Important Important!! Q's On High School Courses, Grades, Colleges.

Applying to College
1

<p>Hi, I am currently a senior in high school. I am getting a 'D' in English AP and considered dropping that class and take regular English second semester. I am also taking another english course to make up my grade for the 'D' i had for English AP.</p>

<p>If i drop English AP, then all my classes will be regular classes. Will i have a lesser chance in being admitted to New York University, Columbia University, Syracuse, University of Rochester, Suny (Oswego, Fredonia, Oneonta, Binghamton), and CUNY (Queens and Brooklyn college)?</p>

<p>I don't consider myself an expert in either English, science, or math, but i tried hard like every one else at my high school in getting a 'A' or a 'B'. I was planning to take AP Government, but some of my friends are stressing that there are loads of notetaking and reading for homework, including biology AP. For english there are lots of reading for homework (from 30 to 60 pages a day), and the english tests i take in class are very hard. </p>

<p>I don't know what to do. Most likely i will drop English AP, and take regular english next semester, but at the same time, i will be retaking first semester english at my nearby community college. What do you guys think? Will i still have a good chance in being admitted to the colleges of my choice if i take all regular classes next semester and retaking 1st semester english?</p>

<p>My current first semester grades (not the final, but will by in 2 weeks) (My GPA in freshman year was a 3.5-3.6, sophmore was a 3.33-3.5, junior was a 2.66-3.1. I took one honors class for freshman and sophomore year and one semester of US History AP and two semester of English Honors for junior.)</p>

<p>English AP 'D'
Regular Economics 'B+'
Pre-Calculus 'C'
Health 'A'
Drama 'A'
Regular Biology 'A'</p>

<p>GPA: 3.00</p>

<p>Extracurricular activities:
volunteer at hospital (3 years), tennis (2 years), drama play (1 year), piano (10 years), music composition (i'm writing a piece and record a CD of my piece and send them to the different colleges i'm applying to), chess and film club(i'm one of the officers of film club)</p>

2

<p>I won't speak for the other college choices, but I think you have pretty much no chance at Columbia -- you GPA, class schedule and EC's just can't compete with the normal applicant there. I also think that NYU is a high reach.</p>

3

<p>DROP THE "D" CLASS. Yes. Do it. An all-regular classes schedule is <em>much</em> better than getting a D this late in the game. </p>

<p>Your list of schools has a lot of reaches (i.e. difficult schools to get in). I agree that Columbia is out of reach. In my opinion, NYU is also out of reach. Syracuse is a reach. You need to scale back your expectations. If you want to go to a highly selective school, you should go to a pretty good school and try to transfer. </p>

<p>People getting into Columbia are going to be 2300+ SATs, 3.8 grades, President of this and that, state honors in this and that. </p>

<p>Do you have a good college advisor? Go talk to him or her. I'm not familiar with some of the NY state schools: they may be good options. You might want to rewrite your college list.</p>

4

<p>syracuse and rochester are kinda reaches too</p>

5

<p>Definitely drop AP English.</p>

6

<p>Your weak academic schedule, "D" in AP English and your declining gpa make places like Columbia, NYU and Rochester very unlikely for you.</p>

<p>I would not be surprised if Syracuse and Binghamton are reach schools for you, too.</p>

<p>Your AP English "D" and declining gpa actually indicate that you may not yet be ready for college. Have you considered taking a gap year -- doing something productive like Americorps, working a job or doing fulltime volunteer work -- to give yourself a chance to get more in touch with yourself and why you might want to go to college?</p>

<p>It would be better to take a productive gap year and then go to college tha to go to college right after h.s. and flunk out because you weren't emotionally ready for it.</p>

<p>Speaking as the mom of one son whose profile was similar to yours, who went to college and then flunked out even though he was capable of excelleing there. My other S is taking a gap year as an Americorps volunteer -- something he greatly enjoys -- and with my full support.</p>

<p>Should you drop AP English? Why are you getting the "D"? If it's that the course is definitely too hard for you, drop it. If it's becasue you're not working up to your level, then dropping the course may not help you because you may not work in regular English either.</p>

<p>Younger S faced a similar dilemma senior year because he wasn't working in a course. He decided to stick with the course because the teacher was good. He knew he'd be bored in the regular course, and probably still would get a low grade. As of 2 weeks before graduation, he was carrying an "F" in the AP course because he hadn't gotten work in, but he got the work in at the very last second and graduated -- with a "D" grade, but at least he graduated. And he was fairly sure, he would have done the same grade in the regular course.</p>