<p>Alright, so I dont know my exact GPA (UW or W) cause my school is stupid and wont release it too use... however, I do have a question... When I got my transcript (with GPA sharpied out) I realized I made a 79 for the second semester of Algebra II with soph year... will this hurt my chances.. it is on 1 C, but im still worried about it... </p>
<p>We had a god aweful teacher, our math department SUCKS, except the College Algebra/Calculus Teacher... all the good ones keep getting better jobs</p>
<p>I think that in light of so many applicants with “unblemished” academic records, your C would put you at a slight disadvantage. But 1 C would not mean that you definitely won’t be accepted, but it does mean that you have to show your worth in other areas of your app.</p>
<p>Remember you are judged as an entire individual, not as a couple of numbers. So focus on the parts of the application that you can control, such as essays, teacher/counselor recs, ECs, SAT (if you haven’t taken it already) etc., and forget about the parts you have no control over. This Algebra II grade is set in stone. Unless you can change your record, stop stressing over it.</p>
<p>If you have gotten an A in every other math course (I’m assuming honors and then A.P.'s) then Columbia will see your algebra II year as an outlier and won’t factor it in that much. You could also get your counselor to make a mention of it. However, if you haven’t taken the highest level math courses/gotten all A’s in math courses, then it WILL factor in.</p>
<p>I took a college Algebra course this year, and i think with my final today i pulled out with a 91, so this year i have, freshman year i got an A in Geometry, so i have Calc AB next year, is there anything else i could do to show that im not awful in math? online course maybe? Im not really familiar with college stuff like that, my school has awful counselors and actually discourage people like me from trying to go to more competitive schools… its a load of BS</p>
<p>Does it matter also that i wont be going into a math based major… like at all</p>
<p>"Does it matter also that i wont be going into a math based major… like at all "</p>
<p>Are you going into a science-based, engineering-based, or financial-based major? If yes, then math is just as important.</p>
<p>“my school has awful counselors and actually discourage people like me from trying to go to more competitive schools”</p>
<p>It’s your freshman year, maybe you should consider switching</p>
<p>on my major- no, none of those</p>
<p>and im going into my senior year…</p>
<p>There are things that over which you have no influence, such as the strength of your HS. I, for example, come from a Canadian school whose counselors have almost never written a letter of rec for an American college. No APs are offered, barely anyone has heard of the Ivy League, and my list of complaints can go on.</p>
<p>But instead you should focus on the positive. In fact this positivity of character is highly desirable in admissions. The adcom should perceive that your school is, as you said, “stupid” from reports and rankings. And if they see also that you, despite of the harshness of environment, are able to stay enthusiastic and achieve great things, then they are likely to accept you. But if they see a pathetic loser whining about the inadequacies of his HS, then I don’t think Columbia deserves you.</p>
<p>This is totally unrelated, but is there any reason that you chose to use the name of a man who inadvertently facilitated Greece’s fall from power as your pseudonym (Epaminodas)?</p>
<p>yes, in fact I did choose the name of the famous Theban general who–despite claiming to be liberating Greece from the oppression of Sparta, Persia, and Athens–did more to speed up the decline of the poleis.</p>
<p>However I admire his battle tactics (cf. Battle of Leuctra, oblique line).</p>