<p>hey guys, I was wondering how a transcript with about half the grades as A- looks to colleges?
Especially considering that I'm an Asian?</p>
<p>Like if I had six final grades at the end of each year, 3 are A-, 2 are A, and 1 A+ or something similar to that, how do the top schools like Harvard and Penn perceive this?
I know I'm sounding obnoxious, but I really worry with all these hooked Straight A+ applicants. And if I only had like one A- it wouldn't be as bad, but I have like half of my grades as such.
Any thoughts?</p>
<p>I think that your final GPA would probably matter more. I mean like, if you have a 4.0 with like five A-s you'll look better then the person with half A+s a quarter A's and a quarter C's with the same GPA. Wow, I sound confusing, sorry. But yeah, I think it's GPA that matters the most.</p>
<p>As of the current GPA system my school uses, A-, A, A+ are all the same 4.0 value so I'd have a 4.
But it's likely going to change by my senior year because of some controversey in the city, so my GPA could be anywhere from 3.5-4 :(</p>
<p>You're correct: this does sound obnoxious. Reminds me of the person who wanted to retake his/her ACT 36 because the essay score wasn't the greatest (7).</p>
<p>Your minuses are neither going to get you in or out of schools to which you'll apply. Congrats on a great academic achievement but there's no reason to bring this up again -- it's not worry-worthy whatsoever. Best of luck to you.</p>
<p>One thing for sure, is don't fret about things you can't change. If you already have A-'s, or B's, or C's, or anything else, there's isn't anything to do about it anyway. You can do your best to get the best grades you can, but beyond that it's water under the bridge.</p>
<p>If you're looking at the supermost selective schools, you need to have back up schools on your list anyway, since loads of seemingly "perfect" students won't get into those supermost selective schools regardless of their high achievment. So since you will be applying to some good match and safety schools in addition to your reachiest reach schools, you needn't worry overmuch about things you can't go back and change.</p>
<p>I had a more serious academic question. How much would getting straight B's my second semester junior year( with an otherwise straight A academic record) affect my chances of admission at Columbia and Georgetown? I have a medical excuse as well as reasonably okay EC's but from an academic perspective, does this completely ruin/diminish GREATLY my chances? People say that EC's count for a lot- but I think that factors in AFTER you look at the super amazing, perfect GPA students so with straight B's this semester, am I pretty much ruined, even after I've worked so hard?</p>
<p>My son had a few Bs mixed in with mostly high As. Our HS uses numerical grades so schools saw the 89. I think he had an 80 all year in AP Lit. Our HS report cards and transcript show UNWEIGHTED grades, although WEIGHTED grades are used in calculating class rank and weighted GPA (his was 99.something). Colleges will look at the transcript and recalculate your GPA anyway to an unweighted one... the few Bs didn't hurt my son. He was accepted to Yale, Duke and Brown among other good schools.</p>