Chance me please!

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Okay, here is a part from my other post explaining my GPA. . .</p>

<p>Okay, so I am a high school junior. I have screwed up my GPA. Not as bad as you may think, but I knew I could have done better. Okay, let me explain.</p>

<p>As a freshman, I royally screwed up my GPA that year. The thing is that I was in a special program that loaded on extra work and made it extremely challenging in my classes. Only a handful of other students were in this program and very few people had good grades. So my GPA freshman year was 3.2. However, this did not worry me much, since I decided that colleges do not care much about freshman year grades. In sophomore year, the first semester I earned a GPA of 3.33(UW) and 3.5 (W). I could've had another A, but I had an 89% and a mean teacher.. you know the story. However, second semester of sophomore year, I earned all A's, and first semester junior year I have also earned all A's.</p>

<p>Summary..</p>

<p>Freshman First Semester grades .. 3.0
Second semester . . . . . . . . . . . 3.4
Cummulative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3.2
Sophomore First Semester . . . . . .3.33 (UW) 3.5(W)
Second semester. . . . . . . . . . . . 4.0 (UW) 4.16(W)
Cummulative sophomore . . . . . . . 3.67(UW) 3.83(W)
Cummalative both years . . . . . . . 3.43(UW) 3.51(W)
Junior First Semester . . . . . . . . . 4.0 (UW) 4.67(W)
Cummulative all years . . . . . . . . .3.71(UW) 4.09(W)</p>

<p>Can you check my math please, I am not sure if I am calculating it correctly..</p>

<p>I am applying to UCs mostly. I know that I do not include freshman year in my GPA in my application (THANK GOD).</p>

<p>Now here are some other stuff:
I am co-captain of my basketball team, captain of science bowl, and captain of my school's Chinese club. I am also involved in CSF and NHS. Plus many more ECs (summer business camp, music camp..)</p>

<p>I also have a part time job at a supermarket.</p>

<p>And I have received a 5 on my AP European History test.</p>

<p>I am ranked in the top 10% and it is possible I may be ranked in the top 5%, but I'm going to assume that I am not in the top 5%.</p>

<p>Do you think colleges would forgive my bad grades in freshman and first semester sophomore year, which pretty much dragged down my whole GPA.</p>

<p>Assuming that I do well my junior year and that I do well on my SAT's, is UC Berkeley a reach for me?</p>

<p>I'm sorry that this post is so disorganized. I'm a little depressed and preoccupied about my low GPA.</p>

2

<p>You've got that monotonically increasing trend (which converges at a 4.0!), which will help tremendously. You're not out of the woods, though. Make a point about the trend in your essays (or wherever else there's space): come up with a good reason for your mediocre performance during freshman year.
Basically say "My grades were low during freshman year because of circumstance X. But circumstance X ended around date D, and my most recent grades are a reflection of my true potential." Do what you can to make the committee believe that your freshman grades were not indicative.</p>

3

<p>One, its not low. You should not think about a GPA being low if its not below a 3 at least. It might not be as high as you want, but its not low. Now onto the other thing. If I'm correct don't the UC schools handle things differently. Specifically Berkley, I think they only care about sophomore and junior year. I'm pretty sure they also care a lot about the essay. You should be fine though. Just keep up the good work.</p>

4

<p>Are my EC's strong enough? Should I list more of my EC's? Plus, I don't know if it's a good idea to write an essay explaining my grades, but then again I have no idea what would be a good topic to write about. Thanks for making me feel better, I do hope that colleges appreciate the improvement.</p>

5

<p>Would one more A make a difference in admissions? Just wondering. Is it possible that Berkeley may ask me for my first semester Senior year transcripts?</p>

6

<p>yeah, definitely try for A's for your first semester of senior year, because if any colleges are on the fence about you, they'll probably look to your first semester grades.</p>