Senior Year Grades?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of Chicago ✅
1

<p>I've had a 3.89ish unweighted GPA up until this year. I don't know where my senior year grades puts my GPA right now, but AP Calculus is killing me. I'm worried that my bad Calc grade will definitely get me rejected (RD obviously).</p>

<p>Will these grades hurt my chances of admissions?</p>

<p>First quarter:</p>

<p>AP English Literature/Comp: A+
AP US Gov't: A+
AP Italian: A+
AP Biology: A-
String Orchestra: A+
AP Calculus: C+</p>

<p>Predicted for second quarter:</p>

<p>AP English Lit/Comp: A+
AP US Gov't: A/A+
AP Italian: A+
AP Biology: B
AP Calculus: C/B-</p>

<p>(sorry beefs if this resembles your post..it just reminded me of my own worries)</p>

2

<p>Gonna agree that my grades suck second quarter too. B B C C >_>;;; imma prolly get rejected for it.</p>

3

<p>A few Bs and Cs are the last thing on an adcom's mind while evaluating an applicant. Admissions decisions never hinge on just a few average grades.</p>

4

<p>^^ You're probably right, but I think that the applicant pool has gotten competitive enough that the admissions office is going to see a lot of students who performed solidly through senior year, and certainly that solid performance is preferable to the slump.</p>

<p>Polly, I don't know enough about your high school and its grade inflation/ non-inflation to know if a) your courseload was challenging, and b) you were working hard in your classes, including Calc. The adcoms have enough information about you to guesstimate the answer.</p>

5

<p>I'm curious -- does anyone know if senior-year grades are very influential in the University's scholarship candidate selection process?</p>

6

<p>Polly,
I don't think its disastrous, but, like unalove, I am a little concerned with the numbers of applicants this year, and how that will affect the RD pool. We can only even guess based on historical data, and the parameters has changed this year.</p>

<p>My guess is that Chicago is going to plan on going to its waitlist this year. If that is the case, it is in all serious applicants' best interest to avoid senoritis like the plague.</p>

<p>Also - please note that beefs' situation is different - as an admitted student, he needs to do well, but he doesn't need all A's to avoid being rescinded.</p>

7

<p>Believe me, I don't have senioritis. I just made the mistake of taking AP Calculus when I'm not a math person at all. My high school is extremely competitive and the courses certainly are challenging. I worked for those 98's and 99's.</p>

<p>Thanks for the advice. Maybe I should just drop to a lower level Calc class before the quarter ends...</p>

8

<p>I always got the impression that Chicago didn't care that much about grades and test scores. Obviously, they're important, but they seem to value ECs and essays a lot more. Thus, I would imagine that if your essays were good, you shouldn't have much of a problem.</p>

9

<p>Polly,</p>

<p>"Maybe I should just drop to a lower level Calc class before the quarter ends..."</p>

<p>Only do so if you feel it would be better for you. You don't have to have AP Everything or all A's. Is your class rank still ok?</p>

10

<p>atomic -
while it is certainly possible to be admitted to Chicago with a less than impressive GPA, the admissions committe considers your transcript (the rigor of your courseload and how well you did in them) to be very important. After all, Chicago is a tough school academically, and they want to have some clue that you are (or could be) a good student. You may want to look at Libby's admissions blog on this. </p>

<p>Polly's unweighted GPA is going to be very good, even with the evil AP Calc grade - I don't think its that much a negative - but neither is it a positive. If she can drag it up to a B without exhausting herself completely that would be excellent.</p>