Do I have a chance with Cs on my transcript?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hello everyone, im going to be a junior in August. Sophomore year, I took 2 AP classes and 2 honors classes. Second semester I got a C in Honors Pre Calc, a C in AP Bio and a C in Spanish. I passed both AP tests. My schedule for junior year consists of 5 APs and H Spanish Along with leadership (also leadership in 10th grade). I have strong extracurriculars (especially in speech and debate), and my school is pretty difficult but new. During my past summer and this one I have taken 2 college courses at my local university. So I would say I’m “involved”. To be honest I didn’t quite try last year and slacked A LOT. I plan on changing that for junior and senior year. The rest of my grades are As and Bs. I’m taking the SAT soon but my PSAT score from last year is relatively good and on track. I was wondering what my target schools would look like, in terms of acceptance rates at least. I have reach schools that are highly selective but do I even have a chance?

Thank you, and sorry if this is messy

2

Until you have grades from Freshman-Junior year, an SAT score and idea of intended major, no one can give you suggestions. Also need Home state, college budget and school size preferences. Your information is too vague.

What is your current GPA and PSAT score?

Safety schools: High acceptance rate (basically guaranteed acceptance), affordable (little to no debt) and you are willing to attend.

Match schools: Where your stats are at the 50th percentile or higher and a decent acceptance rate >30%

Several C’s on your transcript will exclude you from highly selective schools at this point.

3

Bio:
-Citizenship: USA
-State of residence: California
-Class: lower
-Race: Middle Eastern
-Gender: Female
** first gen.
School:
-Type (Public/private & size): public, 60 in my class, around 200 total in HS
-Graduates (How many go to Ivy’s/top 20): new school, only one graduating class so far, about 4 maybe
-AP’s Offered: bio, chem, calc AB, statistics, Lang, Lit, Physics, euro, US history, gov/econ

Academic Profile:
-Unweighted GPA: 3.2
-Weighted GPA: 3.47
-AP’s: bio (3) and euro (3) so far, taking chem, calc ab, lang, US history, and env. science next year
-ACT: havent taken it
-SAT: havent taken it, 1040 on PSAT 10
-SAT II:
-Rank: mid
-Course Rigor: Hardest possible with what’s available

** planning on actually trying next year (junior year) and senior year …

EC:

  • varsity Speech and debate
  • class president
  • CSF
  • community service
  • volunteer for organization (not going to specify)

Other Notables:

  • 2 college courses taken at local university

Awards:

  • many in S&D, state qualifier, Tournament of Champions qualifier, 2nd place local championships

Schools I’m looking at:

  • HUGH REACH:
  • Georgetown
  • UCB
  • UCLA
  • UPenn

other schools:

  • UCSD, UCSB, UCSC, UCR, Eastern Washington University, NYU, clark

Intended Major: Political Science/Gov. / International Affairs (depending on where I go)
Intended Minor: Not sure

4

Out of the UC’s, I see only UCR and UCSC as being possible this early into formulating your college list. PSAT is on the low side along with your weighted GPA. 6 of the UC campuses have average UC GPA’s of 4.0+ so that should be your target GPA for UCSB/UCSD/UCD/UCI/UCLA and UCB. SAT target should be at the minimum for the mid tier and upper tier UC’s are 1400+. First generation will be considered.

UC’s only use 10-11th grades in the a-g courses for their GPA calculation. You get extra honors points for any UC approved Honors/AP/DE course taken in 10-11th grade with a maximum 8 semesters for the capped weighted UC GPA.

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

Definitely look at some test prep before taking the SAT and/or ACT. Also work on bumping up your grades. You do not want any more C’s on your transcript.

At this point, your college list is extremely ambitious with your current stats. You need to explore some of the Cal States and possibly some private schools in California especially if you are in need of large amount of financial aid. Cal States and UC’s can be fairly generous with need-based aid to residents.

I would run the Net Price calculators on any schools of interest to make sure all affordable before visiting and applying.

This is the reality based on your weighted GPA for the UC’s::

Freshman admit rates for UC GPA of 3.40-3.79:

UCB: 2%
UCLA: 3%
UCSD: 6%
UCD: 15%
UCSB: 14%
UCI: 13%
UCSC: 59%
UCR: 78%
UCM: 92%

5

Based on your current grades and minimal test results, I agree that you need to focus on including the Cal States.
Consider the costs of applying to those schools, as well as, the costs to attend. There are no full rides anymore. Based on your current stats, it would be highly unlikely for any significant merit dollars.

Remember that the UC’s review and consider your 10th and 11th grades for admission. Your senior year grades continue to “count” but won’t be used for admission purposes.

If you are taking 5 AP classes, I would suggest that you focus on your grades and limit your EC hours.
The “in-class” grades matter.

(Your AP scores aren’t really used for admission purposes. Those scores are used by your university after you graduate from high school.)

6

I agree these are very much a reach:

  • Georgetown
  • UCB
  • UCLA
  • UPenn

Please know that so are:

  • UCSD, UCSB, UCSC, NYU

Clark is a maybe. I’d like you to look at UCR, as it’s a possible. Also look at some of the good CSUs.

Based on your list, some schools you might like and which aren’t as much of a reach: Pace U, Wagner, Fordham, Marymount Manhattan, Hampshire U, Emerson, Syracuse, the New School, Rutgers New Brunswick, UMass Amherst, U Delaware, U San Diego, U Vermont, Hofstra, San Diego State U, UNH, URI, St. Lawrence U, Hobart & William Smith, Gonzaga, Loyola Marymount, Chapman U, U of the Redlands, Ithaca, U Scranton, Marist, Baruch, Hunter College, Salve Regina (you should at least look up their campus. It’s stunning), Pepperdine, Manhattan College. You’d need to look at each to see which really might be of interest to you. Some are more reaches than others, but none are as much of a reach as a place like Penn or UCLA. And some are real fits.

If you want a more elite level college you might have a real shot at, look at the women’s colleges like Smith and Mt. Holyoke. They’re reaches, but not by as much as some of the others on your list.

7

It looks to me as if you are taking most rigorous classes in the hope of impressing highly selective “top 20” schools, even through your GPA has already eliminated any chance of your getting accepted to any top 20 schools.

The good news is that there are thousands of universities in the US and hundreds of very good universities. You are probably still on track for a “top 100” university and students can do very well at a “top 100” or even “top 200” university. However, I think that you should cut way back on the APs and college courses and focus on keeping your GPA high – and particularly on getting A’s.

Another issue: A C in pre-calc is quite worrisome. The issue is that calculus is VERY highly dependent on pre-calc, and it looks as if you might not be well prepared to take calculus. IMHO you would be far better served to take “catch up in Math” tutoring over the summer and skip the college classes.

8

Eastern Washington for political science is an odd choice. Look for schools near state capitals where it’s easy to intern in government.

1040 PSAT has a lot of room for improvement for a kid in AP classes. Spend lots of time practicing!

9

I too had one bad semester, in which I also got a dreaded C+ on my transcript, along with a couple of B+'s. The next semester I pulled straight A’s. Do not let one bad semester stop you from pursuing the top 20 colleges. Instead, I urge you to use the additional information section on the application. I had a concussion, and I missed about three weeks of school, and will be writing about that as to my reason for why I did not do so well that semester. Another one of my friends got two C’s and several B’s the second semester of her sophomore year, despite having straight A’s in other semesters, due to her sister’s suicide attempt (unsuccessful, I might add), she pulled herself together and got straight A’s her Junior year, and like me, is planning on using the additional information section.

See what happened that semester. Was it honestly just laziness? Or was there something else? Did you go through a depressed phase? Was there something that triggered the period of bad grades?