@kobe24mamba I think course rigor is relative to each school. For example, at my school, I could not take very many honors/APs because of the restrictions they placed on freshmen and sophomores. Colleges will excuse a seemingly non-rigorous curriculum (like mine) if the school did not allow people to take very many honors/APs, and if the student attempted to do as many rigorous courses as possible. However, if there were a lot of opportunities to take Honors/APs (some private schools in my area allow freshmen to take Honors/APs, and there weren’t many restrictions regarding Honors/APs), and you don’t utilize those chances, then it will look really bad on your college apps, because rigor is just as big of a factor as gpa.
@QuiteAverage90 in my high school, you can’t take weighted as a freshman generally. You usually take 2 weighted as a sophomore, and the max weighted for juniors and seniors is 6, which is a 5.0 gpa with straight a’s. Do you think my course load is sufficient enough?
@kobe24mamba I think your rigor is good for the UCs, because most of them cap the gpa at 8 semesters, and you have 10 semesters worth of Honors/APs. I’m pretty sure if you have 8 semesters or more, they’ll consider your course load challenging. For Johns Hopkins and Cornell, I’m not really sure.
@QuiteAverage90 As of the end of junior year, unfortunately I think I only have 6 semesters of UC approved honors, because I believe honors courses in high school don’t count towards the 8 semesters. Do you think UC’s will be ok with this since I also took two additional honors classes to challenge myself? Thanks!
@kobe24mamba I thought that was the case only for out of state students. If you are in-state, honors classes do count towards the 8 semesters. Use this link https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist#/list/search/all to see which courses are approved at your school. It says for me that the Honors classes that I took are UC-approved.
do you guys think I stand a better chance if I ED or RD to johns hopkins? I know statistically I would have a higher likelihood through ED, but I was thinking maybe I should RD so I can show an improved GPA with senior year first semester grades. What are your inputs?
@QuiteAverage90 I attend Dougherty Valley High School, and when I entered that, there is a section that says “honors type” and it is labeled as either honors or AP. Does this mean that both qualify under UC approved honors? If so, that makes me very glad because my UC gpa would go up to a 3.96!
@kobe24mamba Yes, if it’s on the list, it counts for the UC GPA.
Sorry I don’t know much about the UCs, but I think you have as good a chance as any at Cornell and JHU! Your only weak point is your gpa, but your test scores and ECs are really good, so hopefully you won’t be at a disadvantage. Why do you think your rec letters are only 6-7/10? That might hurt you, maybe you should try talking to your teachers more?
@lilypippili actually, I think my rec letter outside school will be a 9 or 10 out of 10. One of my rec letters from school should be like a 7-8 out of 10, and I think my other one would be like a 6 out of 10. Does it matter which teachers I get my rec letters from depending on my major?
@kobe24mamba well it would be best if you could get your bio teacher to write your rec since that’s what you want to study, but that might not be possible if you’re not taking bio this year. Generally speaking you should have asked a science/math teacher (preferably science since you’re not majoring in math) and a humanities teacher (like languages, Ela, and history). Idk how much weight colleges put on supplementary recs but it definitely won’t look good if your teacher recs are mediocre. There’s not much you can do it about it now but just putting it out there
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anyone else please?
can anyone offer insight on my chances to cornell and jhu?
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I can’t say for sure, but I think you have a pretty good chance. Great test scores and fabulous ECs! Since you live in California, I think you’ll definitely get into UCLA and UCSD. Cornell and JHU are reaches for anyone, but you have a great shot!
@fifteenpapers thanks so much for the response! It’s nice to know that maybe my relative low GPA could be overlooked. Do you have any tips on how to write UC essays and write in a unique manner even if i have a cliche topic?
That’s why the UCs now have holistic admission, not just straight GPA and SAT scores to take into account of cases like yours. Google UCB admission youtube, admission officer there gave some explanation and examples of what they are looking in the essays.
@kobe24mamba Just make sure that what you write, hasn’t been written before. Colleges don’t want to know what you’ve done - they want to know how it changed you.