How do I improve my academic stance?

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Hi, I’m a sophomore who is currently extremely stressed out by my college admission prospect.
I am currently trying to focus on improving my current grades, however a little bit of hope might help boost my motivation.
After most of you read my statistics, you will probably think I’m insane for even dreaming of going to a decent college, however I am hoping that junior year will save me.
I do not need people simply telling me that I am a retard. I actually need help and constructive advice.
If you tell me that my goals are unrealistic, I’ll understand. But please read EVERYTHING before you say anything.
Once again, these are NOT my final statistics, and I still have an year to improve and polish my current status. Which I know is a limited amount of time, and I shouldn’t expect much.

I am exposing everything here, and I do not expect or want sugar coated comments. Be harsh...but to a certain extent (like maybe think about how it would feel if someone sent that exact comment to you when you were in a desperate situation).

Current Status:
Cumulative Weighted GPA as of Sophomore First Semester: 3.19
Cumulative Non-Weighted GPA as of Sophomore First Semester: 3.10

Recent Diagnostic SAT I took as of three months ago: 1900

Grades+Classes:
Biotech 1-2: A+
PE: A+
Journalism: A+
English Advanced Standing: B+
French 3-4: C-
AP European History: B+

AP Calculus AB: dies D+ (Like a 69.97% but I don't know what my recent test will do to it)

Extracurricular Activity/Community Service (I’m hoping that this might pad some damage?)
Clubs:
President of Japanese Club (this was in freshman year, and apparently it’s great for a freshman to be a leader of a club. I’m not so sure.)
Managed Publicity for HBV (Hepatitis-B Vaccination) Club
Girls Interactive Coding Club
Programming Club
Interactive Club
Jefferson Club

Extra Activity:
Journalism Staff Writer

Sports:
Badminton JV (Freshman Year)
Track and Field [Pole Vault Event] Sophomore Year

Community Service:
114 hours tutoring kids at an after school program
42 hours tutoring kids at church

Internships:

C2 (Learning Center) Intern for 3 months

My future wishes:
I really am interested in becoming a residential nurse or pediatric doctor (I love taking care of people, especially children).
Or becoming an urban designer (I am interested in planning out city layouts and protecting the environment with a more eco-friendly living area layout).

I would also love to be a journalist because I am deeply passionate about voicing out my opinions for certain subjects.

I heard that you have a chance to explain why you had terrible grades for a certain amount of time in high school in college essays, and that a rising GPA trend is acceptable.
In freshman year, my dad had an affair with a woman in China during a business trip and vowed to never come back. My mom became suicidal so I had to spend most of my time making sure she didn’t abuse my little sister or kill herself which added extra stress onto my back. When he came back in sophomore year, she became more abusive and uncontrollable so I had to make sure she didn’t kill anyone in the house and had to spend most of my time running back and forth between her and studying. Also, I had been trapped into taking AP Calculus AB since I had been enrolled into an advanced mathematics route for the past 5 years of my life, and was not prepared for it at all. I don’t know if this will be a good enough excuse for my disgusting grades since there are worse situations out there, but I was hoping it could help.

I do also know that there is the option of taking summer classes but my parents are against it and I’m having a hard time convincing them.

And I am unable to retake classes and get credit for them unless I have a D or lower at my school.

Next year I’m planning to take:
AP Statistics (I don’t think taking AP Calculus BC is a very wise choice)
AP United States History
AP Biology (I’m thinking over this at the moment. If you could recommend an easier AP science class, that would be appreciated.)
CP English (I thought AP would be too much for me.)
French 5-6
Biotechnology 3-4

Drawing 1-2

Community Service over the Summer:

Volunteer Work at a hospital

Internship

Biotechnology Internship during the summer between Junior and Senior year

Sports
Track and Field [Pole Vault event]

Side Info: I live in California, and would really prefer to attend a decent UC

I’ve learned better study skills, and the difficulty level of AP classes so I think I will be more prepared for next year than I was for this year. My family situation is also slightly getting better, so I believe there will be less stress in that area.

Is there any chance I will get accepted into a decent college (ex. UC Davis?)

Some side plans I have just in case it is impossible to get into a decent school is (ordered by how much I like them):

  1. Attend a 4 year university in Japan (Wasada University)
  2. Go to a CC and then transfer to a good UC
  3. Go to a decent out-of state college (I’d much rather avoid this though, since I am poor).

I’m sorry for the crap load of information. I just thought that if I am going to get help, I might as well just say everything.
Please say [3.14] at the beginning of your comment if you actually read through everything.
Thank you, if you are willing to give me advice and tell me my realistic future.

2

3.14 :slight_smile:

First off don’t worry, colleges are often very understanding out stress outside of school that can affect your school work. If you explain to them, then they know why your getting random bad grades considering your doing ok in one AP class (euro) and have straight A+s in half your classes. They can see from the good grades you have that you have potential and they’re not just going to knock you down. Your best hope if to plan well for next year to give colleges representive grades for them to objectively and fairly evaluate you on. Luckily you have other good things going for you like a high projected SAT and great diverse ECs to help boost you along and show your adaptability and wide range of passions.

For classes next year and this year there’s a few things you might want to consider. If your struggling in calculus there’s a lot of good AP prep books to help you break down the material, though it can be really hard because calculus is based on a lot of fundamentals of stuff you’ve learned in math all your life. You might like stats a lot because it’s more language based. AP bio can be really stressful (I know it is at my school, but it varies by how each school teaches it), but there isn’t really a easy AP science class. If your school has environmental, that’s supposed to be the easiest, but AP chem isn’t that bad either. Bios more memorizing and has a lot of material which can be hard if you’ve never taken a bio class in your life before, while chemistry is more about learning trends of molecules through formulas and stuff. I would avoid AP physics unless your really math/engineering oriented because it’s a lot of annoy math like calculus. If your struggling in French also, maybe consider taking else, though most colleges have a language requirement so it’s never really bad to keep taking a language. If you like journalism, I’d consider taking AP english (lit or language) because it can be fun course, with the only downside being lots of in class writing usually to prepare for the AP test. If you have to take a English course anyway it’s not that much extra work.

The main thing is to try to well in as many hard classes like APs without overwhelming yourself. You main benefit from a free period or something instead of an extra elective or language considering how many APs your taking. If you can get a few As and nothing worse than a B- (or at least make this your goal) you can still get in a lot of great colleges. You have a great starting SAT score that will probably improve to something above a 2000 which is great for most colleges. You way want to look into some other colleges as well, there are good places that give lots of financial aid and scholarships that you might prefer to a state school.

Overall I think your chances will be based mostly on next year. Try your best and you should be able to get into a decent school somewhere. Your goal schools seem fairly decent though I’m not really familiar with west coast and schools outside the US, though like mostly everyone you’ll probably get rejected from some of the places you apply. You seem smart and passionate about the classes and activities you do. While personal stuff at home can be out of your control at times and challenging, you definitely have the potential to do well the end of this year and next year and get in a good college. Try to stay focused and you can do it! Good luck!

3

Thank you so much!

4

Just an update (for my sake), even though I already got an amazing response I managed to get up my grade in calc to a c, so I don’t have to worry about getting an F on my transcript. I know that it is still terrible, but it’s at least a step towards a better gpa ;~;

5

Plus, correction. It’s not residential nurse. I meant registered nurse. I don’t know what I was thinking when I was writing this.

6

Class Schedule for Junior Year Update:

AP Stats
AP USH
AP Biology or CP Physics or AP Psychology
AP English
French 5-6 [I need some further advice on this because I was thinking about just taking Spanish 1-2 because I’ve been struggling in French (for most UC’s three years is recommended) however I don’t if I am supposed to take the same language continuously or if I could change it if I’m struggling in it)
Biotechnology 3-4
Drawing 1-2

7

Good job getting that grade up!! You must be working very diligently.

8

Thank you ;~;. I hope I can get it more up with homework and extra credit and the final, but I’m slightly relieved that I can keep my transcript clean of D’s and F’s. It’s not good, but better than what I had before ^^

9

If you’re worried about AP Biology being too difficult, have you considered taking AP Chem? I know at my high school AP Biology was extremely difficult, and that many found AP Chem to be more enjoyable. It’d be good to have for either nursing or pre-med. If you’re better at math (excluding Calculus, general chemistry math isn’t anything like derivatives thank god), then that might be a good option for you. Physics won’t be too helpful for nursing in the sense that it’s not normally a pre-req that you could get credit for (not sure about Pre-Med though). AP psych isn’t that difficult in comparison, so you could take that as an alternative, or save it for when you’re taking other more difficult classes so that you can have a less stressful class.
Also, I would advise continuing to take French, unless you really feel like that would bring down your GPA too much. If you continue you have the same language for a long time it shows a dedication to the language, rather than switching languages because its easier. If you really think you wouldn’t do well, your could take Spanish and argue that it’d be helpful to speak as a nurse/doctor, or you could take another class instead, like that AP psych class!
Congratulations on bringing that grade up! A C is nothing to be ashamed of in an AP class you struggle with, it’s supposed to be considered average.