<p>^^^^^Your story is almost identical to mine but i think my upward trend was slightly more steep with B's C's to all A's but anyways do you know where you are applying next year?</p>
<p>I am only going to be a junior in high school so I don't know yet what about you? </p>
<p>Also do you guys think I will be screwed for colleges with my freshman year? Any advice?</p>
<p>yeah i will be a junior as well but the schools im hoping to get into are bowdoin, kenyon, and vassar</p>
<p>Oh I am looking at University of Tampa, Temple, Springfield College, U of Indy, Oregon, UMass, and others.</p>
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well what i meant was similar ec's to ppl that get into top colleges the whole point of this post is for ppl to comment as to whether they started off high school doing poorly or average and got there act together excelled and are now attending a reputable college
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<p>You have two misperceptions here I think. There are no "ECs for top colleges."</p>
<p>If you are pursuing certain ECs because you think they will impress colleges, you need a serious reality check right now. Two things impress colleges when evaluating ECs: distinction and passion.</p>
<p>It doesn't matter if you chose debate over the hip-hop club. The latter is a perfectly plausible EC to use if you are passionate about hip-hop as a medium of expression, or you in fact, are part of a musical group with a sizable group of fans. On the other hand, preppy ECs won't save you if you have shown neither distinction nor passion.</p>
<p>The other thing is to check your usage of idioms in your essays. Just a heads up. Maybe you wanted to say "comment on how they got their act together?"</p>
<p>Your posting style so far IMO shows that your past performance might not only be the only obstacle. My suggestion to you now is -- go to the Essays forum and get your essays peer-reviewed. A LOT.</p>
<p>lol@ galoisien: hip hop club would prob be better seeing as how many applicants have debate club on their apps.</p>
<p>my point about the ecs is that they are not my concern bc i know they will be impressive bc i show passion and leadership in them but my point of this thread is to see how others handled the situation I am in. Clearly my lack of substance in my freshman year will be discussed in my essays and accounted for i just was curious as to how others handled the situation</p>
<p>What are you ec's then? A lot of people think that they have amazing ec's but don't actually.</p>
<p>jw</p>
<p>ugh not the point of the thread. I just want ppl who had an upward trend after subpar grades to tell their story and whether they got into to schools or for that matter what schools they even got into...my ecs have no relevance in this thread.</p>
<p>Having just gotten out of the whirlwind that is college admissions, I can say that while an upward trend is better then bad grades, it is no replacement for a solid 4 years of solid A's/solid grades. </p>
<p>I had a " success story." I went to a private school, fairly difficult. My first two years, I took a rigerous courseload, but thought I could breeze with little effort. I ended up with a 3.44 and 3.59 my fresh and soph years (unweight). I thought these were decent, but i came to realize that for a competitive top 20, they are mediocre at best compared to the competition.</p>
<p>I stepped up my Junior year, finishing with a 3.95. I also, made a breakthrough in science fair, winning best in fair at the state level and finishing with a best in category at the international fair. I stepped up my EC's as well. Senior year I finished with a 3.95 as well, with continued success in science research. </p>
<p>I thought I could make up my poor 2 years with SAT's. I got a 2140 (OK, not awesome), and a 800 Bio/740 Math II/780 US. Know that my school didn't have many AP's, just Honors courses so I may have been at a disadvantage there with my lack of AP's.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, what was the end result in April?</p>
<p>HPS- Rejected
Caltech (alum, eventually rejected)/Dartmouth/J hopkins (alum)- Waitlisted</p>
<p>I had to fight to try and get off the waitlist at the three schools. For two months I thought I was going to another school, and after the pain of waiting Dartmouth finally came through for me. I'm happy with the result, but it certainly wasn't enjoyable. I doubt I would have gotten in if this wasn't such a wacky year for waitlists. </p>
<p>I feel I could have saved myself alot of trouble by maintain solid grades from the start. To me, those grades seemed to counterbalance my science fair stuff (which isn't an easy feat), and upward trend, etc. Had I had that hook, with solid grades I may have been able to avoid those waitlists. Of course, there are many subjective factors that were out of my control.</p>
<p>For the kids who are depending on an upward trend, it will be necessary to have solid SAT's/ an amazing hook to stay in the game with all those 4.0 kids (this is ref. to those big name schools, I had no trouble getting into small liberal art schools/state school)</p>
<p>best of luck! hope this helps</p>
<p>patty, you got really lucky lol</p>
<p>congrats</p>
<p>patty, sorry to say this but, from what you said, the main thing that I believe kept you out from HPS caltech JHU dartmouth etc was your SAT score. I believe you'd be in at at least a few of those schools if you had ~2250.</p>
<p>The "push factor" between a 2140 and a 2250 doesn't have as much marginal impact as concentrating on other portions of the application IMO.</p>
<p>That will depend on the school. For HYPS etc, as well as the schools that patty applied to, 2200 is about borderline to average. If you look at these schools' accepted threads you'll be hard pressed to find a 2140. Most admitted students are above 2200 - that's the norm. There's a limit to the extent to which these top schools would bend over their backs to accept scores below 2200, unless the applicant's hooked or legacy. from what we can tell, patty's neither. Even though patty's science research is outstanding, she doesn't seem to have much else from what she has posted - not to mention the fact that her fellow science fair winners are likely to have much higher scores than she does.</p>
<p>but anyways, patty got into dartmouth - congrats!!</p>
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Other then that sorry, but your GPA is too low for serious consideration by top colleges.
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<p>How do you know? I mean, you're not an admissions officer, so what makes you so sure about this?</p>
<p>Very few, if any, blanket statements can be made about the college admission process, especially at top schools. Yes, GPA is a major consideration, but you never know until you apply...</p>
<p>Yeah, um...4 C's first semester of my sophomore year in HS. Now going into my sophomore year at Johns Hopkins.</p>
<p>thanks guys! I'm actually a guy, but nevertheless</p>
<p>Margarita, wernt you a waitlisted student as well? To me, it seems that our low grades can make the difference between a original waitlist and acceptance.</p>
<p>As for my SAT's, yeah I do realize that they are a pretty average for those top schools. My scores nevertheless were fairly balanced with 690,720,730, 12 essay across the board (wasn't disproportional). True it didn't help me much. Also, my SAT II's were just as competitive as the average competition for those top schools. </p>
<p>As for alumni connections, I was double alum at Hopkins (yeah it stung when I got the result), and single alum at Caltech. I'm not sure if I Was WL because I was alumni or because of my stats (or maybe both...). </p>
<p>As for the science fair stuff, I felt it was a major hook, but I think most colleges disregarded it for me grades. Winning Best in Category at ISEF in a category of over 170+ of the best projects in the world is pretty unique IMO. Only a few students each year can claim that achievement (most of them graduating seniors).</p>
<p>Also know that my EC's didn't only involved science research. I had alot of things like varsity sports, Student body VP,etc (look up my profile for my old "Chances?" thread)</p>
<p>Moral of the story? For the OP I don't think our stories can apply considering we each had something else besides our upward trend/dec. SAT''s going for us. My story isn't so much success as just really really really lucky.</p>
<p>Oh yeah and I'm asian- the most over represented ethnicity in college admissions, making this even more of a miracle story XD</p>
<p>"Other then that sorry, but your GPA is too low for serious consideration by top colleges. " </p>
<p>"How do you know? I mean, you're not an admissions officer, so what makes you so sure about this?</p>
<p>Very few, if any, blanket statements can be made about the college admission process, especially at top schools. Yes, GPA is a major consideration, but you never know until you apply..."</p>
<p>Don't worry magneticpoet, a lot of people on CC act as if they are admissions officers. It should come as no surprise. SMH</p>
<p>House of London:</p>
<p>thanks for the info. :] I just think people should remember to take the opinions of their fellow students (and/or their fellow students' parents) with a grain of salt.</p>