For my first three years of high school, I had an unweighted GPA of around 3.8 (school doesn’t report unweighted) and a weighted GPA of 4.49, and I took the most rigorous classes (4 APs in 10th and 4 APs in 11th).
This year, I am taking five APs, and my hardest classes are AP Physics and Calculus 3, and I am expecting an 81 in both. Along with some other high 80s, my weighted GPA will end up being around 4.10-4.15 for my first semester of senior year.
As a prospective engineering major applying to schools like Columbia, Brown, Penn, Duke, Rice, USC, Berkeley, UCLA, NYU, and Northwestern, how badly have I hurt my chances?
Also, lol at all the “drop in senior grades” posts around exam times :’(
It does not affect your chances for UCs as long as you do not get more than 2 Cs and your total GPA not drop below 3 by the end of the year. However, for USC and some other privates this last semester will hurt you!
the grades aren’t great; but they are in high level classes. explain this literally wherever you can in your application process: in the explanation supplement on the common app, in your essays if applicable, in your interview, in the teacher reccomendations you send in. make it clear you are taking the hardest classes possible, and that if you hadn’t chosen to try to learn more, your grades would have come much easier; make it seem like a strength that your reaching for these classes and schools.
If you are getting B’s that may sting a bit, but won’t hurt you too much. If you are looking at top schools and get even one C grade or lower without valid explanation, that can more than likely mean that you are done. 81 should not be a C. Also, colleges care about your unweighted GPA because that is less likely to differ by school.
Colleges will understand if your bad grades are due to harder classes and not due to slacking off. Your sophomore and especially your junior years grades will be weighted heavier than your senior year grades in the process, but your senior year grades will still be considered. The effect it can have, however, depends by school.
I actually ended up with an 83 in physics and an 84 in calc so nowhere near as bad as the 81! And yeah an 83 and above is a B and 80 to 81 is a B-, so no C’s! And my school only tells us weighted GPA and I think that it might only send weighted GPA as well. Thanks guys!