So I’m a senior and I’ve finished applying to all my colleges. I’m rly interested in pursuing BS/MD programs and with the interviews I have lined up and the ones I’ve already had, I’m feeling pretty good about my chances at getting at least one or being accepted into one of my top UG choices (I’ve already been accepted to Emory as an Oxford Scholars Finalist). My q here is, how badly can I do in my last semester of senior year? And I know I should do my best, but its extremely hard and it seems as if teachers are piling on even more. (e.g. I’ve never made a B in a math course my whole life, but I have a 75 in Calculus BC now cuz I failed my last test). So can someone give me a number for the GPA i should aim for to prevent an offer from being rescinded or starting out college on academic probation? u can check out my past posts for more detailed info but here are some brief stats of mine going into senior year:
weighted GPA: 4.60
Unweighted: 3.92
rank: 11/189 (top public school in city and top 5 in state)
SAT: 2360
ACT: 35
I really am shocked that you are willing to risk being rescinded. Every year it is very sad when students post here who ended up letting their classes get away from them and got D and F. Failing a test? You will never make it in med school if you don’t have more inner motivation and self control than that. I would honestly aim for Bs as your lowest effort.
Jeez @BrownParent. thanks for ur reply, but when did i say I was willing to risk being rescinded? lol. the point of this post was to make sure I WON’T be rescinded. I can guarantee I will make all B’s. thats rly easy haha. i just wanted to know if i needed say a 4.3 or a 4.2 or so. that would require making an A or 2, which is actually pretty dang tough at my school. but if all B’s is what it takes, then thats no problem.
I assume that you have applied to top universities. One reason to keep your second semester grades very high is that there is a possibility that you’ll be wait listed to one or more of your top choices. Stellar second semester grades can make a difference in converting a wait list to an acceptance. Also getting 5s on those APs can be a big help in skipping introductory college courses.
PLEASE don’t enter a BS/MD program. Physicians are supposed to care more about their patents and their science than about their own self-centered and self-interested lives. Your initial post to this thread clearly indicates that a concept of dedicated, conscientious, and sacrificial medical service is one you currently do not appreciate. Don’t inflict your immature indolence and thoughtlessness on the public, even if you are bright enough (??) to be admitted to – and to succeed in – one of these highly-competitive and demanding programs.
Someone who wants to be a physician shouldn’t even be asking this question! GPAs are very important to colleges, as collectively they are a criteria frequently used in rankings. So, if you don’t want to do it for yourself, at least show some respect to the school you will be attending.
Y’all need to calm down. Taking it easy doesn’t mean giving up on your studies completely, and it DEFINITELY does not mean that someone is too thoughtless to help others. For many, it means getting enough sleep for the first time in 3.5 years and not having an anxiety attack before every test. This might be the last time in a decade, if he ends up in medical school, where he’ll have the opportunity to do this…so why not take it? @FischerDude97, getting B’s is fine. I don’t know any college that would rescind for B’s. Definitely avoid F’s and D’s (which, frankly, isn’t hard) and I would try to avoid C’s. Congrats on all that you’ve accomplished and don’t feel like you’re not cut out for competitive programs.
@qwerty568 I didn’t see where the OP said he was having panic attacks or not getting sleep. We were basing our responses on specific information in the OP. We all agree Bs are fine. However the OP has already failed a recent test and has a C now. Throttling back from here is NOT recommended.
@Qwerty568: “it means getting enough sleep for the first time in 3.5 years and not having an anxiety attack before every test.”
Oh boo hoo hoo, poor high schools students, surely the most egregiously oppressed and hardest working people in our society. No, in general they don’t have to worry about a family’s future and its continuing solvency, nor about the economy tanking, nor about paying for children’s higher education and their own retirement, nor do they have to commute (sometimes) for hours daily to jobs that are difficult, competitive, often unpleasant, and frequently near termination, neither do they often have grave concerns with their immediate families, their parents’ and in-laws’ health and finances, or their own long-term well being (this list is near-endless, but you get the idea).
In fact, many secondary schools students – and I am focusing on the excellent ones, with outstanding potential futures – attend classes for, perhaps, six or seven hours daily (discounting all the time off for weekends, vacations, breaks, teacher work- and conference-days, etc.), study for some hours at night and on weekends, participate in a variety of presumably enjoyable extracurricular activities, and maybe hold a part-time job. I do NOT claim this is an easy or undemanding life, however, for most it is a LOT less onerous or stressful than what they will face in their 40+ years of working adulthood.
The overriding function of childhood and adolescence, @Qwerty568, is to prepare children for success in every phase – many quite difficult – of adult life. Sheltering teenagers from the realities of adulthood hardly advantages them. The problem several of us evidently have with the OP’s initial post to this thread is his blatant failure to understand: (a) things will only be tougher and more demanding in his proposed future as undergraduate, medical student, and physician and (b) slacking off now – as a secondary school senior – suggests some unfavorable things about his character, especially for an aspiring medical doctor.
The way a question is asked can affect the responses.
“How much can I slack off?” followed by acknowledgment of failing a test and saying that one wants to become a physician is a setup for some negative responses.
Imagine if the question were, “I’m exhausted. How much can I pull back from the crazy pace I’ve been keeping the past 3.5 years?” This question would elicit a much different response.
^ ^ ^ ^
@MidwestDad3: That’s both a good point and certainly true. However, the OP could have asked the question in the latter manner. The fact that he did not, obviously may imply that his primary intent is to use his final high school semester to “slack off.” Contributors to this thread cannot be blamed or criticized for taking the OP’s words as a legitimate expression of his attitudes, values, and objectives.
Ouch @TopTier Look i see what you’re saying…life is tough…excellence is tough…but its okay to take breaks…ki’ve seen adults take sabbaticals for this very reason. And the 2nd semester of senior year is a very good time to take this.
The answer to the OP’s question is that it really depends upon the schools and the circumstances. Acceptance letters will usually address this issue, though most are vague, saying “satisfactory completion” but some specifically say" continued performance as shown". Though I’ve not heard of students getting acceptances rescinded for slight drops in GPA, such as going from straight As to straght B’s even, that doesn’t mean it can’t happen, as things get more competitive.
Bear in mind that things can happen to cause a drop in grades beyond your control, that would not be such an issue if you weren’t already on edge. Some ailment, catastrophe, depression, acute senioritus, problems with a teacher, a mess up can easily put those on a precipice over. You also don’t know whether you will be waitlisted. A disgruntled teacher or classmate can send a little note to the a college to which you are under consideration, saying that you are slacking, and an adcom just might want to check it out. One of your teachers, someone who sees your slide, can be related to an admissions officer at one of your choice schools. You just don’t know what can happen. You would be surprised how small the world is and what coincidences often happen. The stories I can tell!
@SoutherHope (re #13): Generally, I do not agree with you (although I do respect your viewpoint). This kid just had approximately two weeks off at Christmas, he’ll have another about ten days off as his Spring Break, and essentially three months off this summer, not including all the weekends, holidays, teacher-conference and -workdays, and miscellaneous other time-away-from-task. How many highly successful adults have similar discretionary time (hint: zero)? The fact that this is common in our society and that you’ve seen it frequently, simply does not make it either wise or necessary in the long-term.
Many of us bemoan the state of public K through 12 educational achievement in America, especially in comparison to the performance of nations in Asia and elsewhere (and, Heaven knows, we see countless example for this daily on CC). Maybe, just maybe, one reason the United States is progressively falling behind countries like China, South, Korea, India, etc. – in this vital race for intellectual primacy (especially in the STEM arenas) – is we are simply too kind, too forgiving, and too sensitive to our teenagers. The plain fact is, the harder one works the more likely one is to succeed . . . and this certainly is true for nations, as well as for individuals.
The OP is probably seventeen. The aggregate innovation, vibrancy, creativity, intellectual prowess, and dedication of Americans in ten, twenty, thirty and forty years will largely determine if he – and his children – are successful, affluent, secure, and professionally fulfilled. FAR better that he make modest additional sacrifices now (and in the future) than that he suffer the consequences of a nation relegated to second-tier economic and STEM status in these vital – principally educationally- and intellectually-driven – areas by mid-century (look no further than the current financial and sociological calamities in Greece and Spain to see what happens when nations forego a stringent work-ethic).
I’ll take a different tack. OP, if you’re exhausted, sleep.
For the future: Don’t pull all nighters, now nor in college. Learn how to balance activities.
Now’s the right time for “slacking off”, if slacking off means B’s (most students would think B’s are fine, you know. The big problem is your getting an F… hopefully you can make that up because anything D or F, and for Oxford Scholars below a B-, would be a cause for being rescinded).
As long as you don’t get C’s, you’re fine. Enjoy your semester. You don’t want to arrive burnt out.
It sounds like you care about your academics. Have you been driven by “getting into college” or by something else? Why did you fail that test (or did you get a C and translate that as a fail because you’d never had anything but an A?)
BTW, top tier, I really don’t think Greeks’ work ethics is any worse than most nations’. India’s work ethics shouldn’t be confused with what upper middle class families are doing with their offspring. Shri Ram isn’t Dharavi. In short, while I think you make generally good points, in this case, apples/oranges.
@MYOS1634: I believe you are quite wrong regarding Greece. Specifically, per-austerity (which now seems to be in jeopardy, with concomitant EU reluctance to provide continued financial backing) I believe the average Greek enjoyed considerably greater time off and government-provided benefits than citizens in the US or several other Western European nations (e.g., Germany). Obviously, this was enough deficit spending that it essentially bankrupted the nation (absent EU financial backing). The following is a fairly good and comprehensive discussion of the “Greek Depression.” I invite your particular attention to the “Causes” section, which essentially substantiates my several assertions. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_government-debt_crisis
Well, basically the US is at the bottom for all developed country on a lot of elements such as paid vacation days, benefits, etc., and that doesn’t correlate with greater efficiency (US workers aren’t that productive/efficient). Gerans work way less than Americans and I do believe they enjoyed both more paid vacation days AND higher salaries than the Greeks. Compare Greece to Bulgaria, Algeria, Iran, India, Poland, Ukraine, Montenegro… Taking a vacation has nothing to do with work ethics. In my opinion, vacation days are excellent work efficiency boosters and thus highly beneficial to work productivity. Same thing for policies that guarantee people don’t have to come to work when sick.
(There is, of course, a suspicion people would abuse the system, but people who want to abuse the system don’t need sick days to abuse it, they find other ways. I know people who don’t have sick days and abuse the system in the US, for instance, and I know the same “type” of people who do the same in other countries; it’s not a matter of having benefits, but a matter of personality.)
What bankrupted the nation is foolish borrowing (ie., toxic assets - which wouldn’t have happened if the ECB had worked like the Fed), refusal to tax some segments of society which could contribute, and various segments of society making it a game to cheat their own state - not work ethics (to me, work ethics means being devoted to a certain professional behavior). Look at Italy, seriously! Tax cheating is a national sport! But I really don’t think people around the Mediterranean are inherently lazy, neither the Greeks nor the Italians. People there work very hard. But the culture is very different from American culture(s).
We’re getting off-topic though.
In any case, OP is far from being anywhere near lacking work ethics: he’s a second semester senior who’s received college admissions, scholarships, and accolades. Now’s the time to reap what has been sown and enjoy these last 3-4 months of freedom. OP has been responsible and hard working. That won’t change because, for 3-4 months, he gets sufficient sleep every night and enjoys his last days with his friends and family.
