<p>Extracurriculars:
Junior State of America- VP; Governor's Cabinet
YMCA Youth Legislature- Asst. Attorney General; Committee Chair; Governor's Candidate (lost by less than 10 votes); Representative of the Year
American Civil Liberties Union- Co-President
Young Democrats- Secretary; Worked on 6 local political campaigns; 3 causes
Parent Teacher Association- Student Representative on the HS PTA Board</p>
<p>My sophomore year GPA was terrible due to family/personal issues and general hatred of high school.</p>
<p>It is better to have rising grades, be sure to write good essays, have good teacher recs and have your guidance counselor able to write about your situation. You can look at the Freshman Admissions Expectations chart, but in your case it would be best to emphasize current rather than cumulative grades. Be sure to work with your GC when you do your college applications. Good luck.</p>
<p>UW should be a great place for you!! Unfortunately, your current GPA and ACT score will likely give adcom pause. You can't change the past so focus on doing very well academically during your senior year. Use the last essay to state your family/personal issues. Absolutely no word on the "general hatred" crap. Instead, emphasize on life lessons learnt and how the events made you a better/stronger person. All other standard UW admission tips apply (see other threads). BTW, a stronger ACT score could strengthen your case considerably.</p>
<p>Do expect a "postpone" decision but use that as an opportunity to demonstrate your interest.</p>
<p>Yes, retake the ACT or try the SAT to see if you do better on it. UW takes a good number of kids from Garfield so they know it is a good HS. I have seen kids with a 3.2 and 27 ACT get in so a little improvement could help a lot. Good luck.</p>
<p>thanks a lot guys. i was wondering if my 3.7 freshmen college gpa would help make up for my mediocre high school gpa. </p>
<p>in response to my "general hatred of high school', what i actually mean is that I just hate the curriculum, too much busy work and not enough learning/intellectual stimulation. everything else was fine.</p>
<p>wyattho, how many college courses have you taken thus far? Over how many semesters? Taken concurrently with HS courses? </p>
<p>In your case, you want to provide as many alternative evidence as possible to demonstrate your true academic abilities so adcom can give you the benefit of the doubt. Your SAT score will help but an additional piece of evidence will make your case much stronger. Your college GPA (depending on the above questions) may or may not swing it. Your current ACT score certainly doesn't help - you don't have to submit it but this will be a miss opportunity if you can retake and improve your score substantially.</p>
<p>Adcom is less interested that you found HS lack of learning/intellectual stimulation among other things. They are more interested about what you did about it. As a rule of thumb, always project a positive image on your application. Applicants who seem to complain (even a little) usually face an uphill battle.</p>
<p>I completely get what you're saying. Thanks for the advice. </p>
<p>And as for your question, I've taken 9 college courses over three quarters for a total of 45 credits along with AP European History in my sophomore year to this day. Currently, I am taking 4 courses for 18 credits and I am planning to continue that through my senior year which means that I will graduate high school having taken 20 college courses for a total of 99 credits plus the one AP course. I haven't taken any classes in high school in the last year and I don't plan to take any this year. Hopefully that clears it up for you.</p>
<p>Great effort!! Assuming no a glaring hole in your CC transcript, I believe you are good to go with your SAT score and CC GPA. Retake ACT if you are postponed. </p>
<p>Use the last essay to focus on providing insight why you have been taking CC classes instead of HS classes and how doing so proved instrumental to your intellectual growth. </p>