Hi everyone -
I am currently a high school junior finishing up the year. I am so worried about college apps in the fall due to the fact that my GPA does not match my abilities - it is currently a 3.683. Freshman and sophomore year, I had some mental health issues (lots of anxiety among other things that made high school nearly unmanageable in combination with my HS sport) and got a 3.5 UW first semester of both freshman and sophomore years, and then 3.71 second semester both freshman and sophomore year. However, going into junior year I made a commitment to getting better, never going back to therapy, and not letting my mental afflictions affect my schoolwork anymore. First semester I finished with a 3.83 UW (B+ in AP Physics) and a 3.85 UW second semester (B+ in AP Physics - not a physics person lol).
Thus, despite the fact that I’m in 3 APs and the rest honors classes, my grades are obviously much better than frosh + soph years when I was only in honors (and AP Euro soph year). Next year I am in 4 APs and the rest honors classes, and I am committed to working hard enough to perhaps earn a 4.0 UW.
My ACT is a 32 at the moment (retaking in June, hoping to improve 1-2 points as I have been doing a lot of science and math prep, my two worst sections) and I will be a four year athlete. I will spare the rest of my extracurriculars but I believe that they are competitive.
I am looking at schools such as Southern California (top choice), UW-Madison, Texas (at Austin), Notre Dame (a reach, obviously). My question is: how much will my low GPA affect my chances at selective schools, keeping in mind that my counselor will include my issues in her letter?
You should look on your HS Naviance system or check the admission stats for the schools you are considering. An upward trend is nice but you should not count on getting into any school your academic stats don’t have you in the range for.
I appreciate the thought but I have to respectively disagree. I was going through a lot of health issues at the time that resulted in a decent number of absences and impinged upon my ability to function as a healthy teenage high school student. Had I not been going through the worst of a serious mental disorder I truly believe that my GPA would be higher.
Not sure why you asked for opinions if you “know” the answer already. But I wish you the best of luck. Be sure to apply to a wide range of reach, match, and safety schools (advice I’d give to every student).
I believe the OP was disagreeing with the first post and that wasn’t what his question was. I am in a similar situation as the OP but I still believe I have chances at top schools. I am waiting on ACT results which I expect to be 34+. My question for the OP is does your school rank and is it considered a better school? My UW GPA is just under 3.7 but my weighted is about 4.2 and I will be ranked in the top 5% of my class. Also, my school is a pretty highly ranked public school. If your situation is any similar to that then I think you are ok. So, my advice for you is to have a very strong first semester senior year to show universities you mean business and to raise your ACT by at least two points though even one will help a lot. I’d probably leave out your struggle with mental illness from the app as well.