I am currently a senior at a public high school. We are about half way through with the second quarter. I went to a private school from grade nine to grade 11 and I received an unweighted GPA score of 3.99. We had an extremely rigourous curriculum and schedule, but did not have AP classes. Now that Covid-19 has hit, I am at a really great public high-school. The counselors saw my great work ethic and grades and it was suggested that I take as many AP classes to raise my GPA. I am currently taking 4 AP classes (AP Psych, AP ECON, AP English Lit., and AP Statistics) and US History (I was taking APUSH, but needed to drop of course) and French 2 (So I can get the advanced diploma). I want to be a psychologist (counseling and therapy concentration and own a private practice one day, or I am going to end up following another passion which is music (vocal and piano) and musical theatre. Anyway, I have all As right now except for my AP Stat. and AP Econ classes. I am doing horrible and it really hurts my heart. If I dont pull it together quickly and start making As on the rest of my test and quizzes I will end up with a either a C in both classes or if I am lucky a B in Econ. and A C or D in Stat. I have even considered trying to drop a few classes?
I will study as best I can, but I am overwhelmed and scared about how this is going to make my grades look to college admissions.
Do any of you smart people out there have any advice or thoughts that could either ease my mind or make me feel worse (as a motivation type strategy). I am open to all thoughts, ideas, and suggestions. I am looking to high quality education, but I have not applied to any Ivy Leagues (other than Harvard), but I have applied to nearly all the schools in my state Virginia, a few in New York, Fordham and St. Lawrence, and 1 in Rhode Island, Bryant University; and, I applied to most of the HBCU s (Historically Black Colleges and Universities) that surround the East Coast.
Thank you all for your time and help, I really appreciate it!
Be blessed:))
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Can you tell me the specific schools you are applying to? I can sort of give you my opinion of the chances of you getting in. GPA isn’t everything but it is very important period. if Colleges see that you have a downwards trend they would either assume that the private school you went to was very easy or that you have given up. Either scenarios are not good for you. You say that you are at a great public school in Virginia, I am from NoVa and, tbh, if your high school also is in NoVa you definitely will not get into say UVA or W&M because there is an extremely high density of smart students. in NoVa. Best of luck tho,
Write letters to colleges and drop what you can.
@JaydenElijah, you are looking for advice, but I have a feeling that you know what you need to do. I have raised my own kids to understand that grades are important, but what is more important is to know how react when things are not going as well as you would like. You will run into some challenges in college and in life and what are you going to do when those moments happen? Have you really done all you could do?
My own child was not passing a class 6 weeks into this semester (at one of those East Coast HBCUs) and he fell back on all of his past challenges and amazingly pulled out an A in that particular class. That meant taking advantage of all of his resources, managing his time better and lots of extra study time committed to that class which was not easy. You mentioned that AP Stats has been tough, but just know that you will see some of that same information again if you choose to become a Psychology major, so what you are learning could help you in future college classes. There are some cases (struggles with mental health due to a class or if a grade could actually cause an acceptance to be rescinded) where dropping a class may be the way to go, but I always advise making sure you have done all you can before doing so. Your stellar unweighted GPA up to this point means you have a good shot to get into a lot of your schools and I have never heard of one C causing a student to get rescinded. Good Luck to you.
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Understand that there are things you can do now to pull up your grades. I do think your course load is very heavy, but not unmanageable, and it’s probably not a good idea to try and drop the course at this late stage, if you even can.
Go to all extra help sessions. Meet with your teacher after school or on lunch break to go over your tests or homework. If you can, get a private tutor. Or see if any students in National Honor Society at your school are tutoring for their volunteer hours. My son struggled mightily with AP stats, and he started to get hang the of it when he understood that his teacher was instructing him on what was needed to get the best score on the AP test. As my son said, it’s not just math, it’s English too. Maybe you are not doing the work in the way that is needed to help you do well on the test.
You can also meet with your guidance counselor. Ask what he/she advises. See if there is a way to mitigate your lower grade. Is there something going on at home or in your life that is affecting your grades?
You can only do your best. You have next semester to get back on your feet, and if you can tackle what’s causing you problems in those two classes, you can pull your grade up. Your future is not going to be determined by two classes, so don’t worry. Best of luck.
Edit: You will absolutely be using your stats knowledge as a psych major. My daughter, who just graduated from college as a psych major, constantly refers to skills she learned back in AP stats, so try really hard to do your best in that class.
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