Early grades impact on admission

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi all!</p>

<p>As a rising junior, I recently received my grades for my sophomore year and was surprised to see that I had gotten two A-'s (in French and Honors chemistry) as my final grade, bringing my (weighted) GPA for the year down from 4.57 to 4.49. </p>

<p>I have three questions:
If I have been taking rigorous classes, ie. AP World History, AP Computer Science, and AP Calculus BC this year- how do college's look at me getting two other A-'s in less rigorous classes sophomore year?</p>

<p>If I were to take a more rigorous version of one of those two classes next year (ie. AP French or AP Chem) and get an A/5 on the exam, would that diminish the import of my A- in the previous class?</p>

<p>I have heard that guidance counselors can mention if teachers were particularly harsh grades/bad teachers, is this true? In the case of my chemistry teacher, she received so many complaints she had to revise first advisory grades.</p>

2

<p>One answer for all three of your questions: There is absolutely nothing wrong with an A-. Or two of them. Or ten of them. Stop worrying. If I were an admissions counsellor, I would honestly look down on an applicant with all A’s; to me, all A’s indicates that a student was not being challenged enough.</p>

3

<p>you need to calm the hell down. 4.3+ is all the same. If you had a B, that would be a different story. Also, Penn won’t look at Freshman year grades. </p>

4

<p>I’m pretty sure that Penn looks at Freshman year grades.</p>

5

<p>Either way, we’re discussing sophomore year grades, so I’m unsure how it’s relevant.</p>

6

<p>Just wanted to clear that up, it’s not relevant. </p>

<p>Actually, most private colleges do not look at freshman year grades. Stanford, Princeton, and I believe Penn will look at freshman year but not consider it. </p>

7

<p>None of the scenarios mentioned will negate the A-'s. Having said that, an A- is a great grade and will not put you out of the running at top colleges.</p>

<p>The past is past; nothing you can do about it now. Move forward, prep for standardized tests, continue to get great grades, and work at some meaningful EC’s.</p>

8

<p>As a matter of fact, many colleges don’t even look at pluses or minuses when they recalculate your GPA. And please get out of your head that you must achieve a 4.0 to do anything special. That’s a pernicious myth.</p>

<p>Please don’t ask your GC to explain away your A minuses. That’s utterly crazy.</p>

9

<p>^^ I’ll go one step further. If your GC were to explain away your A minuses, I think most Admissions Directors would question admitting such a “Polly Perfect” student who cannot deal with anything less than perfection.</p>

10

<p>Slightly off topic but I want to make sure this doesn’t slide by

This is unequivocally wrong. There are many private schools in the country. The number that don’t consider freshman year GPA is very small (the biggest set of schools that doesn’t consider freshman grades is actually the UC school system). </p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1267498-colleges-that-don-t-look-at-your-freshman-year.html”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-search-selection/1267498-colleges-that-don-t-look-at-your-freshman-year.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

11

<p>Excuse me I misspoke when I said that. I meant to say some top private colleges will look at freshman year grades but not consider them. </p>