Greetings, I’m currently a rising junior who attends high school in Ontario, Canada. Just yesterday I received my report card for Grade 10. Will my not so great marks earned in Grades 9 and 10 disqualify me from admissions to Johns Hopkins, Cornell, and UPenn for engineering, granted I earn stellar marks in years 11 and 12 and get a great SAT score? Basically Im just asking if the marks below will get my application thrown out the window.
(For the past 2 years I have been messing around quite a lot and not taking school seriously, I know that with effort, I can attain a 97%+ average and an SAT score above 1550, I really hope these poor marks below don’t completely ruin my chances.)
Grade 9:
English - 90
Math - 94
Science - 96
Art - 81
Geography - 82
Gym - 92
French - 83
Business - 81
Grade 10:
English - 84
Math - 87
Science - 91
History - 96
Gr11 Computer Science - 94
Business - 85
Civics - 94
Careers - 85
French - 89
In conclusion, am I f***cked for the above schools mentioned?
That 10th grade math and science grades will be red flags. The three schools are very competitive even for applicants with perfect stats. Work hard but have a realistic list of match and safety schools.
But if I get, say a 97% in all my more advanced courses wouldnt they be willing to overlook it since I would have proved mathematical aptitude?
Like those marks came down to getting anxiety and a lack of sleep on exam day (30% of the grade), nothing more.
Would scoring highly on the SAT II Math and Self Studying for and getting a 5 on AP Calc BC help? Like If i can get great marks with more advanced concepts, I dont think they should care that I did poorly in grade 10 science, especially since the course consisted of essentially art projects and silly stuff.
These schools require far more than academics; they reject people with perfect academics all the time. You can still shoot for top schools like these, but generally people with academics that are low would need to explain them (anxiety is not a good reason; it makes it seem you would be unqualified for academics at these top schools). For these top schools, people who make all A’s their whole life struggle to pass, and the classes are significantly harder than in high school.
Even with perfect academics, your odds wouldn’t be any better than the admission rates of about 15%.
I mean, these schools arent THAT prestigious at all for engineering, my local school is ranked higher than 2/3 of them for engineering according to usnews, the thing is I want to go to an american school as I wish to work in the states later on, so I thought that having an American degree will help with that. I would attend a great engineering state school, but they are very expensive for out of state residents, let alone international students.
Im not asking for my chances at MIT, Stanford, or Caltech. this is UPenn and JHU Engineering im talking about
UPenn, JHU and Cornell are still very competitive schools! Are you planning on applying Early Decision? JHU is very open that they admit a huge percentage of their class in binding early decision. Cornell also accepts a high percentage of their ED applicants. Also, it’s a big assumption that you will have a 4.0 and 1550+ SAT score. And even if you did, your first two years of grades don’t just disappear.
Please try not to put so much pressure on yourself! Engineering is one of the best degrees and as long as you go to a good school you have great odds of graduating and getting a great paying job. I’m on this site as a parent but please trust I know as I’m an engineer and hire tons of engineers, often from our state college (once out of college, esp. for tech jobs, the college you graduate from is honestly not that important). Based on your grades you clearly excel in Math and Science (and hopefully enjoy it too), but if you already have anxiety it’s only going to increase if you expect perfection from yourself and then go to a school that’s very tough to get into. Just do your best and then when the time comes, you can reevaluate the best colleges to apply to.