I am a rising junior and desire to go to a top school, but I made that decision a bit late and I am not sure how my grades would suffice. Can somebody point out where I can improve? I don’t really know what I’m going to major in because I’m planning on doing pre-med, so my major could be anywhere from astronomy to biology to theatre to theology–I really don’t know yet.
Here’s my transcript, help me if you can:
Freshman year
AP Human Geography: 97
Honors Biology: 92
Honors English: 96
Honors Algebra I: 98 (won the award for highest grade out of about 50-60; btw, only in this level because I forgot to answer about 20 questions on the placement test lol whoops)
Latin I: 97
Religion I: 98
Phys. Ed.: 100
Technology: 99
Sophomore year
AP European History: 86 (terrible at history, also did not try at all)
Honors Chemistry: 93 (I’m actually much better than this at chemistry, just had a moody teacher)
Honors English: 92 (again, moody teacher
Honors Algebra II: 100
Latin II: 100
Religion II: 97
Health: 100
Engineering 1: 97
here’s my course load for junior year and my projected course load for senior year
Junior year
AP Biology
AP US History
AP Calculus AB (i know, alg 2 to calc, but i do trig/precalc in the summer)
Junior (AP) Seminar
Honors American Literature
Latin III
Religion III
Senior year
AP Chemistry
AP Calculus BC
AP Art History (art history is the only history i enjoy)
Honors Latin IV
Senior Thesis
Honors World Literature
Brotherhood as a School of Virtue (Honors)
I know I’ve given plenty of excuses throughout this spiel, but I feel they’re necessary in order to most clearly convey my course load and grades, so here’s a few more:
- my school does not have honors latin until senior year, but it is the hardest language by far (i will take the AP test)
- my school does offer AP literature & ap language, but my outspokenness and constant joking caused my teacher to hate me and give me lower grades and did not place me in that class, even though I consistently score in the 99th percentile in reading and writing
- idk if 9 ap classes is enough or too much, but i did what i could.
it would help me a lot if anyone could tell me where i need to improve and how I can go about doing that. thank you
Without test scores to backup your grades, it is impossible to give you an idea about your chances. Which top schools? Are you in need of financial aid? How much can you afford? EC’s? Grades are only part of the application review.
I posted this to specifically ask about where I should improve with my grades because nothing else is a worry to me–I always score in the 99th percentile in every subject on all standardized tests, I am not in NEED of aid, but I will apply for it because who wouldn’t, and my ECs are solid, plenty of leadership. This post was specifically about where I need to improve grade-wise.
Your post is titled “chance for top schools based on grades”? Cannot chance based on grades.
Your grades look fine and if you have all the other areas covered, then you will be fine if you continue doing well in your classes.
Suggest you post “how to improve my grades…”
If you are trying to get into Ivy league schools, you are going to have to improve your grades. It seems like they are not bad, from what I can tell, but getting a B in the Euro isn’t the greatest, since everyone going to Harvard or Stanford will have gotten an A. The other thing is that you don’t have enough AP’s. I would really try to figure out a way to get into AP Lang/Lit if you can before school starts, or even the first week of classes. Just talk to your counselors. As long as you have a bunch of EC’s before you apply, and keep your grades up, you will be fine going to like 95% of colleges, which is great! But you really need to take more AP’s and not get another B if you want a good shot of going to Ivy League schools. Also, really study hard and take a class or get a tutor for the SAT and ACT. Try to get at least a 2150 or higher for the SAT and ACT at least a 32-33 before you app. That should give you a decent chance. Good luck!
You may not get into many T20s, but you will surely get into some elite schools as long as you get ~2050+ and continue to get great grades. My two cents.
Also, I’m not really sure what @michaelduffy39 means, as I don’t think 2 Bs by themselves could keep you out of ANY school.
what about EC’s too? a ton of people have great grades and get shut out of top schools…others with sub-par ones can still get into top school because legacy, athlete, amazing EC’s, awards, essays, dire circumstances