Rough Freshman Year

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

I will get right to the point in this thread. I am currently a Freshman, and will be going into Sophomore year at September this year. I am really concerned about my grades, and my chances at selective colleges right now.

Grades:
Semester 1: (Unweighted)
Global Honors - 98
English Honors - 90
Living Environment Honors - 98
Spanish 2 - 88
Geometry - 85
Computer Science - 88
Junior Reserved Officer’s Training Corps - 95

Semester 2: (Unweighted)
Global Honors - 98
English Honors - 94
Living Environment Honors - 98
Spanish 2 - 88
Geometry - 76
Computer Science - 83
Junior Reserved Officer’s Training Corps - 93

As you can see, my grades are not stellar. There were some personal issues regarding my grandpa being diagnosed with cancer that played a big role for these grades I am getting. (I really hope that admissions officers would understand.) Anyways, I just wanted to know if I still have a chance of getting into a top selective college.

I was thinking of majoring in business/finance. Will these grades dramatically shoot down my chances into getting into the top schools of finance. I was considering Northwestern, Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Booth School of Business of the University of Chicago, New York University Stern School of Business, etc.

(P.S My high school is pretty competitive, however, the school ranking gets dragged down due to it being a public school. Anyways it is ranked the top 90th school in my city.)

Thanks for any help or advice you guys may give! And please do give me a lot of candid advice about what I should do.

2

You have plenty of time to get your grades up. Many schools want to see upward trend in grades. Work hard and don’t worry about something you can’t go back and change.

3

That said, long shot programs are reaches for everyone, even students with stellar GPAs and test scores. They get far more qualified applicants than they have spaces for. Being qualified means you have a shot, but it is still more likely that you will be denied than that you will be admitted. Make sure you round out your list with less selective options.

4

Thank you for the advice! However, is there still anything else you can tell me about my current grades? I fear that these low freshman grades will pull down my overall GPA, and mess up with my class rank.