Hey guys, first and foremost, I wish all of you a happy holidays and Merry Christmas. If you have some time to read up on this, please do; I’ll appreciate it a lot. Also, please give me your honest opinions on everything I say.
I was extremely lazy as a freshman and sophomore. I never had the drive to get good grades, always slid through school with a few As, Bs, and of course, a few Cs. As a freshman and junior, I always thought getting Cs wouldn’t impact my GPA if I had never gotten a D. (I never finished a marking period with a D.) Throughout those two years, I ended up with a 2.84 cumulative GPA. Terrible. Awful. I know. Want to know what makes it worse? My brother scored a 35 on the ACT and a 2350 on the SAT and now attends West Point. Junior year comes around, I knew I had to change things around. I have been busting ass for my grades, finishing up the second marking period with a 3.65 gpa. But now, I have realized my GPA is basically very below average for the colleges I have been looking at and I can’t not go to a few of these schools. I HOPE to finish my junior year with a 3.15 cumulative AT LEAST. Then as far as next year, I will look into some AP courses I can take and finish my first marking period of senior year super strong. As far as standardized testing, I am going to be taking the new SAT in March, 2016 which I have been studying my ass off for. I know as a fact I will do better than 50% of my peers, I have just studied so much; but ya never know. Anything can happen. Honestly, the only hope I have to get into school are my extracurricular activities. They are about average but within the next year I’m going to start interning and hopefully work on a project that stands out from any other average joe. I think I can do it.
Extracurricular :
Boyscout (soon to be Eagle Scout (highest rank)).
4-year FBLA member
3-year track
2-year Relay for Life captain
3-year Leo Club member
Antioch team member (something for church)
2-year PTPI club member
250+ community service
2-year newspaper club
Now for colleges…please give me your honest opinion
(I live in NJ)
Now here is an idea of some of the schools I have been looking at:
Towson
Loyola
Scranton
Drexel
St. Josephs
Temple
Seton Hall
Rutgers
UDel
St. Johns
Quinnipiac
URI
Rowan
WVU (safety)
The way to chance yourself is to google the Common Data Set for each of these schools, scroll down to section C and compare your stats to those of the admitted students for each school.
A reminder too that ECs do not make up for lower grades. Schools want to see depth, not breadth, so participating in 9 activities and trying to rack up volunteer hours is at best a waste of your time and at worst (if its taking time away from studying) it’s hurting your chances. On the other hand, they do know that lots of kids don’t hit their stride academically until 10th or 11th grade so they tend to discount freshman year somewhat. (The CA state schools don’t include 9th grade in their GPA calculations, for example.)
Lastly, there are lots of great schools out there for B students and many of them go on to be very successful professionally and personally. Many are ‘late bloomers’ like yourself. Others are simply not academically inclined but are still very talented in their chosen fields of endeavor. Your goal is to figure out how to study effectively and figure out what you are interested in doing so you get the most out of your education now and in college. As for the sibling - no one knows and no one cares. You are the only one making comparisons (okay, maybe your parents too) Of the entire 6 billion people on the planet at the moment no one else (besides your parents) cares about his accomplishments. You can be one of them.
I don’t know anything about these colleges, but do try not to play the comparison game with Brother Brilliant. It doesn’t lead anywhere useful. Congrats on becoming an Eagle Scout - that is an impressive achievement.
While perhaps @XCjunior2016 could have phrased it a bit more diplomatically, they are essentially correct. You have your stats and your brother’s stats both in a densely worded paragraph. Why do we care about your brother at all, for the purposes of helping you find the best fit college? And all kind of moot anyway, because theoretical grades and SAT scores are a waste of time. You will have your real test score and your true updated GPA by June, which is plenty of time to then assess what schools make the most sense for you. Repost a thread then with your actual stats and repeat the list of EC’s. But this is premature.
Also, if at that time you still have a list of schools like the above, put the new thread in the What Are My Chances forum. But it might be better to just ask for suggestions for schools based on your preferences regarding the size of the school, location (both geographically and urban/suburban/rural), do you care about sports at the school, etc. And your financial limitations, if any of course. Then people can help you match your stats to schools that meet your preferences. If you want to go that route, place your new thread in College Search & Selection.
As far as summer school, I think anything that gives the best chance for an A or A- is the way to go, as opposed to trying hard courses to impress them. Getting that GPA up is job #1.
I’m not sure why people don’t like your paragraph. I think it is helpful to understand where you are coming from. Your brother did really well and you have to follow him. He gives you a glimpse of what can happen if you have good grades but you fear you blew it. Well if you can achieve strong grades now, the upward trajectory will help show schools that you are now a serious student. Your list is realistic, as noted above. You have chosen some schools that will nurture your academic potential-schools like Loyola (Towson) and Scranton. Your safety (WVU) is apt to have more distractions but students at WVU tend to love their school and Morgantown is a fun place. Good luck
If you work harder on your grades then yeah you still got a shot at these schools. Try to add maybe one or more safeties to your list just in case. I am a senior right now and you have a lot of the schools I applied to and i have stats kind of similar to yours. I feel the same way as you do even right now even when I’ve applied to all my colleges but I already got accepted to 3 schools two of them being the Rutgers Branch Campuses. I was like you throughout high school I was lazy even though I know I wanted to get grades and tried to get help but I just couldn’t work hard enough even though I go to a competitive high school.
I am now a senior and have tried my best to bring my grades up but I deeply regret not working hard enough in High School. You are a junior right now so if you work hard on your grades and do good on SATS or ACTS you definitely got a shot at a lot of your reach schools. Also you are well rounded with your Ecs so that is an advantage and your college essay is just as important but don’t focus on that until maybe late summer. Colleges will definitely look at your grades but put all the other things into consideration as well. You have time so just work harder and maybe if you don’t meet the GPA requirements of these schools don’t get discouraged and as long as it is good with your parents just put the best effort on your application to send to these schools.