Help is much needed! Please.

<p>Okay, so I'm going into 10th grade and i ended my 9th grade year with a 2.8 gpa and i just wanted to know what kind of grades i should have to get to be able to have a chance into getting into NYU? Is it really hard getting into it? how high should my gpa be? I'm going to do lots of volunteering, will that help in any way?</p>

<p>That isn’t a hard question to answer, all you do is look at collegeboard ( although the statistics are outdated about 3-4 years) and CC. I would say you would have to have a huge turnaround sophomore year to get accepted. Otherwise, it might just stay your dream school like the hundreds of thousands of other people. Make SURE you start practicing SAT’s this summer.</p>

<p>Volunteering only go so far. The avg gpa of accepted students is a 3.6 which is like a 91-93 I believe. So you need your grade up into the 90’s by the end of junior year, good sat scores and a rigorous course load.(Honors/ap classes)</p>

<p>A 3.6 is actually a 90, but that is only “average,” which means 50% of applicants admitted have less than a 90. If you do have less than a 90 at the end of high school, make sure your standardized tests are above average. It only makes sense.</p>

<p>You really should be getting As and Bs, with an emphasis on As. As everyone else said, volunteering and other extracurriculars will only help you so much, so you might want to devote more energy to studying and doing well in your classes than to taking on yet another extracurricular activity.</p>

<p>going into my second year at nyu i second everything that’s already been said. HOWEVER, i do think that grades freshman year of high school are not necessarily an indication of where one could get into college. unfortunately, for many schools, gpa (and then sats) is the most important factor. meaning you would definitely need to work hard for a higher gpa. however, colleges will notice improvement and take that into consideration.</p>

<p>also i’ve seen that a lot of college acceptance is luck. i’ve seen fellow students that took aps/honors, did extracurriculars and had high gpas and sats but only got into a couple schools. i’ve also known a student who didn’t take many honors and got into yale. i think however, you can count on the fact that if colleges see that you’re smart, dedicated and unique they’ll want you.</p>

<p>I agree with csh. If you show significant improvement, most colleges will just chalk your freshman year up as a fluke or the result of extenuating circumstances. Of course, the trick is that you need to show a definite trend upwards for the next three years to demonstrate that you are not only capable of doing well in more advanced classes but that your potential is increasing as opposed to decreasing or stagnating.</p>

<p>Thanks everyone, really. I know I should have gotten better grades and I did really well in some of my classes but the science and mathematics sort of ruined it. I’m actually going to make up some classes that i had my 9th grade year during my summers in summer school. And I’m even going to be in my school’s Pre-AP Language Arts in 10th grade. I know it’s just words but i really think i’m going to do better in the future, my friend (who’s like really smart) even told me she could help tutor me if i ever need it. I’m going to take her up on her offer once school starts and I’m going to do whatever i have to do in the future to get my gpa up. Because really, i want to go to college (I’ll be the first one in my family!) I don’t want to turn out like my two older siblings who only wanted to party when they were in school and didn’t give a crap about their grades. I asked my sister one time if she would ever go back to school and she said she would and do it differently, like focus on grades. Since i could remember i have always been different from them and i hope that in the end i won’t turn out like them.</p>

<p>For some reason NYU… it just calls to me. I know deep down I want to be there. The only problem is if my brain will help me accomplish my dream.</p>

<p>I commend you on your attitude, I really do. Hold on to that, and let it motivate you as you strive to achieve academic success. I’d like to give you some advice though: don’t let your dreams get in the way. That might sound silly, but disappointment and discouragement at not doing things exactly like how you planned can fell most people’s life goals. While you are certainly entitled to dream about attending NYU–and you’re young enough to turn things around and have a good chance of doing so–don’t let the possibility that you might not be accepted (since admissions is a crapshoot) affect your ultimate goal. NYU is a great school, sure, but there are many, many colleges in this country, and as much as we like to think otherwise, none of them are “perfect” for anyone; all have their pros and cons, and it’s up to you to make the most of what is handed to you wherever you end up.</p>