I did substantially worse on my senior year semester than the rest of my semesters on the already sent in transcript and I am pretty confident this will screw me over for all my regular decision schools (i’m talking super selective elite schools). HOWEVER, my counselor let me decide when to to tell her to submit my mid year report. Would it be possible for me to delay my mid year report far enough that they just MIGHT make a decision on my application before they decide to review my senior grades? If so, how late can I push it without violating some schools mid year deadlines too badly (earliest I have is 15th of feb) since they seem pretty loose about it?
If they require a mid-year, then they require a mid-year. if you don’t send, you should assume that your application will be set aside until it’s sent. If it’s sent too late, or not at all, your application would be marked incomplete, which is essentially a rejection
I’m missing why you think sending later will help you. Your grades are your grades. So no, I doubt they will simply decide without your midyear. You’re playing with fire.
Admissions Offices set deadlines such that there is time to consider information received by the deadline. The odds of sending something in by the deadline and the school deciding “let’s not wait, let’s make a decision without the info we need even before the deadline”, is extremely slim.
As noted, not sending it at all will almost certainly result in no decision being made.
You can “push it” as late as the deadline, but it almost certainly won’t make a difference.
There is nothing you can do to make the Midyear grades not seen. How bad are they , out of curiosity? If you previously had all A/A+s and now you have mix of A/A-, that is not significant. If they were all A and now are more than half Bs I think it could adversely affect your application.
I think you should send them as soon as they are available, to any school that requires them, then work hard to get all grades back to your usual level and send a counselor-verified 3rd quarter progress report at the start of March(unless schools specifically ban/discourage this).
I agree with others that I cannot imagine that withholding or postponing sending your midterm grades could help you.
You should make sure that you have applied to safeties that you would be comfortable attending. If you haven’t, then get those applications to safeties in ASAP.
Also be aware that in most cases “super selective elite” universities are going to be more academically demanding compared to high school.
It was a long time ago, but I do recall that my reach (MIT) withheld their response to my application until midterm grades and SAT scores were available.
That is not too concerning, especially as Senior courses for many are the most difficult they have taken! Try not to worry and keep putting all your efforts into your classes (as all seniors should, but also in case of a WL situation).
