out. Even if your school offers 8 periods a day (like mine does), how can you have 32 classes complete by the end of Junior Year, when I had 24 (plus a few middle school credits)?
EDIT: It’s possible I’m an idiot and am wrong (my school uses numerical evaluations, and I’m not too familiar with the 4.0 system).
Yes, ayyyyyyy. It’s C11. The other relevant point is class rank (though not every school provides it). So if your GPA is over 3.75 however that particular school calculates it (every school seems to have their own formula), then you can stop worrying about this and go back to worrying about things of no consequence, like typos in your essay .
What @snarlatron said. None of us are adcoms at the schools your applying to, so none of us can say whether or not you’re “done for” – much would depend on the quality of all the other parts of your application. Offhand though, seems to me that applying to mostly “top 20” schools may be a risky proposition – not because of a few B’s here and there, but overall, unless there’s something truly exceptional you’re not telling us about.
@porcupine98 Truly exceptional such as an extracurricular? I’m turning in a music supplement and have founded a successful business since (very, very vague but just the gist I guess).
Again, not an admissions person. I just worry about anyone focusing on “top 20” schools.There are SO many kids gunning for those schools, and many really are exceptional. And there are many OTHER great schools out there that may be more suitable. Just suggesting some balance in your list, given the aforementioned entirely healthy and normal mix of B’s on your transcript.
Oh, I only mentioned “top 20” schools in respect to most of my reach schools. I figured that there was no need to ask this question in regards to my match + safety schools.
Ah, OK. Good luck then. Nothing’s impossible, but when you look at the numbers overall, the odds are slim for everyone, so be sure you like your safety schools.