I need help.
I have my extracurriculars, volunteering. everything sorted. I have 10 AP’s in the bag - all 5s. Im pretty much fine in that respect. However, the thing that im scared is my GPA. Freshmen year 3.1, Sophomore 4.7, junior 4.9.
Would this stop me from getting into any Ivy league - most importantly Harvard.
Colleges don’t judge students in a vacuum. Instead, Admissions Directors rely on your guidance counselor to rate your course rigor as compared to all other college bound students at your high school. So long as your GC rates your course rigor as being MOST DEMANDING on the Secondary School Report (SSR), AND your GPA places you in the top of your high school’s graduating class, you will be considered a competitive applicant for any college. See Page 2 of SSR, upper section: https://issuu.com/thayeracademy/docs/1c.-school-report
That, however, does not mean you will be accepted.
FWIW: Many state schools admit students just by GPA and SAT scores – they don’t even look at essays, EC’s, Secondary School Report (SSR), teacher recommendations, or interview reports.
At private colleges, especially the more selective ones, GPA and test sores are a minimum threshold – everyone’s got to have that. Then Admissions will read your essays, teacher recommendations and EC’s and will compare them to all other applicants trying to choose students of good “character.” That’s an old fashioned word; it means the way you develop your inner qualities: intellectual passion, maturity, social conscience, concern for community, tolerance, inclusiveness and love of learning. Colleges learn of those things by comments made from your teachers and guidance counselor, as well as what your choose to write about in your essays and the “tone” and content of what you say.
To be admitted to a top 20 school – you need it all: A high GPA, great ACT/SAT scores, interesting EC’s, a thought provoking essay, stellar teacher recommendations. If one area is deficient, a student might be waitlisted or rejected – that’s how tough the competition is these days.
Have you watched this video from Amherst College: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-OLlJUXwKU
Prior to this Committee Meeting, about 8,000 applications were reviewed for transcript rigor, GPA and test scores. The top 1,000 students are then brought to the committee and students are either accepted or waitlisted. (The assumption is that the other 7,000 students who didn’t make it to committee are rejected.)
Notice the comments. Most of them are being read by Admissions Directors are comments from teachers or guidance counselors, except at the end where one Admissions Director says “This is a quote from his essay.”
about this… you see. I had an extremeley low gpa freshmen year, i just relocated and was getting used to the system. But afterwards you can clearly see i became back on track. I understand GPA was the minimum threshold for private school, but its just my freshmen year - would that still be as bad.
Selective colleges, such as Harvard, will notice your upward trend. That said, they will not ignore your freshman year GPA. Your guidance counselor (not you) can write against your low Freshman year GPA in your SSR recommendation. If you don’t have a good relationship with your GC, you should make a concerted effort to get to know them.
It is obvious that something unusual was going on freshman year. I wouldn’t worry about it. But apply to many colleges that fit you and don’t get fixed or hopeful about Harvard, because no one should.
Remember, grades aren’t like sports scores. They show your ability to do the work.