I am currently a junior in high school. Before you begin to criticize me for being simple-minded enough to contemplate dropping a class over a mere B, please listen.
I CAN NOT afford any more detriments to my un-weighted GPA. Although my class rank is rapidly improving, my unweighted gpa is abysmal because of my freshman year.
See here :
Freshman Year - 3.0 uw, Ranked 263/819. No class higher than an 83. I have no excuse for this; I simply did not care at all about college at this point in my life and was not prepared for high school.
Sophomore Year - 3.75 uw. Ranked 120/819 (No class lower than a 97+, except for Chemistry in which I got a B
Junior Year Current - 4.0 uw ( End of First Semester ). Ranked 102/819. Very confident I will make top 10% because I am performing excellently in MOST of my classes.
Cumulatively, my uw GPA is a 3.5. If I can get all A’s this semester it will go up to at least a 3.7 and probably a 3.80 by ED application time ( my school updates rank/gpa by every quarter, right on time for ED).
However if I get a B in Physics my GPA probably won’t even break 3.7 and MIGHT get up to 3.73 by ED time. ( most likely under 3.7 )
I’m interested in applying to either Northwestern or Emory ED. As an asian, I know the difference between a low 3.7 and a mid 3.8 can be critical for these highly selective schools. (Looking at the results thread for NU, many 3.8’s seemed to have lucked in, while very few sub 3.8 GPA’s got accepted, especially asians. 3.8 is the mere average for applicants to Emory. Asian + below average GPA = disaster )
I honestly HATE Physics with a passion and I am ALWAYS confused during class. I got a 68 on my first exam ( the curve brought it up to an 86 ) but honestly I’m amazed I even got a 86 because I have no clue wtf is going on. I have NEVER gotten an A in a science class even though I excel in the humanities and mathematics ( 97+). During college, I definitely plan to avoid science classes and I DEFINITELY won’t major in anything science related. ( Probably going to major in lib arts + math ). I don’t think I’ll be able to maintain an 86 because it only gets harder.
I took AP Physics because I thought it would be easy because I do excellent in math classes, however I guess I’m not nearly as smart as I thought I was.
I understand that an 86 might not seem very bad ( it isn’t ) but I feel like I need to show that I am capable of bringing my GPA to at least a 3.7 because of my poor performance freshman year.
Honestly if I drop the class and just take regular physics, my life will get MUCH easier. I will still juggling 3 AP courses and Honors Precalculus. (APUSH, AP Lang, AP Psych)
TLDR; Did horrible freshman year, bringing down my uw gpa to a 3.5, need to get it to a 3.8 by Early Decision time (the average GPA for Emory, and just enough to maybe get into NU). Getting a B in AP Physics can keep me away from this threshold. Currently taking 4 AP classes, doing excellent in all of them except AP Physics 1 ( have an 86). I won’t be taking an AP science senior year. Will colleges look down on me for dropping AP Physics 1 ( a class I absolutely abhor )? Or should I just drop it for the sake of the uw gpa? BTW I won’t major in anything even remotely related to science.
I also have the option to just take regular physics this year and then AP Physics senior year. Also im only three weeks in.