As of late, I have been deciding whether or not I should even bother applying to any selective schools.
My freshman year average was extremely low, around 75-77. At that time my family was facing the aftermath of something that happened to me and I was having a very difficult time coping with this. My courseload was still very rigorous:
Honors English
Honors Geometry
Honors Global History
Honors Biology
- I ended up failing geometry having to take it again over the summer
My sophomore year I where everything starts looking up, I had to play catch up and convince my guidance counselor to allow me to take honors classes. I did reasonably well getting an average of around 93.
Honors English
Honors Global
Regular Trigonometry
Honors Chemistry
My junior year is when my grades start to go up drastically. I had begun taking AP classes and did very well in them, providing an extra boost to my average which ended up being around 98.8 that year.
AP Language and Composition
AP Chemistry
Honors Physics
Regular Pre-Calculus
Honors US History
I am now a senior and I am very worried that my mistakes freshman year will not allow me to get into the schools that I am interested in. I know that colleges have a holistic process but I do know that my 88.2 GPA is not good enough for a lot of the schools I have been looking at. My SAT is a 1390 and I plan on retaking it to get a 1450 or higher. My senior courseload is:
AP Literature
AP Government
AP Calculus AB
Environmental Science
I also think it is worth mentioning that I am an African American female who will be a first generation college student. Do you think universities will be off put by my low GPA or will my growth compensate for my low freshman year grades. Also do you think I should specifically mention the issue that me and my family were dealing with or will it be too personal?
I’m in a similar boat! Hope someone can give some decent advice, it’s really hard to compare yourself to schools averages when your gpa has an upward trend.
Some schools will not consider freshman grades. many others will put a low emphasis n them if later year grades are good. What selective colleges are you considering? Top 30 schools would be extremely high reaches.
The uptrend should help you quite a bit. A 98.8 for junior year is going to help you get into pretty good schools. Your sophomore and junior years will matter a lot more than your freshman year.
As @TomSrOfBoston says, what your chances are will depend upon what schools you apply to. You should think quite a bit about what sort of schools and what specific schools you want to attend. However, don’t worry about your freshman year. It is over, and you have come back very strongly.
I’m more constructive on your chances of admission at top schools than you’re allowing.
Of course, this is without knowledge of your extracurricular activities and letters of rec. But as others have mentioned, the pattern of your grades is attractive.
Depending on the personal issue, it may be worth briefly detailing in a supplemental space. Feel free to DM me if you’d like more guidance.
Yes! It has made my college search so much more complicated and stressful. I’m honestly just hoping for the best.
Some of the more selective schools I have been considering are Northeastern and Boston University. I was also looking at Cornell through HEOP but I see that the general trend is decent GPA and low SAT (1100-1200).
Upward trend is generally a positive thing. However, I would choose your safety schools based on your actual stats and not the upward trend.
Unless you get 1500+ on your SAT retake, Cornell would be a huge reach.
My recommendations are being written by my AP Language and Composition teacher, who I have a very good relationship with. The other is being written by my Chemistry teacher whose club I have been in for the past two years. I am on my school’s soccer and basketball team. I am volunteering for the campaign of a local politician. I am in Chemistry Club, Medical Science Club, and Human Rights Club. I volunteered at a local nursing home two summers ago and had an internship with a community building organization in my neighborhood. I am also a participant in the Ron Brown Scholar Program. Unfortunately I lack any leadership positions as I have been more focused on academics.