Grades: "Averaging out" B's with A+'s?

Applying to College
1

I’m going to start off with the fact that I had a ‘Sophomore Slump’ this year; I took a rough courseload (All Honors / 2 AP’s), and screwed my unweighted over. My final grades of 10th grade were:

  • AP Comp Sci A (B)
  • Honors Lit II (B)
  • Honors Microbiology (B+)
  • AP Chemistry (B)
  • Honors Precalculus (B+)
  • Honors Latin III (A)
  • Honors US History (B+)
    I initially was doing well during the first two quarters in everything except for Comp Sci, and then I started doing horrible in everything except Comp Sci for the last two marking periods (my school only shows final grades on transcripts, by the way). The classes that I took in 10th grade (except for US History, Latin, and Lit) are notoriously known to be the hardest classes at my school – out of 26 kids in my Precalc class, only 9 remained by the end of the year (which is not an excuse, but a mere detail.) My freshman year grades were great (All A’s with a B+ in Algebra II, all Honors courseload), however. As mentioned in my previous posts, I am REALLY interested in medicine/STEM – been dreaming about being a doctor since 2nd grade and a dermatologist since 5th, and would very much like to attend a competitive BS MD such as Brown’s, Northwestern’s, UPitt, etc.) I am also interested in many od BS MD programs’ undergraduate schools as well and also a couple ivy league schools (UPenn, Harvard, Cornell). I’m also going to apply to state schools but I’m really interested in the above listed.

I know, I know, to some it may sound pathetic that I’m dreaming about some of the most competitive programs in the WORLD with the grades I’ve gotten this past year (and I know that grades aren’t EVERYTHING), but I’m really trying to prepare myself for 2 upcoming years and succeed in them – academically and personally. I felt that I made a mistake in taking Computer Science, not just because it brought my gpa down as a course and also affected my performance in my other courses because i would spend 3 to 4 hours every night studying for CS and barely make a B/B- on any given exam!, but also because I just took CS because it was an AP course and because other people told me it was easy; I did not take the course because I was interested in it. I have learned TREMENDOUSLY from this past year about common sense and passion and hopefully this knowledge will help me when scheduling classes in college in the future and when making real-world decisions. I have planned out my junior year, and have scheduled to take classes that I have THOROUGHLY researched.

Back to my question though:
if I was to get A’s in all my classes and A+'s in any tough classes (which is extremely difficult, I know) - AP Bio and Orgo/Biochem Honors - would colleges necessary care about the A+‘s because they don’t count in most colleges’ Unweighted GPA calculations? (I may be bad at chem, but I ended up at the top of my class in Honors Bio of 9th grade). By showing an upward trend from Sophomore year, could I “balance” out the B’s with A+'s? I’m asking this question because many colleges look at the transcript and observe the grades ‘holistically’ instead of just staring at the GPA value (If I am able to pull off all A’s junior year, I will end up with a cumulative UW GPA slightly above 3.75 before the start of senior year). Also, do you think - in your opinion - that I have a chance at any of these dreams? All advice is appreciated.

Note: If the above was confusing/ridiculous/absurd, I apologize, but thank you SO MUCH for letting me get out all of my pent-up frustration and confusion out of my mind and onto this page. I really appreciate it.

2

Right now your grades don’t qualify you for the colleges and programs you are interested in. Of course A+'s will help your GPA but the top schools routinely turn down people with perfect grades in every year of HS and perfect test scores – with acceptance rates well under 10% there is a lack of space for all of the qualified candidates. Have you done anything to make yourself stand out to these schools?

When the end of junior year comes you need to honestly asses your academic stats (including GPA, standardized tests, course rigor) as well as your financial needs and come up with a wide range of reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable (you will have to run a net price calculator for each school you consider) and that you would be happy to attend. It is time to to expand your horizons and recognize that there are many wonderful schools out there where you can have a great 4 year experience and get where you want to go in life.

3

An upward trend in grades will look good as will your high level of rigor. Also, you didn’t mention your extracurriculars or test scores, so those are potentially very important pieces missing from the puzzle. I think you’ll have a tough time getting in at the tippy top schools, but there are tons of truly excellent schools that will be delighted to have you attend. Your dream of becoming a doctor is definitely still on the table.

You were misinformed about AP Computer Science A being easy. I’ve heard that some students find AP Computer Science Principles easy, but it is a different class. Some schools don’t offer both, which puzzles me because in DD’s school, APCSP is sort of a prerequisite to APCSA (there is a non-AP/non-honors CS class you can take as a prerequisite instead.)

4

I agree with @happy1 but will also add - don’t focus on A+ vs A. Colleges won’t give brownie points for an A+ because not all high schools award them.

5

Many schools count both As and A+s as 4.0 when recalcuating, so the A+ doesn’t actually bump up your GPA.