<p>My GPA as a Junior right now is a 3.78. I was just wondering if I could possibly raise my GPA to above 4.0 by the end of Senior year. My brother was in the range, and I am TIRED of being compared to him. I also want to challenge myself. I am taking 4 APs next year (Chem, Physics NM, Comp Gov, and Calc AB). </p>
<p>Also, do colleges ever look at senior grades?</p>
<p>My mom is also making me try out for this solo concerto competition, where I could get a solo in my orchestra. She fantasizes about, saying stuff like "Oh you'll need to get in shape for your gown." And yes, I am half asian, and I'm used to stuff like this, even though I've been told worse. I do want to aim for that, and make her happy, and feel proud of myself, but I've been waking up at 5 every morning to practice. My FIRST PRIORITY right now is my grades and SATs (1740, a little on the low side for me), but I am having a hard time with that.</p>
<p>Any advice for getting the grades up while trying to balance my life would be great, since THAT is my main priority, and I want to make everyone including myself happy.</p>
<p>I think you could easily raise your weighted GPA over 4.0 with those classes by the end of this year. If you get straight A’s, your UW will just fall closer to 4.0, but it won’t reach it unless you got straight A’s your entire 4 years. </p>
<p>And yes, colleges do look at senior grades. They usually have you send in a mid-term report and a final transcript. There have been people who get their acceptances turned into a rejections by messing up their senior year.</p>
<p>My first reaction at your post is that I would cease the practice to focus time & energy on SAT prep — at this point, that’s the most fragile part of your package. Not some instrumental performance.</p>
<p>I understand the Asian parent thing but you’ve got to push back, to be frank.</p>
<p>But how do I tell her without hurting any feelings? I’ve already gone through this before with her, and she seems to get offended at everylittle thing I say.</p>
<p>It’s your future–you need to do what is best for you. If you don’t want to do the competition, then don’t. Of course the stress of not doing it could cause other things to suffer, but that’s not something we can help you with here.</p>
<p>In terms of what you need to do, it depends on where you want to go. I agree that the weak link looks to be your SAT score, but depending on where you want to go, that might not be a problem.</p>
<p>I too wish I could have graduated high school with a 4.0 or above, but I intentionally did something else that did not allow me to do that. I took classes at the local college (which were unweighted while AP classes were weighted–go figure) so I blew my change at graduating with above a 4.0 and graduated with a measly 3.92 instead. The trade-off? I got a year of college education fully paid for by the state. The Take home message? You have to really consider whether that achievement of the 4.0 is really worth whatever else you might be giving up.</p>
<p>(And for the record, I played a senior concerto on violin–it was AMAZING and I had a lot of fun doing it. but once again, for ME that was the right decision and it was something that I knew I’d never get to do again with a full orchestra accompaniment. There are plenty of other people who couldn’t have cared less–and didn’t play a senior solo.)</p>
<p>“But how do I tell her without hurting any feelings?”</p>
<p>Do you know what colleges you’re thinking about? Look at their entering freshmen profile and copy all the test scores/GPA range to a spreadsheet. Show it to your mom. Look, ma, in order for me to be competitive, I need to have X on SAT and Y on GPA. And I need all the time I can to devote to it, instead of practicing for the concerto competition. </p>