My daughter has a GPA of 3.33 and weighted GPA of 4.77. I am looking for a strategy that can help improve her scores in the next two years. Her goal is to get into a 7-year medical program which is obviously highly competitive and I want to make sure she is best equipped.
For Extra-curriculars, she is doing FCCLA. In addition to the FCCLA activities, she is planning to do AP Physics in her Junior year. She is afraid that taking more than one AP course in Junior year may be overwhelming. My question is, is one AP course in Junior year is sufficient to bring her GPA up? Or should we take an even more aggressive approach?
I assume that AP courses taken during senior year may be too late to be considered for GPA since we will begin applying for college at the end of Junior year. Can someone please validate this assumption?
Top colleges and 7 year med programs will want to see her excel in high level classes. Taking only 1 AP before senior year is considered somewhat light. The top students take 5-7 APs before finishing senior year (if allowed by their school).
However don’t take easier classes simply to bring up the GPA. This will be obvious when her transcript is reviewed.
Definitely take another AP class or some dual-credit courses. If her school offers AP Human Geography, I would suggest taking that. It is an easy AP course that will help bring up her GPA. See if she would like to volunteer at a hospital or be involved with HOSA (if it is offered at her school).
How are the unweighted GPA and weighted so drastically different without any AP classes? Colleges may view this as grade inflation, but I guess it just depends where you’re applying. I agree with the poster above. AP Human Geo, AP Environmental Science, and possibly AP Stats would be good options for her also. I would suggest sticking with a math or science AP if she is only going to take a few and is applying to that program. She should show a clear interest in the sciences.
@arvindkanda I would suggest taking more than 1 ap class to get into a 7 year med program. Those are extremely competitive and like to see applicants with more than 7 ap classes and A’s in all of them along with good test scores. AP classes can be overwhelming but only taking 1 will probably not cut it.
Since you are worried about your GPA, colleges don’t check weighted GPAs. They check unweighted and the difficulty of the course load. So taking an AP class won’t necessarily bring the unweighted GPA up.
But, if you want to take AP’s for a med program, take medical related classes such as biology or chemistry. Physics is also good but AP Bio and Chem should be a priority.
All the best.
Are you trying to bring her unweighted GPA, or weighted GPA up? If it’s her unweighted GPA, stick to some easier courses that you know she can get A’s in. If your trying to pull her weighted GPA up, go for a more aggressive approach. I’m taking 7 AP’s my junior year, and several of my friends/classmates are taking 4/5 and a few are taking 6… So, taking 1 AP course is NOT challenging, at least in the admissions committee’s eyes. Think about how she got to the 3.3 GPA first of all. Does she have poor studying habits? Medical issues? You’re definitely going to need to sort that out first if she’s going to stand a chance. My friends and I are all planning on doing medical programs as well, and we’re all taking (15-18) AP classes. (Personally, I’m taking 17, our school offers A LOT of AP’s). She’ll need to at least take 3 or 4. Try AP Calculus if her strengths lie in math, or AP English if her strengths lie in English. Like the previous commenters said, AP Human Geography is always an easy one. AP Psychology is also an excellent class to take for med-school bound students. Center your schedule around science, but this is the time when you really need to evaluate your daughter. Taking 3 or 4 AP classes is useless if she does poorly in them. Figure out what she can take, and do that. If 1 AP class is really all she can take, I would suggest a less competitive program, or even something else other than medicine. PM me if you have any questions. Good Luck!
Many thanks for your valuable insights. I actually misspoke when I said 1 AP in Junior year. My daughter actually meant 1 AP in science. Anyway, to set the record straight, here is how her plan looks right now:
Freshman GPA: 3.33 Weighted GPA: 4.77
Sophomore: AP US History (she was allowed only one AP)
Junior Year: AP World History, AP Lang & Comp & AP Physics & Spanish Honors. Elective:Consumer Sciences. In addition she anticipates FCCLA will use up bulk of her time.
Senior Year: AP Chem, AP Bio, AP Lit & AP Calc.
Interesting suggestion on other AP courses. I have to look at what other courses the school is offering. Let me check and post here.
Regarding the question why there is a huge difference between GPA & WGPA is because this is only based on Freshman year grades and she took five honors courses out of total nine. I dont think the school is inflating the score.