<p>I am a high school senior in the process of applying to college. I applied to Columbia, but was rejected ED. Given that my application was pretty competitive, except for my grades, I am pretty sure that it was a relatively poor academic record (B+ avg, essentially) that made Columbia reject me. </p>
<p>So anyway, will having a very strong mid-year report in 5 AP classes and an Honors course alleviate my mediocre Freshman-Junior grades? </p>
<p>Please keep in mind that I am considering very selective colleges, not necessarily Harvard.</p>
<p>Sorry, that’s a bummer. Unfortunately, statistics are working against you. Too many great students applying to the same set of top schools.
Nobody has any way of guessing whether your odds are better elsewhere if you are talking this same level of selectivity. It’s a crap-shoot!</p>
<p>Six semesters of a GPA around 3.5 as opposed to one semester at 4.0? The answer seems obvious.</p>
<p>You mentioned Harvard, so I will stick with this school. Most accepted freshmen will have earned close to 4.0 throughout high school. You mention 5 APs senior year, but many applicants have 5 APs junior year, and even many during freshman and sophomore years.</p>
<p>Perhaps your test scores are perfect and you have earned a Nobel prize for your ECs. And maybe your school has massive grade deflation so that your 3.5 had you as Valedictorian, so your 4.0 now blows you off the scale. If these suppositions are not true, your chances are very slim.</p>
<p>I will have completed 15 AP courses by graduation, so my course load has been VERY rigorous. My act score is at 35 and my subjects are 760 and 730. I’m also an URM. </p>
<p>I can’t really compare myself to the rest of my graduating class because school doesn’t release class rank or anything… I woul assume, however that I fall slightly out of the top 10% of my class.</p>
<p>Anyway, I guess I was just hoping that having a very strong mid-year report would do away with any suspicions that college adcoms may have that I can’t handle their coursework or whatever…</p>
<p>The midyear report is a relatively small factor in the decisions factor unless it includes significant accomplishments and updates. Grades from senior year cannot save an otherwise weak academic showing.</p>
<p>The school may not report class rank or anything similar but school’s like Harvard can usually perceive a student’s class rank or decile. You’ll get into excellent schools, just most likely not Harvard and peers. Those school’s are not necessarily similar in terms of what they look for in applicants, but if you weren’t even deferred from Columbia, you’re chances at peer schools like Harvard are quite low.</p>
<p>A very strong mid year report will certainly help your case. In fact (I know, too late now), in cases like yours it’s better to apply regular decision instead of early decision if you have a low GPA and need a strong mid year report to boost it up and support your case for admission</p>
<p>Considering your B average, you’re likely out of luck with Harvard, but you’re competitive at many top schools. You have noting to worry about. If you’re only maintaining a B average, you probably wouldn’t enjoy the Harvard environment anyway. I don’t mean that offensively, it’s just a different group of kids.</p>
<p>Murphy, my ECs have been pretty thorough and varied. A couple leadership positions in civil rights and activism groups, a good amount of volunteer hours tutoring, performing aid work in Ethiopia (one summer) and volunteering at a hospital.</p>
<p>On the academic side, I am team leader (1 of 4) on the varsity science olympiad team and was a regional and state medalist, and I participated in the varsity math league.</p>
<p>I would also like to stress that I used Harvard as a way to attract attention to this thread, really. I’m targeting selective schools like JHU, Georgetown, Vandy, Cornell, UChicago etc… Not necessarily Harvard.</p>