<p>I'm applying ED and EA to UPenn and MIT, respectively.
Over the past 3 years, I've kept a really high GPA and I'm ranked 7th out of 501 students. Since junior year, I've taken 4 APs.</p>
<p>However, this year I'm taking 4 APs, and my grades in Physics B and Literature are ABYSMAL. As of now. I have two mid-C's; I've never gotten a C before, and I've had all A's for the past three years, except for one high B unweighted. </p>
<p>If I get into the early admission schools, I'm really worried that if they see my mid-year report they might rescind my admissions. I'm working my butt off now. Does anyone know if there is an established cut-off grade for the elite schools?</p>
<p>i'm pretty sure i can apply to ed penn and ea mit. it's as long as i'm not applying ed anywhere else, and that i'm not applying to any single choice early actions like stanford or yale.</p>
<p>Anyway, all I can say is to continue doing your best. If I read correctly, you have only taken 4 AP classes total throughout your high school career, but this year you are taking another 4 at once! Surely, colleges will take this into account as an attempt to challenge yourself and will definitely let it pass. In fact, despite your lower grades, this could help you by showing your determination!</p>
<p>That Beowulf test screwed me over. I had a solid A before that, then I got like a 70% on the test and now I'm floundering. I can analyze the crap out of most literature, but I'm really not used to memorizing a book full of names and facts in AP English.</p>
<p>i don't know... i only have 3 more ap physics tests this semester... (which sucks). and my teacher is by far horrible; she even told me i probably wasn't going to get an a in the class. she refuses to give recovery for some tests; it was just one test that dropped my physics grade to a c. </p>
<p>and ap lit is not as bad as physics. good thing this year we're not reading beowolf haha... this year the school english department decided to have the bible, the art of fiction, and greek mythology instead. but those still dropped my grade too. :( but i still have a c. and i must improve.</p>
<p>Send me to your school with my YD club and we'll slap them silly! :)</p>
<p>Anyway, on my Beowulf test we had to memorize all the numbers (Herot was empty for 12 winters. Beowulf was king of Geatland for 50 winters. Grendel killed one man on the night Beowulf fought him, etc.) and bible references, like how the name Shild is connected to Moses being drawn from the river. (Yes, mine is a private school though, but not religiously affiliated.) All of that along with the information about the time period with Normanic tribes, all the viking gods, all the viking values, all of the qualities of epic heroes, and FINALLY all the qualities of epic stories. This was in college-prep English BTW. Was this similar to yours?</p>
<p>Just don't get worked up about it. If you started labor day (I wish I didn't go to school in Florida) you should still have about 7 weeks left in the quarter!</p>
<p>uhhh, i started aug 13th. not good. oh well, i'm hoping for at least an 83 for ap physics b b/c with honors points i will have an a haha... but i am still working my butt off, and hopefully by the end of december i will have a more satisfactory grade.</p>
<p>oh my, your school sounds intense... that's pretty hardcore. i'd say ap lit at my school is extremely hard in that we just had to cram in all the info about the biblical characters, how to make a tabernacle (exodus), all the greek gods, and all the literary ideas and examples david lodge mentioned in the art of fiction. and oh, did i mention that we also had to read all the king's men, annotate the entire book, and then have the most nitpicky quiz ever?</p>
<p>All the King's Men is one of my favorite novels ever. I would love to tear that book apart.</p>
<p>But yeah, our Beowulf test was similar to do that, but I opted not to study for it and that didn't turn out so well. We had to memorize names and facts about Beowulf as well as an Anglo-Saxan timeline. Thankfully, we had an in-class essay, but the objective test was murder. But thankfully now we're doing The Stranger/existentialism and Grendel/Zodiac signs, which should be a cinch. But Beowulf...ughhhh.</p>
<p>We had an essay too. We had to write a five paragraph essay about the viking values and what symbolizes each of them in the book. (We weren't given notes on the symbols!)</p>
<p>Hardcore? I guess that's why our school inflates our GPAs. (An A+ in college-prep is 4.66. An A is 4.33 and an A- is a 4.0, just to give some examples. Also, an A- in an AP class is a 6.0!)</p>