Do you think my acceptance to Harvard College will be rescinded based on the information below?
I was accepted into the College under SCEA, but contracted a serious case of senioritis at the beginning of senior year. Most importantly, I received a D in AP Art History first semester that I have improved to a B second semester. I’m hoping that my increased GPA between the first and second semesters will provide a case for keeping admission. My grades:
FIRST SEMESTER (3.14 UW/3.86 W)
IB English HL: A-
IB Math HL: B (may be officially changed by teacher to an A)
IB Biology HL: B-
AP Art History: D
IB Spanish SL: B-
Journalism: A
IB Theory of Knowledge: A-
SECOND SEMESTER projected (3.5 UW/4.3 W)
IB English HL: B-
IB Math HL: A
IB Biology HL: B-
AP Art History: B-
IB Spanish SL: A
Journalism: A
Three aspects of my application that I think earned me a place in the Class of 2016 were my straight As through second semester junior year, a 2400 SAT and well-rounded extracurricular activities. I would be happy to provide more information regarding my application or the circumstances around my senior year grades (the latter of which is obviously important…) but I would very much prefer a more objective analysis.
What do you think? I am genuinely worried and I recognize that it is my duty as a student to keep up my work ethic, so please don’t bash
Did they get a midyear report from you? If they did and didn’t say anything about the D, I’d assume you’re all set. If they haven’t seen those grades yet, I’d still guess that you’ll be ok because you pulled up your grades for the end of the year. If they send you a warning note, you should write them a letter explaining that the bad grades were a wake up call and that you worked hard to improve them, and considering the drastic increase between the semesters I can’t imagine they would rescind you.
If they admitted you, they accepted you based on many things other than your grades. It is true that your grades are far from stellar even excluding the D, but your 2400 indicates that your potential is high. Last year, Harvard turned down a school valedictorian with okay SAT scores and a straight A student with perfect scores on every standardized test, but accepted a student with test scores and grades in between the two from the same school. The person they accepted was just a better fit, and this was clear even when they were young. The three students ended up going to Cornell, Caltech and Harvard. The Caltech guy got into Cornell, but otherwise there was no overlap in the schools they were accepted to as far as I know.
I say all that to say that they picked you specifically for you, not for your ability to be perfect in terms of grades. Getting one D will likely be seen as a fluke. Getting lots of B’s might be more concerning. They will want to see your final grades. Don’t stress too much but enough with the senioritis. Why not show sentence for your D by signing up for a summer class in art history at a local college or online or volunteer to create an exhibit this summer documenting the art history of your community? Write up a one-page synopsis or even a one-paragraph synopsis, package it attractively, and send it to a specific admissions officer along with your final grades or separately before the grade report, asking that it be added to your file as “Summer 2012.” That would show them you are aware, accountable, and self-correcting. It probably won’t matter, but just in case it does you have preemptively dealt with it.
