<p>Hi everyone, I'm new to this website and I need some advice. Last year, my junior year, I did horrible grade-wise. When I say horrible, I mean I went from an A/B student (sophomore/freshman year) to a flat out C average student. I was lazy, I didn't understand a lot of my work and to top it off, I was hard on myself. I let everything get to me. I suppose it was an insecurity. Anyway...although my grades were horrid, I was in honors classes and 1 AP course. I was told that they were weighted by the counselors and teachers in my school, but I'm not sure. If they are, can they save my GPA? Another thing is that I'm taking 3 AP courses for senior year and I am stocking up on my science for college (AP physics/AP English Lit/AP Calc). I need some advice on how to pull straight A's. I've never had straight A's. I was close a few times but never had it. Help? :)</p>
<p>Rockieprincess,</p>
<p>First, welcome to CC.</p>
<p>Second, the short answer to your concern is that, yes, the C average junior year will hurt in the sense that you won’t be competitive for the top tier colleges most frequently talked about here on CC. But you will still be able to find a good college that you will be happy to go to if you are honest with yourself and look at appropriate colleges that admit students with your stats. You should start by talking with your guidance councilor about in-state public college options. Most non-flagship public schools admit a lot of students with stats that are likely to be similar to yours. So start by looking at your in-state college system. What state are you in? See if there’s an state forum for your state.</p>
<p>Third, strongly resist the urge to compare yourself to the many, super-duper students who post on CC. Many of those top-notch students who call their 2000+ SATs, 30–32 ACTs, and/or their 3.5 GPA “horrible” are trying, sometimes desperately, to get into the top dozen or so schools in the country—and those are the schools with notoriously low acceptance rates. The non-flagship state U’s which you should be looking at typically admit by numbers and usually have very high admissions rates, at least for the students who meet their stated admissions criteria.</p>
<p>The elite colleges generally consider unweighted GPA when evaluating an applicant. In your case, even if you took weighted classes, weighted GPA won’t help you significantly, if at all.</p>
<p>Well here’s the bigger problem, I am trying not to stay in-state. I moved to CT 3 years ago and I absolutely hate it here. Besides that I’d like to have distance. My top school is University of Miami. Plus during maybe I’d say April of 2010, I checked my GPA because the GPA’s kinda leaked out to the junior class. My GPA (after the year of C’s) was a 3.25 and my rank was 29 out of like 169 (kinda bad, I know)…I suppose I was at a 3.5 before junior year? So do you think it’s down to a 3.0? If so, can I at least get it to a 3.4 when I graduate?</p>
<p>Well, it always depends. University of Miami is a good school. Mention your situation in essays and such. They may defer you until later, so that they can check your senior year grades. This could work to your advantage if you really work hard senior year.</p>
<p>That is definitely true. Thanks.</p>
<p>I have to disagree with focusing on a potential negative on an essay. The essay isn’t meant to be a literary masterpiece. It is strictly to show, not tell, the adcom who you are, how you think, what makes you tick. You could write your essay about skittles if it reflected something about you that was uniquely ‘you’. That’s an extreme example and hard to pull off, but the point is, write something that let’s them see who you are. I’m sure there is more than one essay. In one of the short essays if you want to try to address the grades be careful you are not making excuses.</p>
<p>To find out your current GPA contact your GC and ask for a copy of your transcript. Also ask for the numerical value assigned to each grade. You can then calculate an anticipated GPA for your Sr year.</p>
<p>Alright, and I’m not worried about my essay as of yet. I need to get past SATS first, lol.</p>