Low Gpa/ Chances?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Johns Hopkins University
1

Major: Biochemistry, Biology, Neuroscience (minor maybe?)

Sat: 1540

Sat II:
800 chem
770 math 2
780 physics
770 literature

Honors/AP Classes:
H English - 11
H Bio- 11
H History- 11
Apah- 11

GPA:

W GPA: 3.7 (upwards trend…but yea its bad. screwed up freshman year so no honors freshman year and sophomore year. My school has strict pre reqs and teacher recs are useless and looked down upon, so freshman year is messed up in all cp (my grandpa became a heart patient and his heart was basically dead and my parents were working to pay of the medical bills and I had to prioritize my siblings and their hw/test over mine- not having gc write about this because theres people in worse situations who did better), sophomore year is all A in cp classes, Junior year is honors and one AP, Senior year is all 2 honors and 4 ap +gym and lunch )
UW GPA: 3.56

Senior Year Classes:
AP Bio
AP Environmental
AP Eng 12
Calc H
Stat H
Ap psych

ECs:
-Pre-med (9-12) president- under my leadership we raised enough money to restore the vision of 5 people in underdeveloped countries
-Founder and president of science research club(11-12) - we have a website, student conduct their own experiments and write professional research papers
-Bioleague
-Worked with a charity to raise money to pay for 5-10 children’s education for a year in Africa (they organization decides which country) (the cost per child was 120; i tried my best, I know the number is small)
-Internship with surgeon
-Tutoring a child with dyslexia in english

  • Changed the plastic recycling system at my school for the improvement of the environment (inspired by my teacher; currently working on this)

Explanation for ec’s:

Pre med: I am extremely passionate about medicine and specifically neurosurgery for these reasons: I have always been good at math and science and am ambitious to learn about them daily, I am passionate about helping people and making people happy not only with their lives but also content with themselves, I enjoy and get a natural high off of a faced paced, hectic life. In freshman year I joined pre med to learn about the fields and discover what I want to do, but it turns out the president only kept the position for college (he still got into harvard, despite being known as a cheater haha). In fact, he got so lazy during his senior year, he decided not to run the club in my sophomore year. I re-opened the club once I was a junior and promised myself I would not do that, now we have a meeting every other week on the following topics: medical topics (diseases, medical history, etc.), innovation and invention, MCAT prep, and serving mankind. I realize that the people whose eye sight was restored is a low number, but this junior year was my first year running this club and I am proud of the start I had; it annoys me that the number isn’t as big as a 50 or 100 (so far), but thinking that 5 people have a better life because of my school and peers makes me more determined and passionate than I was before.

Research: Following into medicine, my other passion is research. It is crazy to think how far we have come from the last century. It takes true dedication and ambition to put every ounce of knowledge, time, and work into a research paper for the soul purpose of driving mankind forward. My research club has 8 very skilled, ambitious, and dedicated researchers who have completed articles from sleep’s effect on memory to calculating what an average person can do to slow down climate change. Now I know that as 14-17 year olds we did not cure cancer or invent a biotechnology to un-paralyze people, but what this club has done is prepared students to build and find a passion for something- have direction in life, make a difference at my school (issues such as dirty water fountains were resolved and scientific reasoning was given to get vaccinated during flu season, changing over 100 people’s view on vaccines~survey we did), and to be the leaders of tomorrow. I can humbly say that everyone who made it into my club has walked away a better pre-med, a better engineer, a better researcher, and most of all a better person.

Providing children with education: One of my biggest goals in life is to open up a stem focused school in undeserved countries. So originally I fundraised for that goal; at the end of the year I was disappointing that I barely raised 1,500$. My cousin introduced me to this charity (not saying name to protect my privacy) that she has worked with before, and I learned that 1,200 $ can provide 5-10 children in africa free education for a whole year. Now this was not my original goal, but it gave me a good start. The rest of the 300 went to feeding a homeless family in america for 1 month. Now, in the future perhaps during college, I will launch my own business / fundraiser to reach my goal of making a school.

2

Is there anything I can do AT ALL to higher my chances?

3

Hey! I’m currently a junior in HS looking into hop as well (which is how I found this) and from reading all that, you already seem like such an intelligent person! What an impact you’ve made. I have a friend at JHU now and one that’s going there next year, and both of them have told me that their admissions process is holistic, much like most competitive schools. I’m not v sure how JHU admissions work, but what I can say is It demonstrates that you want to make the most of what JHU has to offer and u are genuinely determined you are to continue your work. I’ve looked at tons of other people’s application threads here, and this one is so outstanding. I wish I could give you real advice, but this is awesome and I wish u luck!

4

@yourtherapistsaid Thank you so much! it bothers me so much that my gpa is the only thing that is holding me back from getting into such schools, especially since I know my educational capabilities and personal impact. It sucks that the number represents me, but at the end of the day it was my fault haha.

5

if anyone has advice, I’m open to honest (even brutal) but helpful advice!

6

Honestly I really hope they see past a number! People have gotten into schools like hop with lower GPAs although it’s very rare there are people out there who’ve done it! Your application does demonstrate that you’re v intelligent though. I know it feels like a long shot but if they dont accept you for how motivated you are and how much of an impact you’ve made, then who DO they accept? Also, you’ve got high level courses, so that will show how academic you are. Also I have a friend who had a 3.1 GPA his first two years and used to be so unmotivated, but then his last two years he got all As, took harder classes, and stood out for his musical talent and got into Brandeis and is loving it! Also he’s been offered several independent studies as a freshman for compsci (which never usually happens) so I guess that is proof that you can still get into a good school if you stand out (which you defo do) and show an upward trend (which you do as well!)

7

Bump pls

8

(Current student at Hopkins)
Hi,
First of all- congrats on all of your accomplishments so far, and on handling the difficulties you experienced. Don’t discredit how far you’ve come! And don’t assume that the school will ignore it. I’m not sure how admissions work, as I’m not involved in that at all, but I would imagine that it is holistic.
I’m assuming you’re a junior, in which case you DO NOT need an answer to this now. But I would recommend figuring out what it is exactly about Hopkins (and any other schools you’re going to apply to) that appeal to you. Why do you truly want to go there? When you are applying anywhere, try to make that come through if there’s an essay asking you about why you’re applying.

9

I don’t think I am going to apply anymore because one of my friends is applying and she cheats all the time (not assuming- she tells me bc we’re close) and has a 4.6+ gpa W while mine would be like 3.7 W. I have no chance compared to her and obv if 2 people from the same school apply and ones better, she’s gonna get in.

10

maybe ill just apply to their med school in 4 years,

11

“maybe ill just apply to their med school in 4 years”

This was approximately along the lines of what I was thinking. You don’t need to go to JHU for undergrad to go to medical school. There are a LOT of universities in the US with strong premed programs. The good news: When you apply to medical schools your university GPA will matter a lot, but they won’t ask about your high school GPA and won’t care what you did in high school. Of course you are going to find university more difficult than high school, and your university GPA is going to need to be better if you want to get into medical school.

“restore the vision of 5 people in underdeveloped countries”

For at least 5 people, this is really huge.

Good luck going forward.

12

A couple of thoughts. Your work and your scores indicate that you have the ability to be successful at any college in the country. However, Johns Hopkins admitted only 9.9% of the applicants this year. That means that 90% were rejected. Nearly all of them were perfectly qualified to attend. No matter how high your GPA is, that school and schools like it are lottery tickets.

I think you are making a mistake in not having your guidance counselor explain about the issues you experienced during sophomore year. Its not a matter of who suffered the most. What is important is that you stepped up to help your family in a time of crises. That says a lot about you. It says that you know what your priorities are. You know whats truly important and you are willing to make sacrifices to do the right thing for people who are depending on you. I think that is an important trait in someone who wants to be a doctor. In a sea of applicants who all have the same perfect records of stats and achievements, a human story like that may stand out. I speak from experience as my children also had to step up during a time of great crises.

Speaking of wanting to be a doctor. I have read on this site and confirmed by talking directly with the dean of admissions of a top med school, that the most important factors in med school admissions are grades and mcat scores and of course, having the proper ECs during college. It doesn’t matter very much where you go to undergrade as long as its a decent, accredited, four year school. Many med schools have 3.7 or 3.8 as the AVERAGE GPA. Where do you think you will have the best chance of getting that score? A tippy top school like JHU or an IVY or a school a bit further down in the pecking order where you can can be at the top of the class. Where do you think it will be easiet to grab research positions and make strong relationships with professors? Its just a thought. Plenty of people go to med school from Johns Hopkins, but a heck of a lot are weeded out first.

You should be proud of your accomplishments. You have achieved a lot while helping your family at the same time.

13

@DadTwoGirls @gallentjill Yeah I’ve been thinking about this for the last few weeks because of all the senior acceptances and stuff. I was thinking that I’ve literally worked my ass off in high school and next year I’m taking all ap sciences and math. I’d rather go to a decent college, graduate on top of my class (because I know that I have an advantage in math and science bc i’ve always understood them naturally), and have fun/healthy mindset to prevent a burn out in med school rather than a top school and be suicidal junior year. there were two reasons I wanted to go to a top school 1) I wanted research with some of the professors there and I knew my intellectual abilities and 2) I am in a lot of leagues and the teachers and supervisors in my school literally love me (I have amazing relationships with most of the school staff and I respect them so much), so from there everyone expected that I’d go to a top school (they didn’t know ab my ass gpa), but I felt I needed to live up to the expectation of people.

14

2 months ago I wasn’t even thinking of public schools because for some reason I was repulsed by them and now I’m in LOVE with UMass-Amherst and I can’t believe what I could have missed out on if I kept my doors closed

15

Wow! I was just about to mention UMass-Amherst. My daughter, who also has high stats and wants pre-med is in love with that school. We visited and really loved everything about it. It is one of her current top two. One of the things we loved was that so many people we met were able to easily get research opportunities — even people who were not majoring in the fields. There just seems to be so much research going on. We are looking for schools with either low tuition (in state) or where D is likely to get good merrit aid so definitely looking at that 2nd tier of schools. Good luck!

16

@DadTwoGirls I’m just asking because everyone says different things- does your undergrad college matter for med school? Like is there a disadvantage of going to a state school vs a top 20

17

^^

18

Yes it does, to a certain extent. First, at a top 20 you get to know incredible people, and have better opportunities than at other schools. And as much as people will tell you that state is fine, top 20 schools send their premed students to med school more consistently, with lower stats. It is a small but significant difference. Again, not saying a public uni is not valid, but going to a top 20 makes things way easier