<p>I had a bad year in grade 9, cause I moved from a different province, so different curriculum, different environment (people werent very accepting of foreigners there), made it all the harder for me to achieve high academic standing, I scraped by with a couple of 70s for silly electives (CO2 wooden rocket cars, "electronics", art, etc.), a 75 for math (yikes) since my old school (other province) was far behind compared to the new province. I did fairly well in the other subjects (rest were B or B+s, one A or A+).</p>
<p>Grade 10 was better. more As and A+s. Took hardest possible courses available.</p>
<p>Grade 11 was a stellar year at my new school (I feel more "at home" since Im back in my home country), and by god's will hopefully next year will be even greater.</p>
<p>SO, do top schools care about grades 9 and 10? Do top schools pay attention to the highly improving trend of my academic performance? would that cover for the fact that I had somewhat terrible marks in grade 9 and a bit in 10?</p>
<p>A very few top schools will de-emphasize 9th grade.
Everybody will look at 10th grade.
But your trend is in the right direction.</p>
<p>I don’t think this is a particularly well thought-out question, what are you going to do, only apply to schools that will tell you they discount 9th and/or 10th grade?</p>
<p>Ofcourse not, I meant that this is all explainable. I believe all the apps have an additional information area that I can explain my situation in, correct? And if the counselor re-emphasizes it, I think it would be of great help (?).</p>
<p>I have also read that great leaps of improvement are helpful and can shadow the relatively bad/satisfactory year(s) you had.</p>
<p>Its not very easy to move from one place to another and expect to maintain your level of performance to stay like it was or catch-on with the new environment, it needs time and adjustment. and If you look at it from a canadian university perspective, its somewhat accepted that the first year of highschool (grade 10) should see some shaky ground in terms of marks. I had to adjust and then readjust! SO I think its only fair that the adcoms consider my situation.</p>
<p>No, top schools want, and get, students with excellence throughout high school. Students who maintain excellence in all environments.</p>
<p>Many, many schools will appreciate an upward trend and your continuing improvement. But colleges with under 15% acceptance rates simply want it all.</p>
<p>Even with great ECs, “upward trend” GPA, good SAT scores, International (not applying for financial aid), and “rare” applicant demographic area (Saudi Arabia) ??</p>
<p>Konig:
The thing is, any of the top schools that are rejecting 80%+ of their applications will have applicants who are Saudi kids with great ECs AND have steller GPA and scores. You need to make your application stand out and be <em>unique</em>.</p>
<p>Sorry, it’s a myth that an essay can make up for stats. Being from SA is certainly better than being from say Korea, but it’s not at all underrepresented at top American Colleges–you kidding, with all that money there? There are many colleges where it would give you a boost, say good but not very top LACs, but not ivies. </p>
<p>One of the most enlightening posts I’ve read here was made by an adcom saying how hard it was to have to reject kids he’d written to about their moving essays.</p>
<p>I feel GPA isnt the most important thing as long as its a highly upward trend into the 3.9+ GPA. Do they look at them? Of course. Do they place super much importance on freshmen year grades? no. Sophomore grades are important though.</p>
<p>If you start with a low GPA freshmen year but end up getting a 4.0 Junior year with the hardest courses, u will be fine. If you get rejected, it wont be because of GPA. </p>
<p>There also is no significant advantage in terms of rank. The valedictorian just ends up accepted most of the time because he is smart enough to load up on them Extracurriculars and the special high caliber awards. If the 10th ranked person does that too, it will fall to the essays.</p>
<p>Ok Fine, Valedictorian and Sals get accepted at a higher rate. Does that account for maybe they are smart enough to load up on EC’s and awards? No.</p>
<p>What im saying is, at top competitive HS’s, the difference between a Val and the 5th place ranker is marginal. A few tenth of a Grade Point will separate them.</p>
<p>And what I’m saying is that when about 45% of every class at mid tier ivies are val or sal (and almost half the class has a hook), the value of being top 2 is statistically huge. It could be a tenth of a point, but in the eyes of top colleges and their attention to rankings, it is simply enormous. Sad, but true.</p>
<p>While a consistant record of excellence is expected by top Colleges; demonstrating character strengh and promise including demonstrative interest in the College, may make work in your favor. Top Colleges also want individuals who posses admirable attributes etc… Overcoming hardships shows strength. Show leadership, be optimistic and be natural in the way you present yourself.</p>
<p>Sorry, but I don’t believe that admissions officers are unreasonable people. Like, what do they have to gain from not considering someone who wasn’t val or sal by so little? Especially when so much of being val or sal depends on gaming the system, such as avoiding unweighted classes in a weighted GPA system, or vice versa.</p>
<p>Anyways, US News rankings only care about being in the top 10%.</p>
<p>My school is pretty sad though. The Val next year is most likely going to be a kid who has been enrolled at the school since JK (private school), even though he wont have the highest GPA, which I find to be pretty sad. I think I deserve to be the Val! or maybe sal! but then again, they’ve got pretty pumped up grades here, yes you have to work hard, but you get them (99s, 100s, that kind of stuff)</p>
<p>Its funny how Im ALWAYS at a disadvantage…just like this situation^. I consistently got the 2nd or 3rd highest marks in each of my classes from my freshman year school, but they are like 92s or 95s at most. In sophomore year, I was either 1st,2nd, or 3rd in most of my important classes (never mind Phys Ed…80%… STUPID!)… 89%-96%. Now almost everybody at my current school has been pulling near hundred average consistently for the past 4 years!</p>
<p>It just isnt fair (even the counselor told me that our grades are just ridiculous for schools to take completely seriously). Imma make sure that the counselor mentions that I wasnt considered for Val/Sal because of the time spent at my school is not sufficient to determine my elegibility! Imagine THINKING of competing with people who had easy grade 9 and grade 10 years with high averages (97+,98+)! my grade 9 GPA is like ~3.5 I think!! eek! actually, it is most likely lower!</p>
<p>Also keep in mind that at the current school, they’re doing approx. 45% of what I did at my old school yet they handout grades like candy! definately at a disadvantage in terms of CGPA comparison!</p>
<p>Konig mate,
you need to stop whining. Essentially, your past is unchangeable. Life is tough, and that should never be looked at as a disadvantage. You have had (as you lay it out to be) a tough high school experience. Howmany other students can talk about that? Howmany otehr students do you think, can mention the troubles u’ve had, and how you have overcome them?</p>
<p>One thing ive learnt is that the more you make excuses and try to explain why u failed at obtaining something, the more ur digging your own grave. I mean, as an applicant, why would u want to shed light on something you didn’t accomplish. </p>
<p>Do you really think that top schools accept kids who have succeeded without any challenges? I don’t think so…</p>
<p>You have to show them how you dealt with any problems successfully. I am sorry but you really need to change your attitude and approach this as if you are giving it your ALL. Having regrets and making excuses is not gonna do it for u.</p>
<p>It seems like you are heavily built on creating an excuse for not being Val/Sal. Why bother mate? U have 500 words to talk about **** you’ve done, use them effectively. Don’t even bother explaining why u didnt get it. Because if u talk about all the other things u have done, admissions offices will see where ur true passions and ideals lie. If you talk abt tutoring (for ex), u will shed urself in much better light, than if u talk abt why u didnt do as well as the previous applicant.</p>
<p>I am sorry i m ranting about this, but U REALLY NEED to understand that it is a very small part of your application. You are going about this process in a very wrong way at the moment. Clear your head, be honest and be passionate. Don’t try to emphasise that ur from Saudi Arabia, don’t try to make excuses. Tell them who you are, and what you are about,
not why you couldn’t be someone you think they expected you to be - coz there isnt one specific ‘type’ of student for any college</p>