I am going into Sophmore year this year. Freshman year was rough, ending with 3.75 UW GPA. I did, however, take accelerated classes (AP Calc BC and Honors Chem), but the Honors Chem is what brought my GPA down. With a plan to take AP US History, Computer Science, Stats, Lang, Euro, Lit, Psych, and Physics throughout High School, as well as really try to succeed in Speech, Debate, DECA, BPA, and Chess, if I maintain straight A’s (which I believe I can do), my highest GPA will be a 3.92 at the end of Junior year. Are top schools (Ivys) still within reach? What else do I need to do to separate from the crowd?
Come back in 2 years for better advice.
However, I can say that your UW is not too terrible. Colleges like to see upward trends so if you can manage to get straight-As then you will be in no way out of contention.
Also, your course rigor is already great. Taking Calc BC as a freshman is pretty outstanding (from what I know)… I took it as a junior which is 1 year advanced at my school, and I can’t even imagine taking it as a freshman.
What are your reasons for wanting to go to an Ivy? I wouldn’t stress too much over the whole Ivy thing. If you get into one, or a few, then great, but if you don’t, it’s totally fine and there are many other great schools to end up at. It looks like you have a decent foundation already but I just thought I’d put that out there.
I know several very well-qualified people who got rejected from some Ivies and several less-qualified people who got accepted to the same ones. This means that your extra-curriculars and essays matter just as much as your test scores and GPA. Find something you love, excel at it, and if you can manage to persuade the admissions committee that you would be a positive addition to their freshman class, then you are good to go. Otherwise, there are just too many strong applicants with amazing profiles and not enough spots.
A 3.75 GPA isn’t “too rough.” Separate yourself from the others by maintaining high grades but not focusing on them exclusively.
Thank you. It is good to know an upward swing will help.
Bump