<p>I'm a current junior at a prep school in SE PA. I didn't take school seriously until this year. I will address that in my college essay. Also, does Pitt have a form of GPA forgiveness, such as putting emphasis on my Junior and Senior Grades? Will they notice my upward trend, and will is sway them into a decision? Should I apply as early as possible because of rolling admissions</p>
<p>Applying: Undecided</p>
<p>Freshman: 2.65
Sophomore: 2.66
Junior (So Far) 3.71</p>
<p>My Cumulative GPA going into my senior year will be around 2.95-3.05 (Will continue getting good grades senior year)</p>
<p>Have not taken the SAT or ACT yet, my guidance counselor thinks i'll do better on the ACT though. Because of my science and math grades.</p>
<p>PSAT: 187</p>
<p>Awards: 9th Grade Academic Achievement award in Programming, 10th grade JV hockey all star, JV hockey coaches award</p>
<p>Leadership: Head of Programming robotics team</p>
<p>ECs: FIRST Robotics, academic competition, March for Life club, varsity ice hockey, Theatre Society, stock market club, intramural soccer and volleyball, Club ice hockey, eBay powerseller, jv lacrosse, and 250+ hours of community service.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Hi laxdude- you might want to call Pitt and find out from an admissions counselor how they might view your upward trend. I would think that having all the supplemental material you can provide would be helpful to you- as Pitt does have a holistic admissions process. Excellent recommendations form your teachers and guidance counselor could help a lot. I’d consider writing both an essay about one of your significant activities and what it meant to you, as well as a short statement explaining your lower grades in freshman and sophomore years. Hopefully you’ll score solidly on your SATs as well.</p>
<p>I’d also encourage you to apply to Drexel as it seems a good school that accepts a lot of smart underachievers. I’m guessing you have interest in mechanical engineering, and Drexel is good for that. Good luck!</p>
<p>Thank you for the advice. Does Pitt offer summer session similar to Penn State, im not sure whether or not to apply to PSU because of their purely numbers admissions system.</p>
<p>Other Schools im considering:</p>
<p>Drexel
Temple
Fairfield
Hofstra
Purdue
Northeastern
Syracuse
and possibly BU</p>
<p>I would definitely apply to Temple. Temple is another rolling admission school so you should apply early on for best chances. </p>
<p>I don’t think Pitt offers summer admission, although I’ve heard of people being offered admission for Spring term.</p>
<p>To be honest, I thing PSU main campus is very iffy due to the low GPA, but you could keep open the option for the 2+2 plan.</p>
<p>I don’t really know about the other schools. You might try asking on the “College Search” forum for more ideas.</p>
<p>do i stand a chance of getting admitted, i know senior year is going to be very important.</p>
<p>I guess I should tell you my experience since it was very similar:</p>
<p>Freshman year: 2.85
Sophomore: 3.5
Junior: 3.7</p>
<p>First SAT: 1970</p>
<p>Here’s what you need to do, talk to one of the admissions counselors, be friendly, work with them, be personal with them. I worked with one who first said “we want to see what your second SAT scores are” </p>
<p>I took the SAT again and got a 2160</p>
<p>Before these scores came however, she said “we want to see how your first semester of senior year is”. So I worked my butt off, and ended up with a 3.95 my first semester. Even though my cumulative GPA was only ~3.45, I was lucky to find my acceptance packet in the mail.</p>
<p>So talk to a counselor, and make sure you write really good essay’s, use this board to help you. I got an email telling me how much they liked my essay and how much it helped me stand out as a candidate. </p>
<p>Pitt’s rolling admission means you have time to work hard senior year and get stuff done. I don’t know how your EC’s compare to mine, but if you pull up your SAT and do very well first semester, you have a really good chance of getting in.</p>
<p>Narwhal3 Are you GPA’s weighted or unweighted you posted??? Nice I’m also on a strong upward trend run from Freshman Year, so good to hear people with upward trends are getting in. WHen did you apply?</p>
<p>Hey sorry for the late reply</p>
<p>Those were weighted GPA’s. I had a strong course load so that helped</p>
<p>I applied around September 2011 and got in early march, thanks to rolling admissions.</p>
<p>if you don’t mind me asking, what was your unweighted gpa?</p>