One bad semester!

<p>Hi! I'm a junior and this first semester has been awful. I have a 3.87 gpa non-weighted and cumulative. This year, im taking 3 ap classes and its been really rough. I got a 3.3 gpa this semester. How harmed am I for getting into a selective/good school? other things about me:</p>

<p>Here is my grades and classes for this semester
AP Language: B
College Algebra: B
AP Biology: B+ (.03 away from an A!)
Accounting: B-
Retail: A
Choir: A
AP Government: B+</p>

<p>-Highly involved in extra curriculars: 6+ and President/Founder for one, President for another, and Vice president for one.
-Haven't taken the ACT but my practice score is an 24. (I haven't done much/any prep yet: aiming for a 30)
-There are no class rank at my school and higher classes don't have more weight
-I come from a low-income african american family</p>

<p>I really know how to get a 4.0 now and will probably get one next semester. Another thing- because I am from a low-income family, I am going to be reliant on scholarships. I guess my question is, how this affect my future?</p>

<p>Im really worried, as you can tell. Please be honest.</p>

<p>You should take a look at <a href=“http://www.questbridge.org/”>http://www.questbridge.org/&lt;/a&gt; which is set up to help low-income & minority students with college. I believe they have counseling available to students in HS.</p>

<p>No one can really answer your question.
And there’s nothing to do except figure out why you got the grades you did and what you can do differently next semester. </p>

<p>I’m not sure this is an awful semester. You had a tough schedule, and you got B’s and above. Try not to be quite so hard on yourself.</p>

<p>Do you have access to a good guidance/college counselor at school? Make an appointment to talk with her or him. </p>

<p>This may sound elementary, and perhaps you have started this already… You’ll want to make a list of colleges that you think you are interested in. Take the SAT or ACT as soon as possible so at least you have a base line indication of where you fall. You can then try to improve it if necessary. Look at the admissions stats for the schools you are interested in. Two of the most important statistics are the middle 50% range (the range between the 25th percentile and 75th percentile) of the SAT/ACT scores of admitted students, and the same for their GPAs. Be honest about where your scores fit in there.</p>

<p>Divide your list into “Matches,” where your scores/grades fall roughly in, or very close to, that middle 50%; “Reaches” where your scores are not as high as that middle 50%; and then “safeties,” where your scores put you in the first or second quartile of those admitted.</p>

<p>Once you have done this, do your research on scholarships. Be very aware that there are 2 types of aid, need-based and merit-based. Generally speaking, need-based aid may result in incurring at least some debt (often a combination of work-study, loans and grants), whereas merit-based may be in the form of grants. You need to educate yourself on this and talk frankly with your family about it. Learn to read the Common Data Set for each school you are interested in, and that will tell you a lot about how they give aid and who tends to get it. If you have access to Naviance their scatter graphs will give you an indication of similar students who have been admitted/denied. Full ride merit scholarships tend to be pretty rare, and very, very competitive.</p>

<p>I know of several students with GPA stats similar to yours, and ACTs in the 27/28/29 range, who have received very generous merit aid from liberal arts colleges outside the northeast. These aren’t necessarily household names outside of their region, but you can get an outstanding education there. The more interest you can show in a school (by going to college fairs, visiting, etc.), the more likely that they will become interested in you. And the key to sleeping well at night once you have applied, is to apply to a range of the reaches/matches/safeties that you like, so you can be confident that you will have some choices. Best of luck in your search @semharmekonnen .</p>

<p>Financial aid is not entirely dependent upon your GPA, and certainly one semester of struggle is not unexpected in highschoolers. Learn how FA works before you get all bummed out about this little hitch. There are threads on CC for that purpose.</p>