Hi all,
I’m currently a junior in high school, and I’m a little worried about my grades. A bit of background: I was doing alright my freshman year, and ended with an unweighted GPA of 3.76 (my school only provides the weighted GPA, so I used the CollegeBoard scale to figure this out.) I was taking three honors classes and two regular classes at the time.
Last year, I took all honors classes, though my math class wasn’t the “highest honors” class (think Calc AB track as opposed to Calc BC track,) and I somehow managed to end the year with a 4.0. That being said, my mental health was fairly poor that year. I didn’t always have enough energy to leave the house, and I began to withdraw, which left me with more time to study. My courseload didn’t hurt my mental health, but it was because of my lack of energy that I spent more time by myself, focused on school.
This year, I’m doing a lot better in that respect. I’ve made new friends, become more involved in my extracurriculars, and am generally feeling happier. However, with less time spent by myself, I haven’t been dedicating as much time to my schoolwork. I’m in two AP classes, two honors classes, and a regular class, and my GPA is ~3.6 right now. I know I have a lot of time to raise my grades, but I also think that I have to consider a scenario in which that doesn’t happen. How bad does that look when applying to colleges? I am also looking for significant amounts of merit aid. What effect will my trend have on that?
Thank you for reading through this!