Didn't care about academics until now - can I fix my situation?

Applying to College
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<p>Throughout school, I haven't really tried at all. I've been lazy. This worked great up until about the ninth grade, when teachers started wanting much more work that I felt like doing. I'm now a junior. After three years of abundant zeros, my GPA is now 3.6, and my ACT composite score is a 35 (but I'll have a 36 by the time I graduate). I'm not part of many clubs, but I'm heading to FBLA nationals in web site design and development, and I've won a few Louisiana Rally Association awards. My question is this: If I get flawless grades in my senior year, will colleges still worry about my GPA? Should I have trouble getting into schools like the University of Chicago?</p>

<p>By the way, I'm taking the hardest courses offered by my school (mostly AP and DE classes).</p>

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<p>Why? What on earth do you think a 36 will do for you that a 35 will not? Either way, your tippy-top ACT score will be paired with mediocre grades, which is a red flag for a lot of colleges.</p>

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<p>A lot of them will. And, honestly, they should, if the reason you got lower grades than you’re capable of was that your teachers wanted you to do more work than you felt like doing. College is not just about being smart. A lot of it is about persevering, and producing the requested product, even when the work is tedious.</p>

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<p>I am afraid so.</p>

<p>Do you mean to say that you got less-than-stellar grades in 9, 10 and 11?</p>

<p>If so, you’ll have a problem because you’ll have, at most, one semester’s worth of good grades when you apply to college. There will be colleges and universities that will be willing to take you if you have top ACT scores and OK grades, but they won’t be top-flight colleges and universities.</p>

<p>With strong grades from junior year and the first semester of senior year, a larger number of colleges and universities would take a chance that your academic turnaround is legit and not just a temporary phenomenon.</p>

<p>But either way, I think Chicago isn’t realistic. I think Chicago will be able to fill its entering class with applicants who have excelled from the ninth grade onward.</p>

<p>I am sure this isn’t news you want to hear, but I believe there’s very little you can do to “fix” your situation, if by “fix” you mean “make it as if this never happened.” The best you can do, IMO, is to adapt to your situation by making a realistic list of safety, match, and reach colleges to apply to, given the credentials you’ll be putting forward.</p>

<p>Sorry I don’t have a more favorable opinion to give.</p>

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<p>■■■■■? A- for accomplishment. F for insecurity.</p>

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My school offers free ACT testing once a year. Next year I’ll be sure to get a 36. Of course, that might not happen, but I’m fairly sure it will.</p>

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I’m not a lazy person. I’m ready to do the work. I was hoping my senior year (and current junior year, where I’ve been doing fairly well) could prove that.</p>

<p>I was just immature in my earlier years of high school. That’s not uncommon.</p>

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Really? I’ve already received a couple of brochures from UChicago. I guess that’s not worth what I thought it was.</p>

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A 3.6 is still an A and, from what I’ve read, not a bad GPA.</p>

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There’s a smaller college in my area I feel comfortable going to (Louisiana Tech). I don’t see why I wouldn’t be accepted there. </p>

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Thank you very much for your answer, but compared to things I’ve read (on this very site), it seems to me that you’re being overly critical. Are you sure I’m in such bad shape with just a 3.6 (that’s my normal GPA, not college)?</p>

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Why would you think I’m a ■■■■■? Also, I’m not insecure. I’m just concerned about my academic standing right now (is that really so unnatural)?</p>

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<p>By the way, I have a totally unrelated question to ask that belongs on this board. Is it acceptable for me to start another thread? Or should I just ask it here?</p>

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<p>3.6 is definitively too low for Chicago.
BTW don’t get fooled by the brochure: they’re using very aggressive recruiting tactics this year in order to show off a high number of applications they can then turn down, hence looking more selective (look at “the choice”, the college column on the NYT, lots of parents complained that their children were enticed to apply only to be turned down almost immediately afterwards.)
As long as you have 34 or more, another score 35, 36… doesn’t matter. It may be more productive for you to take SAT-subjects and score high, to show basic subject mastery and deflect from your freshman/sophomore grades.
You can also change things a bit by taking summer classes.
(BTW, 3.6 is not an A. 3.7 is an A- and that’s the minimum you’ll need for any highly selective school.)
Colleges’ #1 factor is GPA and class rank (with strength of curriculum, of course).
Junior-senior grades will be weighted more heavily, but if you got “zeros” (ie Cs) in some classes it’ll look bad for highly selective schools, unless you have a darn good reason (and not just “I was immature”.) Essentially, all applicants are immature at 14, but admitted applicants got A’s anyway.
You need to find schools between LA Tech (shoo-in) and UChicago!</p>

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<p>3.6 is a low GPA for any top school. You may think they’re being overly critical but UChicago is a top 10 school, and if you’ve slacked off, they’ll know, and not accept you. You have a chance, but it’s unlikely. Plenty of people were immature, but still got good grades. In fact, every teen is immature; it’s just differing levels.</p>

<p>And a brochure from anywhere doesn’t really mean anything.</p>

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<p>pyradax, my daughter has lower GPA than yours (although she goes to a very large test-in high school with a reputation for low grades that college admissions officers seem to know about) and no full-scale ACT or SAT scores yet (just took the ACT for the first time last week). She did start taking APs in sophomore year and since then she has gotten an incredible amount of snail mail (and nerd glasses!) from U. of Chicago, at least one mailing a week for the past year and a half. I wouldn’t use the mail as a true gauge of their interest in you. Sorry!</p>

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<p><a href=“BTW,%203.6%20is%20not%20an%20A.%203.7%20is%20an%20A-%20and%20that’s%20the%20minimum%20you’ll%20need%20for%20any%20highly%20selective%20school.”>QUOTE</a>

[/QUOTE]

If a 3.7 is A- and a 3.3 is B+, shouldn’t a 3.6 also be A-?</p>

<p>Also, after looking around, I now know that brochures are worth nothing. Thanks for the help, everybody.</p>

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<p>It’s not just about 3.6, although 3.6 is truly low for Chicago. It’s also about your position within your class. (By which I mean not only your class rank, but also how your teachers and peers perceive you.)</p>

<p>Are you seen as one of the top few achievers in your class? Or are you seen as a smart kid who coasted for a long time? If the former, you might have a chance at Chicago or its peers. But your description of yourself sounds like the latter. If that’s how you’re perceived in your school, you won’t get the kind of recommendations from teachers or the school that you’d need to get into extremely selective colleges and universities.</p>

<p>Again, sorry to be the bearer of bad news.</p>

<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC</p>

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<p>There are still plenty of good schools you can get into with a 35 ACT and a 3.6 though.</p>

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<p>I agree, and I should not have omitted saying that.</p>

<p>Sent from my DROIDX using CC</p>

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<p>OP</p>

<p>35 ACT – absolutely no need to retake. You won’t do yourself any real benefit by retaking.</p>

<p>3.6 GPA – I differ, a bit from others here. All 3.6’s are not created equally. First – weighted or unweighted? Second, what is your class rank? Does your school have grade inflation or grade deflation. If you had a horrible fresh year, but close to perfect soph and jr – that’s a plus.</p>

<p>The real question is where students with a 3.6 from your HS end up going. Check the data, or if you can’t get it online ask your GC.</p>

<p>I think your EC’s look ok. National competition in web design, Rally association awards.</p>

<p>FWIW, my D was about a 3.6-3.7 unweighted (4.5 weighted), 34 ACT top 10% but probably not top 5% – admits to Cornell, Northwestern, Wash U (to name 3). Chicago’s probably a bit tougher to get into, but not impossible with your stats. On the other hand, consider Chicago’s tiny acceptance rate one would have to say you’re less than 50/50 (perhaps much less, but so is everyone).</p>

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<p>Quote from a discussion at Lehigh (MUCH easier to get into than Chicago)
The applicant was from a Connecticut high school the committee knew well. The student struggled gradewise even though she took hardly any rigorous courses. Yet, she had more than 1500 on her SAT.</p>

<p>“She could have a 1600 for all I care,” said Majed Dergham, director of diversity recruitment. “That rigor . . ., I can’t believe we’re even considering it.”
[Making</a> the grade: Inside the college admissions process - Philly.com](<a href=“Inquirer.com: Philadelphia local news, sports, jobs, cars, homes”>Inquirer.com: Philadelphia local news, sports, jobs, cars, homes)</p>

<p>Zephyr’s advice is excellent: where do students with a 3.6 from your school end up going?</p>

<p>You should get “Colleges that change lives” and/or “377 colleges” from your library. Many schools will be happy to take you with a 35 ACT and a 3.7 (I assume you’re going to keep on improving).</p>

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<p>With a “mismatched” 35 and 3.6 GPA, you are going to need to work herder than most to find appropriate safety’s, match, and reach schools. Start with your guidance counselor and see if you have access to Naviance to see how your stats match up with other recent students. Agree with the rest that U of C has gotten so competitive in recent years, partly because of their more effective marketing and mailings, that a 3.6 GPA won’t cut it without your family name on a building.</p>

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<p>I don’t know, I read this article where they talk about a kid who had grades from F to A’s and they let him in, they like a turn around story
<a href=“http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/1999/04/04/inside-the-admissions-game.html[/url]”>http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/1999/04/04/inside-the-admissions-game.html&lt;/a&gt;
Sent from my XT907 using CC</p>

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<p>That article was written in 1999. Without looking up the actual admission numbers, I can assure you that U of C was much less selective then. If OP wanted advise on his chances of getting into a school with a 35% admit rate, we all would be much more hopeful.</p>

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<p>It looks like somewhere else on CC it is reported than in 2004, U of C had 7396 applicants and admitted 3254 students to fill a class of about 1000. The OP should be an easy admit to a school with a 50% admit rate. Unfortunately in the last 10 years that is no longer Chicago.</p>

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<p>May I ask what a college might consider an acceptable explanation to warrant overlooking mediocre performance during the first 2 years of high school? Illness (if so, how serious the illness), undiagnosed learning difference, ADHD, death of a close family member, family hardship (if so, to what degree)?</p>

<p>Thanks, I’m asking for a relative.</p>

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<p>Also, can anyone offer names of schools, say with a 30-35% acceptance rate that may be more willing to overlook the earlier mediocre performance? It seems one is better offer submitting lower standardized test scores to avoid labeling as a lazy smart kid.</p>