<p>Hello, I'm a current junior at a prep school in SE PA. I have some extenuating circumstances during my first two years of high school and my grades suffered until this year. I will address that in my college essay. Do I have a chance, Im considering applying ED.</p>
<p>Applying: ED College of Science and College of Human Sciences</p>
<p>Freshman: 2.65
Sophomore: 2.66
Junior: 3.53
Senior: Hoping to improve on my recent success</p>
<p>UW GPA: 2.95</p>
<p>ACT: 27</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>_</p>
<p>Also, will tech take into consideration my upward trend, I heard they forgive a low gpa if you do well in your later years. Also do they consider your senior year grades?</p>
<p>If you apply ED, they will more than likely not take your senior year grades into account since decisions are released in December.</p>
<p>Upward trend is taken into account, but since your GPA was so low the first two years, it may not work toward your advantage, especially if you do ED. You might be better off applying RD since there’s a chance of getting deferred/rejected during the ED round. You can also use your senior year grades if you apply RD.</p>
<p>A big thing admissions takes into account is the rigor of the courses you take. If you take mostly AP courses, especially last year, and did exceptionally well in them, it would work in your favor. Same goes for this upcoming year.</p>
<p>Ive taken all college prep classes, and 2 honors classes this past year. This upcoming year im taking 3 APs and the rest college prep classes. I know im going to need to do better than last year and get close to a 4.0 my senior year. Also is it true ED has no advantage?</p>
<p>In my opinion, there’s no advantage, except that you can find out early. Generally the applicant pool is competitive regardless of when you apply. They do limit how many applicants they accept ED, and many, many extremely qualified applicants get deferred to regular decision anyway.</p>
<p>Not to discourage you, but I had a similiar situation in regards to GPA out of high school, except that I’m in-state and was in an pretty rigorous/internationally recognized college preparation program. My GPA wasn’t that great, so I had a feeling I wasn’t going to get accepted. I ended up transferring after going to another VA college for freshman year. So transferring is always an option if you don’t get in!</p>
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I would encourage you to use your essay(s) to let admissions know positive things about yourself. Treat it as an interview, this is your place to shine. Your GC should address the extenuating circumstances in his/her report. Don’t waste your essays explaining poor performance when you could be highlighting something else.</p>