<p>Please evaluate. And no, I am NOT showing off. In fact, I am very concerned about this.</p>
<p>Freshman Year (Sem. 1 / Sem. 2):
English 9 Honors B/B
Spanish 9 A/A
Alg II Honors/Trig A/A
Biology A/A-
Global History (one semester only) A
Art A/A</p>
<p>Eh, okay. I'll admit: freshman year was not bad.</p>
<p>Sophomore Year (Sem. 1 / Sem. 2):
English 10 (I dropped to regular) A/A
Spanish 10 Honors A/A
Precalculus A-/A
Chemistry Honors A-/B+
World History A-/A</p>
<p>So sophomore year, not bad either.</p>
<p>At my school, we are not allowed to take APs until our junior year. OKAY. So this is what happened. Disaster.</p>
<p>Junior Year (Sem. 1)
Literature 11 A- (90.86 - might slip)
Spanish 11 Honors A
AP Calculus AB B
AP Biology B
AP US History B+</p>
<p>I know that some of you are probably thinking that I am going nuts over this, but you see, I am really interested in applying to Cornell, Penn, and Princeton. I don't know what I can do now, because I just practically destroyed my junior year (and what's worse is that junior year is the most important). My practice SATs are out of the question at a 1920. I am planning to retake the SAT. PSAT came out at 198. If this continues into second semester, I will have six Bs in junior year ONLY. And I'm not even including English, which might slip down if I get a B or lower on my final, so that makes seven possible Bs for the year.</p>
<p>I would like feedback on anything about how I can improve and/or what my chances are.</p>
<p>You need to get your grades up. You will not get into highly selective colleges with mediocre grades, unless you're not telling us something. Try harder in school, or reconsider and choose more reasonable colleges.</p>
<p>Well I didn't tell you any of the ECs, but I didn't think that was an important factor (comparing to grades/test scores)... I was on JV Volleyball for the last two years, and now I am on Varsity for this year and next year. As for music, it was mainly freshman year- I won first place in my city and then went on to state level (i live in california, btw) against regional first placers... got fourth I believe.</p>
<p>I am a homeroom delegate of my class as well as President of Math Club. I don't think this would help my grades in any way though, so I didn't consider putting this on here.</p>
<p>I am trying harder in school (I don't slack off, if you were thinking of that) and I do have a lot of safeties in mind, but those were only my reach schools. I don't expect to get in for sure, but I want a decent chance, and that's all I ask for.</p>
<p>That's really good! Talk to your GC - he or she should have scattergrams showing admits from your hs at various colleges by SAT/GPA. That will give you the best sense of how various colleges view your hs. </p>
<p>Princeton is going to be the most difficult. An important thing to note about Penn is that the ED acceptance is much more generous then RD. If Penn likes your hs - ED might give you a pretty decent shot. Not a sure thing by any means, however.</p>
<p>Make sure that you look at less insanely competitive schools to form the majority of your list, though.</p>
<p>Well, many of the hs graduates go to UCs, while only 4-5 choose to go to an Ivy, and the rest go off to CSU or community college. The thing is, my school isn't that competitive, so most people do not apply to prestigious schools in the first place (which I think is why my rank seems high). The last time that someone applied to Penn was probably 3-4 years ago.</p>
<p>Of course, I am looking into UCs (UCB, LA, SD, SB, D) as well. And I do have a couple of safeties that I know I will probably get into already.</p>
<p>Uh, look at my junior year. I'm interested in applying to Ivy League schools. It doesn't look too bright right now. That's supposed to spell disaster for you.</p>
<p>Oh yeah, what I am really really worried about is that I plan to major in the biotechnology/biological sciences field. Irony: I have a B in AP Biology and AP Calculus. I do enjoy these subjects, but how am I supposed to major in something that I do academically poorly on?</p>
<p>Your grades have dipped slightly Junior year, but from your post I gather that you are still in your Junior year? Meaning there is still time to improve the grades, which shouldn't be too difficult as it isn't like you have Ds and Fs right now. It just seems as if you've accepted that you're going to finish your Junior year with straight Bs, but there is still plenty of time left in the year to improve.</p>
<p>"how am I supposed to major in something that I do academically poorly on?"</p>
<p>I think that you should look at schools where you don't have to declare a major immediately. You would be a good candidate at schools such as Case, Colby, Brandeis, U pf Rochester.</p>