As the title says- I took Alg 2 Trig H freshman year. I had a horribly freshman year. So horribly that I got a C(first semester, B second semester) and a couple of Bs! What’s worse is that I want to major in physics and math. I was going through a lot, I spoke to my counselor about it.
I feed incredibly worried. I’m doing way better now and I have straight As. I also have pretty good ECs. But is everything ruined?
Typo in title- should be “what I want to major in”
What year in high school are you now?
Please don’t think that a C will annihilate your chances at Stanford.
The schools know that students are adjusting to high school and a few mismatched grades aren’t going to “ruin” your chances.
You need to realize that students with perfect grades are rejected from Stanford every year. Why?
Stanford gets thousands of applications from Valedictorians and every international candidate with perfect grades and activities. There just isn’t enough room for everyone.
In 2021, 44, 000+ applications were received. Only 2050 students were admitted. There are only so many desks. Most of those spots are taken by star recruited athletes (think Olympic athletes, gymnasts, football players, etc.), world-renowned celebrities (think Malala, Obama’s girls, Greta Thunberg, etc.), children of Stanford grads (legacies), and children of donors who can donate $40 million dollar buildings.
Are students crushed if they don’t get into Stanford? Yes. Will you find a great school if you may or may not get into Stanford? Of course. There are thousands of universities everywhere.
Just do well at your school. Get good grades and find things that you love to do so that you will have options. Worry about applications in Senior year.
Admissions to Stanford is of course very competitive. I have heard mixed things about whether or not Stanford will consider your freshman year grades.
There are some other very good universities such as the various Universities of California as well as universities in Canada that do not consider your freshman year of high school at all.
Mostly I think that this is a warning to be careful about jumping ahead in math classes. Mathematics is an area where what you learn today will depend a great deal on what you learned last year, and what you will learn next year will depend a lot on what you are learning now. It pays to learn each level well before you move ahead to the next level.
I got my master’s degree at Stanford in a subfield of mathematics. The other students in the same program had gotten their bachelor’s degree from a very, very wide variety of other universities. If you do not get into Stanford for your bachelor’s degree, then it will still be there if you are looking for a master’s degree at some point in the future.
If you apply, you can get into Stanford. If you don’t you can’t.
Will you get in?
You could be a 4.0 and 1600 SAT and the odds will be no.
But you are you. Whether Stanford wants you or not, many will want you. And that’s all that matters.
You can’t control Stanford’s decision making.
Don’t fall in love. Period. With any school.
Life is long and you’ll stumble here and there. Hopefully you recover well. You should figure out your math shortfalls than worrying about college in 9th grade so that you fully understand the subject matter headed into 10th.
Good luck.
Sophomore
Oh for heavens sake. You have a few more years of high school ahead of you. Just do the very best you can and that’s that. When you are in your junior year…start looking at how you have done, and craft a list of colleges to apply to…not just Stanford, but a variety of schools that reflect who you are and what you have accomplished.
Stanford is a great school. But it’s not the only college out there.
Just focus on doing the best you can now, going forward. Also look into ECs for math and physics - maybe International Science and Engineering Fairs - to set yourself apart from the herd, to show outstanding achievement.
I think there are clear indicators that they don’t. They’re one of the fewer universities that have you self report your grades on Common App, potentially to disregard your freshman grades.