How Many A- Is Ok? [Sophomore Currently]

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

I’ve been trying really hard to maintain a perfect 4.0, but this year it’s been a bit more challenging (not workload, but test difficulty), so some of my grades have slipped a bit. I want to apply to top colleges for AI/CS (MIT and CMU), so a high GPA is pretty important to me. Last year, these were my grades:

PLTW Introduction to Engineering and Design: A
Foundations of Information Technology (Required): A
Honors English 9: A
Honors Biology: A
Honors Algebra 2: A-
Honors Modern World History: A
Spanish 2 (no honors at my school): A
Health: A

These are my supposed grades this year:

Middle Ages (sem. 1): A
Pre-AP Early American History (sem. 2): A/A-
AP Computer Science A: A-
AP Statistics: A
Honors English 10: A/A-
French 1 (dropped Spanish because of racist teacher): A
Gym: A/A-
Honors Precalculus: A
Honors Chemistry: A

Some notes:

Pre-AP is basically the first semester of AP US History, as my school spreads it over 3 semesters. So the workload and teacher is the same, but it has an honors weight. I’m not sure if I’ll get an A, since I’m borderline right now. I need a 92.1% on the final for an A for the year.

For AP Computer Science, we had one test last quarter that was worth 60% of our quarter grade, and each quarter counts for 20% of our yearly grade. We had only one test last quarter (and I got an 84 on it), and that’s worth 12% of my grade (compared to 10% for our final project). It’s honestly pretty stupid, and I can’t do anything about it.

My English teacher is the hardest teacher in the school (even harder than AP English Language/Literature teachers), and I’m borderline for this class as well. He grades tests super hard, and I don’t know if I’ll get an A on it. I need above a 93 for both this quarter and the final for an A for the year.

Gym doesn’t count for our GPA, so I’m not too worried about how I do on its fitness final.

Basically, what I’m asking is that if I just try to maintain my current grades for junior year and senior year, will my GPA be of the same caliber as other applicants to my dream school(s)? For reference, here are the courses I plan to take next year and the year after:

UCONN ECE AP Physics 1
AP English Literature & Composition
AP Calculus BC (but the course is called AB)
AP US History
PLTW AP Computer Science Principles
PLTW Principles of Engineering
French 2
Band

UCONN ECE AP Microeconomics
UCONN ECE AP Macroeconomics
UCONN ECE AP English Language and Composition
AP Physics C
AP Government and Politics (in lieu of Civics 1 + 2)
PLTW Engineering Design and Development
Calculus 3 + Linear Algebra at Fairfield University
French 3
Band

Thanks so much, this place has a wonderful and helpful community.

2

Even if true (which we only have one person’s side of the story), don’t mention this anywhere in a college application; it will do you no favors.

To answer your question, a few A-'s will not torpedo an application. There is no magic ratio of A:A- this is needed.

3

@skieurope Yeah, I am definitely not mentioning that. On top of that Spanish teacher, they had also put me in the same Spanish class I had taken in middle school, even though I got an A in that middle school course. Had I continued with Spanish this year, I should have been in Spanish 4 (where all my friends are) and then I probably would have switched to French 1 (not planning on taking AP Spanish).

So overall, I don’t think that the changing of languages had a major impact, but colleges won’t be able to assume all of the things I mentioned (not mentioning racist teacher or retaking of a course). I’m already bilingual (I perfectly speak an Indian language that is not Hindi), so being multilingual isn’t an issue for me.

I was more concerned about my GPA, because if I get 3 A- this year (and excluding gym), my GPA for this year would go down to 3.87, and my cumulative would go down to 3.91. That being said, if I got 4.0s for the next two years, my cumulative GPA would go back up to 3.95, which is enough for me.