<p>Hey guys, my unweighted GPA was 3.65 between freshman and junior year (Very strong upward trend, however). However, I took EXTREMELY advanced courses, taking Calc AB as a freshman and finishing my school's math curriculum sophomore year. Due to my rapid advancement in coursework, I took an actual course at an Ivy League university senior year. However, my "enthusiasm" destroyed my GPA.
Are my EC's enough to make me competitive for the Ivies?
Math club: 9,10,11,12 (Treasurer junior year)
Science Club:9,10,11,12
2nd place at Science Bowl regionals junior year
3rd place at Ocean Science Bowl regionals sophomore and junior year
1st place at Science Olympiad States sophomore and junior year (Several individual gold medals)
3 Individual medals at Science Olympiad nationals junior year (one gold)
Part of the 7th place team in the B division at PUMaC junior year
Staff writer for school newspaper senior year
Around 80 volunteer hours, split between a local hospital and tutoring
Tournament chess player with USCF rating of 1440 (I know it's low, but I returned to chess after 3 or 4 years, having played it for most of my life)
National AP Scholar
2320 SAT
3x800's SAT II</p>
<p>Where are you planning on applying?</p>
<p>UPenn is my dream school. I’m applying ED. I am a Japanese-American male living in New York.</p>
<p>I think that your ECs make up for GPA. You would be a very good canidate for UPenn ED. GOOD LUCK!</p>
<p>Haha, thanks! More input, please.</p>
<p>What my guidence counselor said to us(the Junior Class) is that a tougher course is worth it if you can get at least a B. That is colleges will like it better to see a harder curriculum with Bs than an easy one with As. Of course the hard one with As would be preferable, but they’ll appreciate effort more than easy As. </p>
<p>Your extracurriculars seem to correspond very closely with your course choice, and you show a long-term commitment, which together demonstrate a passion for something(math and science it looks like). </p>
<p>All in all, you seem like a pretty good candidate, not a slam-dunk though–for schools like HPY and Stanford–but a pretty good candidate nonetheless. Besides, you’ll totally get in somewhere good, even if not there 
</p>
<p>And you still have Senior year to make your chances even better!</p>
<p>Thanks for your input! Furthermore, how important are senior semester grades?</p>
<p>Bumpity bump bump bump</p>
<p>Even though colleges don’t see your senior semester grades when you apply, if you’re accepted, they still monitor you, I’ve heard (Since this is by word of ear around the school, I could be wrong). Someone who went to my school a while back got into the school he wanted and made the mistake of slacking off his senior year–the college he was accepted to ended up letting him go, apparently.</p>
<p>Oh, okay. So 3.65 is what they see, huh? :-/</p>
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<p>Depends on rank. If you’re in the top 5% I think you have a chance.</p>
<p>My school doesn’t rank…</p>
<p>Is it all contingent on rank?</p>
<p>Guys I’m really nervous any sort of advice would be good.</p>
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<p>The only EC that could ever make up for a low GPA is recruited impact athlete.</p>
<p>Is my GPA low enough to be automatically excluded?</p>
<p>We don’t have enough info. Where does 3.65 put you at your school? At Exeter ( but I’m guessing you didn’t Attend a top school if the math curriculum ended with calc) you might be top 10%, at an average high school top 40%. whether or not your school officially ranks, colleges will know how your performed relative to your school. A 3.65 would not be competitive For ivies from most high schools.</p>