low GPA...? what should i do?

<p>i (like most people here) am in complete and total love with Wes. i think would be pretty good candidate for the school, i am very active in my community, learn for the intrinsic joy of, do a lot of creative work, etc... however, my GPA is very low for prospective Wes students, and my ACT merely average. </p>

<p>i'm thinking of arranging a campus meeting, an overnight stay and an interview. however, i am not sure if that would be futile in this case. i feel like i could give admissions officers a better view of the kind of person i am in an interview, but i'm still so apprehensive. anyway! on to the stats.</p>

<p>Background:black female from single parent home. i went to Australia for two weeks with people to people when i was 12. i've been playing bass for 5-6 years (electric and upright), guitar for about 1(classical/acoustic), alto sax for 7. i can play trumpet and a few other instruments, but i'm not as fluent with them. </p>

<p>major: music/anthropology. i want to teach at the college level. </p>

<p>ACT: 30</p>

<p>GPA: 3.3 UW. </p>

<p>Courses: my first two years I took the most rigorous schedule i could. starting junior year i began post secondary, so I've been taking college classes since. there was a heavy dip in my second semester GPA junior year, but that was due to taking too heavy of a courseload, and not dropping a class when i should've. so far, this semester i'm sporting straight As. </p>

<p>i've had 3 years of french, one of which was college level french.
i will graduate with (all high school courses are honors and all college classes are measured in semesters):
3 years of lab science (high school biology, high school physics, two semesters of college chem)
4 years of math (hs geometry, hs algebra, hs algebra 2, college trig, college calc, college algebra)
4 years of social science (hs world history, hs US history. college government, psychology, anthropology, not sure what for next semester)
4 years of English (2 semesters composition at college level, college british literature, college speech [i'm not sure how that's counted as an english class, lol] )
4 years of band (all of marching band, jazz band, and concert band.)
1.5 years of business/tech through an alternative program my school offers. (i create a business program and do the equivalent bookwork.)
(not my full schedule, although i can post that if necessary)</p>

<p>ECs/additional stuff i do: (projected for time of graduation)
mock trial - 3 years (our school's mock trial team is rather victorious, we make it to states every year.)
FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) - 3
marching band (alto saxophone) - 4
jazz band (bass guitar) - 4
concert ensemble (alto saxophone) - 3
~100hrs volunteer work in the community (most of which are music related, lol)
joined a club at college, but we were never active, despite my numerous attempts to get in contact with the leader.
i work at the Jazz Festival at the college I take PSEO courses at.
played bass in our school's musical last year, I'll repeat it this year.
i conducted a brass ensemble that volunteered for holiday parties
a lot of graphic design-- i've designed tee shirts and various things for marching band for the past two years.
i took bass lessons for about a year.
i've done so much music related stuff, i can't remember most of it, lol...
i do a lot of [url=<a href="http://octofish.deviantart.com/%5Dart%5B/url"&gt;http://octofish.deviantart.com/]art[/url&lt;/a&gt;] on my own, but i'm not sure if that can be submitted/is even relevant as i've never entered any contests for it or anything.</p>

<p>now, the question is. should i apply ED II and submit part-term grades (can i do that?), or apply RD and submit semester grades? i want to show that i did have a strong upward trend, save for a dip second semester. i am very familiar with college level work and i know that i will succeed at Wesleyan.</p>

<p>If you are positive you want to go to Wes, go ahead and apply early (assuming you’re not too worried about finaid). I’m pretty sure you can submit more grades later, and generally you don’t get rejected, just rolled over into the regular pool. Around half of the kids that go to Wes get in ED.</p>

<p>okay, i will apply ED for sure. If (more like when, lol) i get rolled over into the regular pool, is that the time to arrange an interview? it’s kind of a 10 hour trek for me to get to Wesleyan.</p>

<p>I have no idea when you’ll be interviewed - I didn’t interview - but I don’t think you would need to wait to start trying to arrange an interview. In fact, if travel is an issue, then I think you should try to arrange interviews sooner rather than later. And I’m not positive about Wes specifically, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard of a school (that interviews applicants) requiring interviews to be on campus. Most of them do either alumni interviews, phone interviews, or both. So look into that.</p>

<p>Waiting is generally never the best option when it comes to college admissions.</p>

<p>honestly, i figured a face to face interview on campus would be the best. but you’re totally right, i should definitely stop being so anxious and just arrange an interview that can be done regardless of distance.</p>

<p>they don’t require interviews to be on campus, i just preferred it because it could be combined with the overnight visit/shadowing sort of thing.</p>

<p>definitely do ED if it’s your top choice. it can’t hurt you.</p>

<p>this was the only school i didn’t interview at, hahah.</p>

<p>nice artwork, btw.</p>