<p>Currently I am a sophomore, but I kind of messed up my freshman year. I had AP Bio, Honors Algebra 2 Trig, AP Human Geo, Honors English, Band, foreign language 1, and both swim and journalism in second semester.
I got Bs in both AP Bio and math the first semester, and a B in math the second semester as well. I got As in everything else, so overall, I have a 4.33 GPA weighted. I did get a 4 on the AP Bio exam and a 5 on the AP Human Geo exam.
This year I quit band and journalism because I decided I needed more time to manage.
Now I'm taking Honors Precalc, Honors English, AP Euro, AP Environmental Science, and foreign language 2 (and swim second semester). So far, into this year, I've been getting pretty solid As and A+s, but I would like to know, how much do you think 3 B's in freshman year will affect my chances at college acceptance? I am aiming for top colleges, and as my username suggests, I am really hoping for Stanford.
I am aiming for all As for the rest of high school, and I really feel like my 3 Bs in freshman year were the result of having too many things to do.</p>
<p>If you have ECs competitive for Stanford, which is a “reach-for-anyone” school (and, as with all “reach-for-anyone” schools, they’re EC-heavy) I don’t think it is going to hurt that much.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply! But can you explain to me what ECs are?</p>
<p>Extra Curricular activities. You dropped band, to make more time to study - that might not be to your benefit, unless you have other strong activities. Most highly selective schools don’t want kids who only study, to the exclusion of other activities. The student who has 4.0 unweighted with all AP classes, but who doesn’t have outside activities, is not likely to be accepted, because they haven’t learned to balance academics with other parts of their life.</p>
<p>Thanks CTScoutmom-I dropped band because it was so time consuming-night practices after schol for 3-4 hours and saturday practices and competitions-but I am thinking of starting a club at school, and I do still take music lessons and am planning on going to competitions. I still swim, and I’m trying to think of more extra curriculars I can do. I also hope to intern somewhere related in my field of interest junior year/summer before senior year-I heard that it is important to have some time of 4 year commitment in high school, but I am sophomore and the only thing I have really been involved in since freshman year is swim team and key club (a community service club). Is it too late to start more extra curriculars?</p>
<p>and also-what types of extra curriculars do you mean when you say “competitive for Stanford”?</p>
<p>Bumping the post</p>
<p>Well, I’m pretty sure that Stanford doesn’t look at Freshman grades! So, as long as you continue to do well in school, you’ll be fine :)</p>
<p>Colleges like Stanford are reaches for everyone, though, so keep that in mind.</p>
<p>The most obvious strong ECs are things that almost nobody has, national awards, research/internships at prestigious place, tons and tons of community service hours and so on. Personally I would rejoin band if I were you, an EC that takes many hours a week looks better then a club that meets for an hour or two a week. Strong applicants in terms of ECs at the least need some activities outside of school, leadership positions, decent community service hours and they were involved their entire high school career.</p>
<p>thanks artsygirl13 and pandamic!! I’ve already looked into starting community service hours and things like that now.</p>
<p>Bumping the post</p>
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<p>Generally speaking, starting a club at school and getting yourself voted as president is worthless. Honestly, what do you need? 4 other people, each of whom gets a title, and a sign-off from a teacher? Then you play iPod games?</p>
<p>By the same token, logging lots of community service hours is not impressive. So you showed up and followed instructions for an hour or two once a week. Big deal. It’s like taking another class and doing what the teacher tells you.</p>
<p>The things that impress are the things that are unusual. One way to make a great impression is a with self-initiated community service project: look around your community, find an unmet need and create a program to help solve the problem, then get others to help you. Frankly, this is a lot of work and requires some determination. Most students will opt for the pre-packaged approach – and find out all too late that they are doing nothing different than another 1000 applicants with very similar stats.</p>
<p>you have a good point loremipsum-thanks-I just need to find an “unmet need” now…</p>
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<p>Start with your interests. Speak a foreign language fluently? Give English classes to new immigrants that speak your language. Love computers? Help seniors in your neighborhood get online. Love environmental science? Adopt a park or beach and get a crew together to keep it clean. There is no shortage of unmet needs when you really start to think about it.</p>
<p>those are great ideas! and completely creative. thanks a lot-i’ll definitely be thinking about what i want to do.</p>
<p>Just so you know, I wouldn’t get your hopes up too high for Stanford. Stanford declines something around 93% of their applicants. Most of their applicants have extremely competitive applications, with strong extra curricular and near perfect GPAs and test scores. You may do everything in your power to get accepted to Stanford, and it might just not go your way. I once thought I was Stanford/Ivy league bound too. I know it doesn’t sound too nice, but its the unfortunate truth.</p>
<p>That said, I don’t think your struggle freshman year will hurt you too much. I also had a 4.3 GPA my freshman year then got straight As soph/junior year, and now have a 4.6. An upward trending GPA is desirable. Make sure you have some extremely strong ECs. Do something out of the box. Do something you are passionate about.</p>
<p>Best of luck!</p>
<p>I wouldn’t worry too much about the Bs in Freshmen year. If anything, you’ve shown improvement over your Freshmen year which is good.</p>
<p>However, you’re applying for Stanford which means that unless if you have excellent ECs, recs and essay it will be hard.</p>
<p>Thanks to BubblesForSale and Pat1120-I know that it they take about 6% of applicants…but I can be hopeful and try everything I can. Thanks for your insightful responses!</p>