Hey guys, I am currently a sophomore at my highschool and am considering dropping my French class and, self studying it instead. I am currently an Asian in a competitive school and dropping French for ap psychology would raise my gpa from 4.64 for the year, to 4.78. Should I do this? I would continue it at the ap level when I get to senior year (I am currently in French 3 which can only be taken at the regular level( same for French 4))My goal is to get into an ivy legue, preferably UPENN.
PS. I am also self studying Norwegian and am not afraid of working hard.
I would not do it for GPA reasons. The colleges may ask, and that isxa tough sell. Also, colleges (even top schools) are slightly more forgiving of low grades in foreign language classes.
From UPenn website. “Therefore, we encourage you to consistently take classes in core academic areas (English, social studies, math, science, and foreign language) throughout your four years of high school.”
wouldn’t it be okay to self-study french 3 and 4 as long as I took ap french senior year though? I am 1 year behind my peers right now as I transferred from a school where french 1 was the highest that I could go up to.
Also, 4.64 v 4.78 are the same wrt highly selective college admissions. I assume you’re top 10%. You clearly have a rigorous course load. You’re good. The difference will be made in what you do with your free time (ECs and their impact.)
Foreign language is a core class. You can’t drop it for an elective.
Colleges don’t want you to self study. They want you to take the class. Add that to the biggest error in your question (IMO) which is that you cannot effectively self study a foreign language. Yes, you can learn the grammar from a book, but you won’t be able to communicate effectively orally.
I would also recommend that you stay with taking French in HS. Self-study is not regarded the same as achieving in an academic class and there is no guarantee you will be prepared to take AP French in 12th grade. Stop obsessing about minor GPA differences – as the expression goes you are missing the forest through the trees (ex. missing the big picture of what a HS education should be about).
The only reason that I wanted to drop french for ap psychology was that, I bombed my honors Principals of Engineering class last year (Second year class) and only got a GPA of 4.2 ( I wasn’t allowed to take any AP’s because I transferred to a new school in 9th grade from a school where AP’s only started on 10th grade, which meant I did not have any letters of recommendations for AP classes). Even though I didn’t take any AP’s, many of my peers did, boosting them to a higher class rank than me.
Please tell me you realize how disingenuous that sentence sounds.
Once again, you need to think big picture. Changing out one class ill not appreciably raise your GPA and/or rank. It’s not like it will make you leapfrog to the #1 position. In addition to the difference in weighting, a meaningful jump in rank will require that those ranked higher will now get worse grades than you in the future, and you cannot predict or assume that.
No college will criticize your course selections based upon school policy; they will criticize you for making bad course selections that are within your control.
In addition, I expect that continuing and completing an academic sequence in French will be viewed as a more rigorous schedule as compared to taking AP Psych (which is widely regarded as one of the “easy AP” classes).
Do you guys think a 4.56 (rather than a 4.62 by dropping french) is a competitive enough GPA (up untill junior year) to get into Upenn as an Asian looking to study computer science and real estate investing?
Weighted GPAs are meaningless to us (and AOs) as there is no common weighting metric used by high schools. They’ll look at your UW GPA. Weighted GPAs are usually only important within the HS.
Secondly, a 0.06 change in GPA is akin to a pimple on an elephant’s butt. The difference will not be the different between acceptance and rejection.
Finally, GPA is but one part of the application process for top schools like Penn.
If you would get in with a 4.62 you would most likely get in with a 4.56. But keep in mind that: 1) Penn is a reach for ANY unhooked applicant regardless of academic stats – there are simply not enough spots for every well qualified applicant and 2) Penn practices holistic admissions so while academics are important things like ECs, essays, LORs will also play an important part in admissions.
As a bit of unsolicited advice…I’d recommend that you give up the idea of Penn as a dream school and instead focus on creating a solid college list that includes reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable (find out your parents’ budget and run the net price calculator for each school) and that you would be excited to attend. The people I see who get hurt by the college admission process are the ones who focus on one or two hyper-competitive schools and then don’t get in. You will need to expand your horizons and recognize that there are many wonderful schools out there where you can have a great 4 year experience and get where you want to go in life.
My unweighted will be around a 3.95. My only B came from a second-year engineering class which I was not even should not have even been placed in as a first-year student.
This is exactly what I was thinking when reading this thread. Different high schools calculated weighted GPA very differently.
Also, the very most selective schools are a high reach for everyone, and it is very difficult to predict what might or might not get you accepted.
I think that you are trying too hard to do what will get you into a top school. You need to do what makes sense for you and then relax.
I don’t think that it is possible to learn a language properly by self-studying. You need to actually speak the language to someone who is listening, and also listen to people who are speaking. Top schools like you to stick with a language for (I think) four years.
If I were you I would stick with French. Bonne chance.