Freshman Grades Bogging Down Transcript...HELP!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Barnard College
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Hello College Confidential Friends!

I am a senior in high school (eek!) and I would die for Barnard. I know everyone says don’t get too attached, but I don’t know what would happen to me if I had to go anywhere else and idk how I would handle the pain of being rejected. Obviously I’m applying to other schools, I’m not THAT naive, but my point still stands. I’ve never felt this way about a school. I NEED to be there.

That being said…my freshman year was COVID year and it was insanely turbulent, moreso than just the lockdown aspect. I switched schools halfway through the year because of intense racism and harassment I suffered at my old school that heavily impacted my mental health and schoolwork, and I was forced to take a bunch of classes to make up for credit at my new school because I switched from a weird quarterly block schedule to a normal semester schedule. Because all the good academic classes were taken I had to take Sewing and Photography, classes for which I had no equipment. I did really poorly in those classes and got C’s, which has effed up my GPA ever since. I’ve been an A and B student (my only b’s being in honors math courses, which isn’t my strong suit or my target major anyways, and in AP Bio and sophomore chem after my dad died, LOL) since, but I can’t get my GPA to budge from 3.55 and we’re coming up on ED deadlines. I have all A’s in my classes this year so far including my dual enrollment university course and AP chem and stats which I’m really proud of, but the quarter grades won’t be out until after I apply anyway so that won’t fix anything. I’ve been trying to get the freshman grades forgiven or altered or something but there’s no way to do that. If it weren’t for that year I’d have at least a 3.7.

My mom says that it’s ok, because the grades were during COVID year and in some insignificant classes, and obviously I’ll write those “excuses” (albeit more tactfully) in my additional info section, but I’m really afraid because I read on CollegeVine that admissions officers won’t look further into your application if you don’t meet the academic requirements (GPA and test scores etc). I have a 32 ACT which I’m submitting but I don’t think that will be enough to excuse my low GPA especially with the decreasing emphasis on standardized test scores lately. I just really don’t know what to do. IS there anything I can do about this?

(additional info: i am a first-generation, black, low-income (relative to my area and cost of living there) applicant, i have some decent extracurriculars (model un president, dance for 15 years, nhs, volunteer work and jobs related to academics) and good rec letters (i assume lol) from teachers and maybe principal if i can get it! Idk if any of that really matters though)

If you know anything, please help, even if just to give me some peace of mind!!

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Bad news: there’s nothing you can “do about this” that you’re not doing already, which is providing an explanation for some grades earlier in your high school career due to a combination of COVID and other circumstances. There isn’t one weird trick to get you out of that.

Good news: your mom is right that it’s Sewing and Photography. Each school (including Barnard) will calculate your GPA in their own way, but it is very safe to assume that those classes will be far less meaningful than your core academic classes.

If you don’t get into Barnard - and Barnard is a very, very challenging school to get into, for reasons largely outside of your control - it’s almost certainly not because of your C’s in Sewing and Photography.

Good luck, and as dozens of CC posters will say to you, PLEASE find some other schools that you’ll be excited about. I promise that they are out there, and people here will help you if you follow the template!

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What do you absolutely love about Barnard that makes you think you can’t go anywhere else? Perhaps start a thread with that info and see if you can get any suggestions for schools that might be similar.

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Guess what - lots of kids are like you, get to college, have a bad prof, roomie, hate the food l, etc and are miserable. Or maybe worse - get in but can’t go due to finances.

Many like you would have been studs freshman year and throughout and still will get turned down by Barnard.

Many like you think there’s only one home and the reality is - there’s likely hundreds.

If you can’t handle rejection, find a 100% safety school and only apply there.

It’s good to get rejected if you are stretching for admissions. I’m glad both my kids got rejected.

If you get in - congrats. If not, their loss and another’s gain.

You can have a great four years and career success regardless of where you study. That’s up to you, not them.

So what do you love about Barnard and then find schools that can fit that mold to apply as backups.

Good luck to you.

Ps please get your ethnicity in an essay or activity description so they can factor it into the decision. With the Supreme Court action, they no longer can simply by reporting.

Pps not to be discouraging but to be realistic, per the common data set, a 32 is at the 25th percentile and Barnard considers it but does not rate the test at important or very important.

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I know the schools have a relationship…but this student wants to apply to Barnard…not Columbia.

@shooting4barnard every student applying to college this year had that COVID year. Some colleges might consider that when they are considering admissions and some might not…because they still have a ton of well qualified applicants anyway.

You can’t wind the clock backward. So…apply to Barnard and see what happens. If you don’t get accepted, you will never know why.

What does this mean? Have you run the Net price calculator for Barnard (and any other college you are considering) to see an estimate of your net costs. Low income “relative to your area and cost of living there” just might not BE low income.

More important…what can your parents pay annually for you to attend college?

The letters of reference from your academic teachers will be most important. One from your principal honestly won’t matter unless the principal knows how you performed in your academic classes. Use that as a supplemental LOR only…and only where the colleges accept additional LOR.

I don’t see anything in your post that says why you so love Barnard. So…why do you so love this college. Give us a list of your reasons…and if you want them, folks here can give you other colleges that might fulfill that wish list.

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There is nothing you can do about your grades but I don’t think a couple of “c”s in elective, non-academic classes will sink your application. That said, Barnard is a reach which means that rejection is more likely than acceptance. That would be true even if your gpa/scores were higher. I would suggest you focus your essay on some of the racism you experienced to help frame your academic journey and share how it shaped you. As you know, schools can no longer consider race directly.

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I have other colleges that I also like (bryn mawr, swarthmore, sarah lawrence) and would be fine going to, so that’s not what I’m worried about necessarily.

Obviously i’ve run the price calculator and what I mean by “for my area” is that relative to cost of living as well as the demographics where I live (wealthy rapidly gentrifying college town) I am within the low-income threshold (at the upper limits because my mom works two jobs to account for the combined income) and I’ve been a participant in programs for low-income students throughout high school.

But yeah, thanks for clarifying. I’m not even applying to columbia haha

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I’m glad you had a change of heart in the last 24 hours. Embrace the school that accepts you and make the most of it, wherever it is.

Good luck to you.

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Considering your young age, you have shown amazing resilience overcoming aversities and family tragedy - finding ways to bounce back from lows. You’ll be able to build on this strength and find your path through life – regardless where you’ll attend college.

Having said that…

So, your immediate and crucial task is to make a plan on how to handle that rejection, that absolutely will come for >90% of all the equally exceptional, young women who are applying to Barnard!

Here’s an honest assessment: You can’t change your GPA, you can’t change your ACT, and I don’t know what your class rank is.
As far as CoViD grades: Everyone who applies will have had CoViD grades incorporated in their GPA, there’s no way to “explain away” your 3.55 (although the consequence of having to change schools is worth mentioning.)

Looking at your ECs, I fully recognize the work and leadership it takes, to function as club president for the Model UN. Unfortunately, for highly selective schools that will not make you stand out among everyone else applying, neither does NHS (of course, you’d still mention those.)
But 15 years of dance (starting in the crib?), volunteer work, and any jobs you managed to keep through challenging times will be relevant to an admission officer who wants to “know” about you.

If you don’t try - you’ll never know, of course.

But… if I were an Ivy League college, I would accept ED applicants that fit two criteria:

  • exceptional applications that might also get offers and otherwise be tempted by other Ivy League colleges.
  • top applications (not just based on stats) that would be picked, even if this was the RD round.

Average applications, even more so those in the lower 25 percentile, I would more likely “defer” to RD, until I can evaluate them against this year’s other RD applications.

Based on what you’ve mentioned about your application, my best guess is that a deferral would be a “good” outcome of ED. Then, in the RD round, your odds and everyone else’s (incl. as many as two to three times as many people with higher stats), are >95% rejection.

In closing - go follow your dream, by all means - but from now on you can’t allow yourself to feel you “NEED to be there”. Instead, research other schools on your list, find out cool aspects of those schools, things that you’d love to be part of. Operate on the assumption that in all likelihood one of the other colleges will become your home for 4 years.

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Only hard work and diligence can help.