<p>So, freshman,sophomore, and part of junior year, I got bad grades. Basically, I was a smart bum. Second semester Junior year, I buckled up and got myself together. The twist is, that my course load was extremely difficult and my extracurricular activities are very good.</p>
<p>Weighted GPA: 4.5
UW GPA: 3.1(7 point scale)
ACT: 34
Physics Sat: 730
Class rank: top quarter</p>
<p>10thgrade
Calculus AB-B
AP Environmental Science -C
Honors Civics and Economics-B
Honors English -B
Calculus BC-C
Spanish 2 - B
AP Computer Science-B
AP Human Geography-C
Honors Physics - B</p>
<p>11grade
AP Physics B - C
Honors Spanish 3 -C
AP Psychology -B
AP Government and Politics-B
AP World History -A
Ap Statistics -A
AP US History-A
AP Economics -A
Honors Anatomy-A
Honors English-A</p>
<p>12 grade
Calc 3 @ NC state -A
Economics 301 @ UNC Chapel Hill -A
AP Comparative Gov.-A</p>
<p>Extra Curricular:
Economics Pre-College Program at Uchicago
internship and helped to make an Iphone game with 2 NYU students for 1 summer.
Internship with a local private bank 1 summer.
NC State Leadership Conference
Started an Economics club (Founder+President)</p>
<p>Other:
Varsity Soccer -all of high school
president of speech and debate - 3 years.
DECA - 2 years
Held a leadership position in my religious group
Key Club - all of high school
City volunteer teen group - all four years</p>
<p>Letters of Rec(1-10): ~7-8
Essays (1-10): ~8-9</p>
<p>I would NOT use an essay to explain your grades. Essays are meant to tell a compelling story which reflects your character.</p>
<p>There is plenty of space in the “Additional Information” section of the application to talk about why your grades weren’t up to par. This section is designated for explaining extenuating circumstances, after all.</p>
<p>To be honest, unless you have a really good reason explaining why you got C’s for three years (frequent hospitalization, severe problems at home, etc.), even the best essay in the world probably won’t sway admissions officers. Just to give you glimpse into what I’m talking about, here are the percentages of last year’s incoming freshman classes – at the schools you’re interested in – who had GPAs between 3.00 and 3.24 on a 4.00 scale (according to the schools’ common data sets): UNC: 1%
GTech: 1%
Carnegie Mellon: 6%</p>
<p>As you can see, very few students admitted to those schools had GPAs similar to yours. In fact, at those schools, the overwhelming majority of admitted students had GPAs of at least 3.75.</p>
<p>I hope you know that I’m telling you this to be helpful, not to be mean in any way. I just want to make sure you know all the facts before applying to these schools (and spending lots of money on applications to schools you probably won’t get into). Of course, feel free to apply to these schools as reaches; just make sure you have plenty of matches and safeties!</p>
<p>I’m not familiar with the 7 point scale so it’s hard for me to gauge your GPA. However, the rigor of your classes is sure to blow admissions officers away!! Though I don’t know if Carnegie Mellon is a match, I think that your best bet is UNC because you are in state and a wonderful candidate. </p>
<p>However, I don’t think any of those 3 schools could be deemed a ‘safety.’ Be sure to look at other schools in your area or elsewhere that will accept lower grades/scores than you to ensure your acceptance to university. </p>