Grade Trends (math/science)?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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<p>Hi,</p>

<p>I apologize if it may seem like this question has an obvious answer, but I've been I've been a little worried after inputting my grades into the application. </p>

<p>During freshman and sophomore year, I took lots of honors classes and was accelerated two years in math. I have always had a reputation as the "math girl" and I suppose at the time I felt like I was working hard at school, but I didn't earn very good grades. More specifically, I am very worried about my grades for maths classes. I don't know whether it was just absolute disgust for the integrated math program (;)), unclear teachers, or not working hard enough, but I'm very disappointed about earning B's both years. (I earned A's the year before, though). </p>

<p>This year, I took college calculus and was fortunate to have an excellent teacher. His explanations were not only clear and concise, but he really got me excited about maths again (like in the good old days!). I've since worked hard to make up for any "gaps" I may have had and earned an A in his class, with an A- in Calculus II the following quarter. Next year, I'm planning on really challenging myself with harder maths classes: diff eq, linear algebra, multivariable, partial diff eq and fourier analysis (I take all of my classes at the University as a non-matriculated student). </p>

<p>I guess, I'm posting here to see if anybody else has been in a similar situation. I understand that I should have earned A's in the earlier classes, but that can not be changed. For now, I'm just focusing on doing well in my future maths classes. Honestly, do you guys think these B's will look very bad? I often see people worried about a single A-, which makes me feel horrible about my own grades. Do you think MIT admissions officers will see that I've put a lot of work into improving my maths skills and as a result have managed to improve my grades this year? Will they take a rigorous courseload into account? Are there any non-perfect math students out there to offer comforting anecdotes?;)</p>

<p>Sincerely,
A very stressed out applicant ;)</p>

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<p>Those people you "often see worrying about a single A-" are, simply put, ridiculous. Bs in the lower math classes have the most potential to hurt you in your math SAT 1 score. Hopefully that won't be (or wasn't) the case. I would say that as long as the rest of your grades are high, nobody without solid lower-math ability would have aced those calc classes, and you should be fine. If you hadn't taken the higher ones yet, I'd be worried that those Bs didn't bode well and you'd have trouble in calculus, but clearly that didn't happen. Good for you for improving! :)</p>

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<p>Thank you very much for your reply, kcastelle:) It made me a little bit better about this whole nerve-wracking process;)</p>

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<p>They will most likely be more impressed with a junior high schools student getting A's in college class and not really worry aboutthose earlier grades. I'm sure they know that a lot of times in high school, the difference between and A and a B can just depend on maturity (how serious you take the class or how self-motivated you are). You proved that those B's were not from a lack of the ability to grasp the subject so I wouldn't worry about it.</p>

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<p>Of the four math classes I took in high school, I got Bs both semesters in three of them. On the two AP math tests I took, I got a 4 in statistics and a 2 in calc BC with a 4 on the AB subsection. Don't worry so much. I also got 800s on both the SAT I math and the SAT II Math IIC, so that might have helped them see that I had the ability to do math and it just wasn't clicking for some reason (or maybe it just takes me a while to get it - all that precalc stuff seemed so much easier when I took the Math IIC as a senior than when I learned it in class as a freshman/sophomore). In your case, you seem to be doing wonderfully. Given what you've told us, I wouldn't worry about it at all.</p>

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<p>Thank you!!!!! Both of your guys' comments have made me feel a lot less apprehensive :) Especially Jessie, that's very comforting to hear that I might still have a chance :)</p>

<p>P.S. Jessie, I love your blog ;)</p>