I am currently going into my Junior year in High School. My goal is to work in the medical field. In my freshman year i got an average GPA of 3.438. I was very disappointed in myself. I walked into sophomore year with some motivation. However, the school year did not start according to plan. In the beginning of the school year, there were 2 students that were killed accidentally and then 1 girl committed suicide. I didn’t particularly know them but, it affected me and my school with great sadness. I was involved in a lot of drama with my friends in the beginning of the year and in the middle as well. I left that friend group and made knew friends towards the end of the year. However, that really distracted me from my work and studies. I do not have ADHD or ADD. I always have anxiety before a test and that stresses me out a lot. During school, I try to focus but then I end up day dreaming. Anyways, I walked out of sophomore year with a 3.218 average GPA. I really want to get into Boston University, University of Washington, or somewhere in Europe (King’s College).
Here are my questions.
- I am doing a lot of AP and IB classes next year, will that boost my GPA?
- Is it actually possible to raise my GPA above a 3.5?
- If I have a 33 on the ACT would that help? Along with a good SAT score?
- Will colleges recognize my extreme progress (if I do well Junior year) or will they put they aside and look at my overall GPA?
- If I do well in college, could i possibly make it into med school in an ivy league school.
- How important are college essays?
Thank you for your time!
First off, I’m sorry that you went through all that. That’s more than enough to shake a person up.
1/2: AP/IB classes will boost your GPA, but not your unweighted GPA. You may be able to get it back to a 3.5, but it may involve getting an A in a community college/out of school class with more credit weight.
3: An ACT above 30 and an SAT above 1300 would certainly help.
4: Colleges will notice your progress, but they won’t cast aside your whole GPA. I don’t know if the colleges you named are good matches for you- hear me out! Look at liberal arts colleges instead. They are a lot more understanding about personal circumstances, and have much smaller applicant pools than the schools you’re looking at. That allows them to consider you as a person.
Wash.U has tens of thousands of applications to get through. It’s hard to get your voice and your story heard through all the other people clamoring for the same spot. But you deserve your circumstance to be recognized! A smaller, liberal arts school will do that.
You should still apply to those bigger schools, but I strongly advise you to apply to a few smaller colleges.
5: Of course. Your HS GPA is nothing once you’ve graduated from college!
You can get to the Ivys from a smaller college, too. I have a friend who went to a liberal arts school in the midwest that I had never heard of, and he’s currently at Harvard medical school.
- Essays are super important- especially for you. Use them to show a college how you've processed these pitfalls in your life and picked yourself back up. Colleges love a good underdog/success story.
Good luck- you’re asking all the right questions!
Med school requires a high college GPA. If you have trouble keeping your GPA up in high school, can you be sure you can keep it up in college? The MCATs are also not friendly to those like yourself with testing anxiety. Have you considered nursing at all?