I’m in 11th grade at a top-20 high school that specializes in STEM. While I have straight As in all other classes, AP Chem has been a struggle for me. As far as I can tell, colleges can see my semester grades, so for the first semester they’ll see an 81, which is equivalent to a C in my school. Second semester I expect to bring it up to at least high 80s if not low 90s, which is all in B range. Now, compared to the rest of the class, this is lower. Despite the fact that our class is apparently much harder than a normal AP class, these kids are really talented in STEM and all seem to be getting at least upper Bs (89-91). A few even have As.
I do not plan on going into any chem or even STEM related fields/majors. My resume/essays will be heavily geared toward language/linguistics, and that’s what I’ll declare my major as. That said, how bad does this C and B affect my chances (to top/elite universities)? Considering colleges will compare me to the rest of the class, I’m competing with the best STEM kids in the nation, and as I’ve said I have full letter grades lower than others.
Thanks.
Do you have a good college or guidance counselor? He or she ought to be able to consult Naviance, or discuss how your stats match up to other students from your school. If you’re not interested in pursuing a STEM major, perhaps you should apply to liberal arts colleges where most of your classmates will not be competing against you for admission.
When you say top/elite universities, I’m assuming that you’re talking about Ivy League along with other top tier schools, like Stanford.
Your grades won’t completely diminish your chances of getting into any top/elite universities, however, keep in mind that they have PLENTY of applicants who don’t have any B’s or C’s on their transcripts, whether they are STEM majors or not. Try to keep up your grade and work hard. Best of luck.
You can view my stats on the other threads, but I have an 84 and a 79 in AP Bio my Junior year. I also had an 82 my first semester Senior year in AP Calc. I am proud to say this has, so far, not had any effect on my acceptances.
I received an early acceptance to Cornell (via “likely letter”, but I wouldn’t call it that) and an acceptance today to Vanderbilt.
So it’s not the end of the world! Just keep studying!
@woogzmama While I am also thinking about Middlebury, Williams, etc., I will apply to the general colleges at most of the elite universities anyway, and my classmates are likely looking at respective engineering colleges, so I won’t be competing with them.
So compared to other students in my chem class, I’m probably around 5-10 pct points lower than the average. There are, of course, a ton of kids that get into elite universities every year from my school and don’t take AP Chem, but I can’t compare myself to a kid in another course. In regards to GPA (out of 100.00), it is slightly lower than the average on Naviance for most of these colleges, (<1 pt lower not including Freshman year, ~2 pts lower including Freshman year which I screwed up), but again, not all these kids take AP Chem so how can I compare when weighting doesn’t exist?
Anybody else have some insight?