Hi, im a hs junior and i did well my freshman year mostly a’s and a few b’s. my sophmore year and the 1st semester of junior year are not so good. basically, it brought my gpa from maybe a 3.9/3.8 to a 3.2( weighted) ( THIS WAS A VERY ROUGH PERIOD OF MY LIFE- A CLOSE FRIEND PASSED, FAMILY MEMBERS AND ME SIMPLY TRYING TO BALANCE MY LIFE OUT). i have taken 1 ap class, the rest are mostly honors classes. im in 5 clubs, have a job at a local fast food restaurant and plan on getting volunteer hours over the summer. im doing well now (straight a’s) but my sophmore+ first half of junior year reallllyyy killed my gpa. i took the act last month and am waiting on my scores, and im planning to take the sat in either may or june. i also am getting an sat prep tutor and MAYBE an act prep tutor as well depending on my score. i feel really disappointed in myself but I also realize that it was a very rough year for me and that I cannot sit and mope about my past grades, just making sure i keep up with my current ones. anyways, my choices are:
-north Carolina state university
-florida international university
-george mason university (safety school)
-university of central florida
university of southern florida
-virginia commonwealth
-nyu ( i highly HIGHLY doubt i will get in)
forgot to add this in but my teacher recommendations and a recommendation from my manager will be pretty good as well ( im a good kid just as i said, rough year+ poor work ethic sophmore and junior year)
i will most definitely! im taking 2 honors and 2 regular classes and have a’s in all the classes. my unweighted is a 3.05 i believe and nc . my weighted is currently a 3.45
If you think your grades will be better after this semester I suggest not crafting your specific list quite yet. A couple gpa points higher and you’d be looking at a different list of schools.
I believe you can provide explanations for any drops in performance in your application. What you need to do is talk to your counselor and make sure he/she is on the same page as you. That way, once it’s college application season for you, he/she can corroborate your explanation for the drop in your performance. To colleges, the words of a counselor hold a lot more weight than those of applicants (sad but true lol).
I’m really sorry for all that happened, and I understand how you feel (someone close to me passed earlier this year). This isn’t easy to deal with, but it’s only uphill from here. Keep busting your ass, keep trying as hard as possible, but just know that it’s okay to take a step back and have grieving moments for yourself. Do your best to insure that your grades don’t drop below A’s from now on - essentially show colleges that you can and will persevere even in the face of tragedy.
Also, it’s good that you are prepping for the SAT/ACT. If you can afford a tutor, go for it. However, they’re not completely necessary if you have good study material (browse this site, there are lots of good recommendations here). You don’t have to completely craft your college list, but it’s good that you have some in mind. Once this semester is over you can gauge exactly where you’d like to apply.
To more selective schools like NYU, volunteer hours don’t mean much, so it might be wise to reconsider doing something else that interests you.
At 3.05 GMU is not a safety unfortunately. Hopefully you can get your GPA up and have a very good test score. VCU may be closer to a safety and there’s also ODU to consider. Agree to wait and see how things stand this summer and come up with a list then.
I have a feeling that i will still be looking at the same schools (im not really looking into competitive schools), but I see what you are saying. Im not sure that it will be significantly higher
Don’t fret until you have your test scores back. Until then, you’re just tilting at windmills.
You will also need to take into account finances for your list. If you can’t afford 72K a year for NYU, don’t apply. (b/c even if you could get in, what’s the point if you can’t pay for it?) Your GPA isn’t so bad you won’t get in anywhere, but you’ll need to be strategic, re: your application list.
So once you get your ACT score (and SAT score if you take it), make a post here with all your information clearly laid out (don’t do one giant block paragraph as you have here; my eyes started to glaze over), and include your state of residence and your financial constraints. You’ll need to know what your parents can afford per year, whether you will qualify for financial aid, etc. All of these things work in concert for building a good school list.
What’s your budget? A lot of our choices are OOS… Have you run the NPC and brought the result to our parents? No need to make plans for universities that you can’t afford (none of the universities on your list ‘meet need’).
@sighyamese , look at page 110 of the thread (in the parent’s forum) “Parents of the H.S. Class of 2017-3.0-3.4 GPA.” I think this will be very helpful to you. Scroll down page 110 a bit and you will see a LOOOONG list of colleges (submitted by parents) that students in the B to A- range applied to. The list details the stats and ECs of kids who applied, and whether they were accepted, denied or waitlisted. There are a lot of acceptances to fine colleges and universities on this list!
I agree with the other posters…your application will tell the story of who you are, and admissions officers will be able to see the dip and rise of your grades, and should be able to interpret this in the context of your loss. It is a testament to your character that you’ve been able to get through the situation and not drown in it. Having had a hard experience already in your life and lhaving earned what it takes for you to deal with it is something you will be able to carry with you and apply to difficulties you may find while at college. There are students who have floated happily through life, gotten into good schools and floundered once there when faced with a challenge. Who knows…your application may even be stronger for the experience. Study hard for those test scores, develop a strong EC or two, and learn to write great essays, You’ll do just fine.
Maybe you should widen your search to look into some other schools…there are so many…maybe Christopher Newport, UC Guildford, UC Asheville, UC Wilmington, Susquehanna (PA) for starters…
Recommendation: talk to your parents to find out how much they can afford, and be sure to look at the cost of attendance for all the schools you’re interested in and run the net price calculators. Out of state publics will be just as expensive as privates but they won’t give as much financial aid.
You need to be able to afford your school too, not just get admitted. 100k is not enough to say that money isn’t an issue.
Use your naviance data at your high school. Rely on College Counselor to help you pick a few reaches, matches and safeties. You’ll get into schools, and hopefully you will have choices. Keep working hard. Work on those essays, and get good rec letters. Its not all about GPA.
