Need Mid Term Report Advice

Transfer Students
1

<p>Hi all,</p>

<p>So recently I started to collect professor signatures with grades for all my classes and I've run into a potential problem; it appears that I might end up with a couple B's, a couple B+'s, and an A on my mid term report. I realize these aren't bad grades at all but I find it worrying because I've gotten 5 A+'s, 10 A's, and 2 A-'s in college thus far and I'm worried that the schools I'm applying to (likes of Stanford, Columbia, Cornell, etc) might see this as a red flag given the relative shift. Furthermore, the grades my teachers have assigned are very inaccurate and off a very small sample size and I fully expect to maintain the pace I've set thus far in college so I was wondering if it would be appropriate to attach a letter to each report explaining my circumstances, as detailed below, so that my colleges don't take this 'worthless' document out of context? Thanks!</p>

<p>To whom it may concern:</p>

<p>(Brief intro explaining who I am, etc.) Attached is my mid-term report for the spring 2014 semester. The grades reflected in this report are based on a small sample size (~<20% of total course grade) as my school's spring semester starts late and most assignments and major grades are back loaded towards the end of the semester. Furthermore, these grades reflect only raw scores and lack any curve, which is usually heavy in these particular classes. As demonstrated in my previous coursework, I have a record of success in my classes and I fully expect to maintain it through the completion of my spring semester,</p>

<p>Sincerely,
Me</p>

2

<p>The list of schools I am applying to is very similar to yours (Stanford, Cornell, Brown, H & Y, etc.) and I had a similar problem with my mid-term report as well. In my case, I have 5 As or A+s but no grade (since I missed the test date) in one class and a low C or so (this class allows one test drop, so I decided to use the time to make my Common App essays better rather than studying for it).
I had to ask around to different college admissions offices to figure out the best course of plan. This is what seems like the solution to your case as well.

  1. Stanford and Columbia do not care to see your mid-term report at all. I asked specifically if they “recommend, but not require” the report, but they said that is not even the case. So I wouldn’t worry about these two.
  2. Mid-term report is meant to be sent when you have proper grades reflecting your mid-semester performance. It is called Mid-term because they want to see your performance after 50% of the semester, not 20% like in your case. You can wait until you truly have the mid-term grades and then get all the necessary information to send it in. I got the impression that they do not care even if you send the final mid-term report as late as early April from the adcoms I spoke with.
  3. So, in my case, I sent in the mid-term report with 5 As and A+s to the schools that require it (Cornell, Harvard, Yale, etc.). I also sent in a memo saying that I will send in the mid-term report for the other 2 classes once I have the grades for them to complete the requirement. There hasn’t been a school saying that is not allowed, so I think you can do the similar.</p>

<p>I wish you the best of luck with your transfer admission process, and I hope you do the same for me :slight_smile:
Ryan</p>

3

<p>Thanks Ryan, that definitely helped a lot! I guess the form and its’ requirements varies a lot from my place to place but that definitely clears things up! I fully sympathize on the grades aspect of things; I definitely know that transfer applications has definitely eaten up some of my actual schoolwork time.</p>

<p>I appreciate it and I wish the best of luck to you to!</p>