I wanna go to a decent school and major in electrical engineering

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

Thankyou so much for taking the time to read this, I know it’s a lot of text. Lately, i’ve been worried a lot about my future.
It’s caused me a lot of stress and depression.

I was so nervous about my Honors Calculus A semester math exam, I went to bed at 10 (since sleep is important for exams) and I didn’t fall asleep until 5 am in the morning because I was so nervous.

Ok here’s the thing:

  • I am a junior
  • I go to a competitive, 90% asian private school (yeah, I know, private schools have a terrible stigma :frowning: )
  • most semesters i had been doing okay in math, earning at least an A-

Freshman year:
Honors geo. A-/A-
Honors Algebra II: A-/A

These grades sound pretty pathetic, but let me justify myself:

Okay I really don’t mean to sound conceited but our school is hardcore, our averages for AP Calc AB and BC are usually around 4.8 and for IBHL math most students get 7

The AP Calculus BC teacher said he’d fail honors algebra II if he took it in highschool. My friend, in regular algebra II took a test from a public school in their honors algebra II and said it was crazy easy.
Another friend of mine taking Honors Algebra II had a B- but she dropped last minute, took 5 tests over the course of 3 days and ended up with an A+ in regular algebra II that semester.

This year, I’m taking a course called Honors Calculus A at my school
Its basically a combination of two courses in one year:

  1. Honors precalculus
  2. AP Calculus A (we use the same AP calculus textbook)

This semester, I got a B+ in Honors Calculus A

I want to go a decent school (like UIUC, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign), but i’m terrified of the fact that they’ll see my B+ this semester in Honors Calc A and laugh

btw I refuse to get a B+ next semester, if I don’t get at least an A- i’ll kill myself.

Some of my other background related to STEM:

  • Physics: A+/A (it was only regulars though… )
  • Honors Chemistry: A-/A
  • AP Physics 1: (haven’t seen my grades yet, its probably an A- or A which is pretty embarrassing considering it’s supposed to be the easy AP)
  • I’m taking AP Physics C, E, M next near and AP Comp Sci next year (yeah… also embarrassing since most people take it freshman or sophomore year)
  • President of Girls in STEM club at my school
  • Taking AP Calculus BC next year
  • I have a year long research project on photochemical etching, a method for fabricating silicon wafers
  • Next year, i’ll be taking a class called “Advanced Research and Nanotechnology” and I plan to do research on optalysys, or light powered computers

Here’s my question:

Should I accept that I probably won’t get into a school with one of the top 20 engineering programs in the US like UIUC or UT Austin?

(i haven’t even considered MIT, Stanford, or Berkeley as they are waayyyyyyyy out of my range)

2

Okay don’t even joke about killing yourself over a B+… Not cool. Top schools look at applicants holistically, not one single grade. Calm down, try your best, and hope for the best. Wherever you’ll end up, it will all be fine in the end.

3

What you need to do is take a deep breath and calm down. You say all this stuff that you think is terrible and reality you are doing just fine. One B+ does not make or break your application. You seem to have taken a very strong course load despite that you think they are the “easy APs” and “most people take them freshman and sophomore year” (which is not true at all). I guarantee you that you can get into a top engineering school from what you shared, but I’m not sure if you are ready for them if you cannot control your attitudes toward your academic life. Don’t just look at the negatives and think they will ruin your life; recognize that for every “bad” B+ you have, you have 5 A’s in hard classes too.