<p>I have a somewhat "lower" GPA than most people and I was wondering what I could possibly say that would have them less strict about my GPA. The only bad grades that have brought me down was AP Euro because it was my first AP, I definitely wasn't ready for that and then the next year I concentrated much more on my AP's (B+'s) and then my pre-calc grade slipped away. Would that be a feasible explanation for my two C+'s in Pre-Calc and AP Euro? And should I write about that in my essay?</p>
<p>Sounds like your grasping at straws. A good explanation for a low GPA is something like you were in the hospital for a month, your parents went through a nasty divorce, etc.</p>
<p>The explanation for my son's math grades will be evident when anyone looks at his math grades and test scores: He's not good at math. His Math SAT will be at least 100 points lower than his CR. He has taken pre-AP or AP everything else and has taken "regular" math and has still not gotten As. I'm hoping that some kind admissions officer will give him a bit of credit for having plugged away at those math courses, instead of giving up.</p>
<p>^^no, you don't really have any excuse for your grades, which aren't bad. You simply haven't demonstrated that you're up to the caliber of students doing better. </p>
<p>^I think they'll give him more credit then if he had dropped math, which isn't much, but i think they expect students to work on and correct their weaknesses, otherwise he's just the student whose weak at math.</p>
<p>I have a bit of a GPA problem too, and I am just going to let it out here. Back in middle school, I was a remedial student. Throughout high school, I worked myself up and I am now taking only AP and honors classes, with the exception of English. But by the time I got to high school, I was mainstreamed (no AP or honors), so the colleges won't see my middle school past. Because I was increasing the difficulty of my courses throughout high school, each of my years of school are weighted a bit strangely as far as GPA goes. (For instance, I may have kept about the same unweighted GPA, but my weighted kept rising.) In freshman year, I was getting about a 3.8 weighted semester GPA. Compare that to my recent report card, a 4.75 weighted semester GPA. In all, this creates a lower cumulative GPA, a 4.19. I hope colleges will be able to spot that my cumulative GPA doesn't quite match my current performance.</p>