<p>I never took school seriously until 9th grade, and was placed in normal level social studies and English. I got A's in the classes and moved up the next year. My essay is about how being put in normal level classes motivated me. Will this hurt my chances of getting into Ivy</p>
<p>Normal level classes in 9th grade? Not so much. That essay topic, though? Probably.</p>
<p>Unless multiple AP’s were offered during your freshman year (which is usually not the case), then you should be relatively alright as long as you took the most rigorous course loads sophomore and junior year.</p>
<p>Look, im going to put it to you straight, you will most likely not be picked by any Ivy unless you have a serious hook,influential parents,or AMAZING grades (im talking 2200+SAT and 3.8+ unweighted GPA). and yes, this will hurt your chances at the Ivies but not to badly i don’t believe.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>I definitely agree with the first responder, the admissions committee has probably read thousands of essays about similar circumstances, which will definitely cause them to overlook you! Also, even if you took all AP classes freshman year, the ivies are a crapshoot so your chances wouldn’t have been that great anyway.</p>
<p>Agree with everyone else here. Do not write about it in the essay. I don’t think it will hurt you a lot as long as you made up for it in the following grades. </p>