<p>I had really great grades until the second trimester of my sophomore year. I managed to get them back up to par for the third trimester, but I had a pretty rough time after that. I'm a junior now, and my grades for the first semester of this year were horrible. Now they're solidly good, and I plan on having them back up to great by the end of this year. By the time I graduate, I will have 7-10 AP credits, for whatever that's worth. I am sure of an exam score of at least 3 for 6-9 of those. </p>
<p>I'm fully confident that my recommendations will be stellar and that my essay(s) will be great. As for the SAT's, I've got a 2250, but I can retake it and improve if that's necessary. I was a 2-letter varsity athlete with a few awards for 2 years, but this year I moved to a new school and I only play sports on club teams. I don't really have any leadership roles. </p>
<p>I know it's bad, so please don't sugarcoat this for me haha. I was just wondering, should I give up on any moderately selective schools? Is now a good time to just figure on state/community college? </p>
<p><em>Note</em> I do have a reason, for my performance and participation dropping down so far. I'm not comfortable using it as an excuse, though. Difficult things happen to all of us, and I should have known how to cope better than I did.</p>
<p>The "bad grades" were actually a couple of D's. They were all corrected by the next term report, but they're ugly all the same. Solidly good is all B's. For the last quarter I plan to have all A's with two possible B's, both in AP/honors courses.
Should I give up on schools that are:
<50% acceptance rate? <20%?
(Sorry if this is the wrong forum)</p>
<p>You need to give more information than that. Actual grades instead of “solidly good” so someone can get an informed opinion. Also what do you define as “Moderately selective schools”. </p>
<p>Unless those “bad grades” means D’s and F’s, your SAT score should carry you through to most places…</p>
<p>@Etuck24: Thank you for reading this and helping me. This website kills me. I feel horribly inadequate whenever I look at all of the great applicants here. It’s crazy.</p>
<p>aribman-
Transcripts include courses and end of year grades, not each trimester grade you rec’d. Verify this with your guidance counselor. People on this site can help you better if you know your GPA. It may include unweighted and weighted GPA’s as well as class rank. </p>
<p>By AP credits, do you mean 7-10 AP classes? Many schools weight AP grades so this will also help you out.</p>
Not necessarily so. Different schools’ transcripts look different. Your transcript includes whatever your school includes on it. What crazed’s transcript looks like won’t tell you much, if anything, about what yours will look like.
Yes, do this.</p>
<p>And while you’re doing it, ask your guidance counselor about the impact your semester grades should have on your college search. If your GC is any good, he or she can give your reliable, recent information about where students from your school with similar credentials have applied, and how they fared.</p>
<p>mikemack: I know. I’m sorry for being so ambiguous. What I’m meaning to find out is whether it’s worth it for me to apply anywhere that isn’t a local state or community college. It’s my fault for not wording the post better.</p>