<p>Well, it's the week before finals, but I can already say with 95% certainty that my midyear grades are going to SUCK. </p>
<p>I took 7 AP's this year and couldn't handle them. I know some CC'ers can, but I'm apparently not one of them, haha. I was in over my head and I'm probably going to end up with 3 A's, 3 B's and 1 C (in AP Calc AB). </p>
<p>My stats before this /disastrous/ senior year were a 3.9 UW/4.71W GPA and a 800/800/720 SAT. I didn't succumb to senioritis or anything, I just stupidly underestimated the rigor of the classes that I signed up for since I've taken the hardest courseload all through HS and survived relatively unscathed. If I could do it over again, I would've switched out AP Compsci for Psych and AP Physics for Envisci (most of my EC's revolve around ecology/bio anyway). Too late for that now :(</p>
<p>How screwed am I? I'm going to be realistic about my chances here at top schools, but would I still be able to get into schools like BC, UVA, and Cal? And if all else fails, OOS flagships like the University of Washington? </p>
<p>Thanks so much! I'm kind of sad about the whole deal...but there's not a lot that I can do now.</p>
<p>First off, 7 APs is just insane, I’m not sure who let you get away with that, but they never should have signed off on it. Parents, GC, and you are all to at least partly blame for that one.</p>
<p>Second, it’s not that big a disaster. Your GPA is not going to move very much, there’s only one C, and you’ll certainly get points for rigor. All in all, I wouldn’t worry too much if you manage to pull off the grades you think you will. It’s going to be around a 3.5, which isn’t horrible - you should survive with roughly the same chances.</p>
<p>Public schools tend to be more GPA sensitive, so I can’t speak to that. But, at schools like BC I agree with NrMom62 that your chances will likely be unaffected by taking such a rigorous load and winding up with about a 3.5.</p>
<p>Thanks for your responses! I’ve done well in high school up until this point and my GC’s fears about my course rigor were always unfounded, so she basically gave me free reign to pick my schedule this year. She’s an awesome lady but pretty busy, so I decided to get a second opinion on my schedule by going to see an “independent college counselor”, who was the one that suggested I take 2 more AP’s than I was originally planning on. :/</p>
<p>My GPA will likely drop to a low 3.8 or high 3.7, so I’m hoping that they don’t recalculate GPA’s. And hopefully they’ll be too busy to look at midyear reports, although I doubt it, lol. Do you guys think I’ll still have a chance at getting into Wash U if I visit the school/demonstrate additional interest? </p>
<p>I’m not sure how you drop down to the 3.8 range with your grades unless you were already below a 3.9. According to my back of the envelope calculations, you would have had to be at 3.85 after your junior year. Not bad, but dropping below 3.8 didn’t do yourself any favors.</p>
<p>The independent college counselor should be shot. Or at the very least, warn people off him/her. That was terrible advice, and would have impressed no college. It was just a recipe for failure.</p>
<p>WashU loves demonstrated interest, definitely do that. They love high test scores even more, so if you have that, you’ve still got a shot.</p>
<p>Parents, GC, and myself all signed off on me taking 8 AP’s this year (7 classes at once, 8 tests due to Macro/Micro each being one semester at my school). I don’t blame anyone else, just a lot of personal issues conflicting with my schoolwork (maternal grandmother moved in with us due to returning cancer; paternal grandmother had a stroke putting her in the hospital; worked for 20 hours a week until November; etc). I’ve been doing fine, but I’m in the same (albeit softer, plushier) life raft as the OP. I’ll probably be getting 4-7 A’s or 0-3 B’s (depending on my semester grades). </p>
<p>Anyway, to the OP: What I’ve seen here on CC is that A’s->B’s aren’t too red-flag to adcom’s, but A’s->C’s are. If there’s anything you can do to bring up the AP Calc grade, do it. Since you said there’s a 5% chance your mid-years won’t suck, try to do whatever you can to bring them up. In AP Calc, ask for extra credit by possibly doing some out of class project; in the classes where you have the most potential to bring up to an A, offer to write a few papers for extra credit. Try to tell the teachers about your situation if you think it’ll help–no teacher wants to be the reason their student didn’t get into Harvard.</p>
<p>Right, the C is what I’m mainly worried about. That and the fact that my A’s will all be in the humanities/social sciences. I’m also doing science research and track and I’ll be getting A’s in those too, but I don’t know how colleges look at that. The 5% chance is if my calc teacher magically loses my makeup test, lol. Otherwise I’m pretty much stuck with the grade, since he doesn’t curve/round/do extra credit. He once (proudly) informed us of how he’s gotten several kids who got into Ivies the past couple years put on academic probation before due to his class, so I’m afraid I won’t get much sympathy there. Anyway, I hope you manage to pull off straight A’s this semester! </p>
<p>And yeah, MrMom, I’m pretty bummed that I took his advice. I would’ve dropped the extra classes, but they didn’t really kick into high gear until AFTER the deadline. </p>
<p>Hooray, I’ll try to arrange a visit then! I’ve already gone to an information session and signed up for their mailing list over the summer, so hopefully visiting will further prove that I genuinely want to go. WUSTL wasn’t originally my first choice, but I’ve done some research on it and it seems like a great school I could see myself attending. For now, I’m going to push the tippy-top schools out of my head and assume the worst (but hoping for the best!)</p>
<p>Considering colleges generally aren’t impressed by more than 6-8 APs, and 10 at most, if you want to push it, taking 7-8 in one year is just plain a waste of time and effort.</p>
<p>@MrMom: I couldn’t dual enroll at the CC due to work/scheduling conflicts, and (until late November) I thought I was only applying to UMD, my state school. If I went to UMD, I’d go in as a sophomore second semester (45-60 credits, provided 4s and 5s this year). I wound up applying to ~20+ schools, and the majority won’t take many credits. Still, I love learning. I’ve taken every social studies AP offered by the CollegeBoard. It’s given me an excellent foundation of learning, and allowed me to start research I can further in college. If someone takes all of their classes or does all of activities for college admissions, then they’re trying a bit too hard; I took my classes and participate in my activities because they interest me, not because I was resume building :)</p>
<p>As for BC, they do holistic review of your application, so you are more than your GPA. I hope you spent time on your essay as they recently added the writing supplement and do care about that. When you say, Cal, do you mean Berkeley? For Berkeley, it’s mostly a numbers game. Ultra high grades and test scores, which you seemed to have up until this mid-year report. It still does not look bad, even with the C. I mean, look at the freaking course load, which says a lot about you. (Although I do agree one thing it says is no one should have let you do this your senior year. AP classes don’t change the number of units you need to graduate from college. They only let you waive some lower division courses if your test scores are high enough.) Regarding UVA, I don’t know enough about that institution to comment. Good luck and try to enjoy your last semester of high school.</p>
<p>Thanks so much again, everyone. I feel a lot better about this situation. Although I don’t think I’ll be able to raise my Calc grade up to a B, I’ll definitely see what I can do about bringing those other B’s up to A’s. I did spend quite some time on all my essays, so hopefully those along with my recommendations will shine through on my applications. </p>
<p>Sorry for asking so many questions, but have schools like Brown or Northwestern taken in applicants without their midyears? I’ve heard that there was no checklist requirement for the midyear online (as opposed to the supplement, transcripts, etc) although this could be outdated/incorrect information. I’m just wondering with really selective schools such as these, if it would be a better idea to send in my midyear or to not send it since my chances were slim to begin with. </p>
<p>Thanks again, and I’ll try to have a nice and relaxing second semester :)</p>
<p>I hope high school juniors are reading this – do NOT take more than 4+ AP courses your senior year!!! Colleges are no more likely to admit a student with a total of 8 APs in their high school career than 15. And in fact, it could backfire. Senior year is already stressful enough and completing college applications is very time-consuming. On top of that, the colleges are far more interested in your achievement in these classes than the quantity.</p>
<p>My daughter REALLY tanked her senior year, in fact, she nearly didn’t graduate. Then tanker her first semester of college and withdrew. It has taken her some time, but she isnbuilding her way back up. Be real in your college applications. Explain to the extent that you can why you screwed up. Some schools will look at your stats and turn away. Those who truly do “wholistic” apps will get to know you and evaluate on your bigger picture rather than as a number.Good luck!</p>
<p>UCs do not use senior year grades in the admission process for typical high school senior applicants, but admission letters typically have conditions like completing your listed senior year course work with a minimum GPA (typically 3.0, though campuses might vary as to whether that is unweighted or weighted for honors/AP courses as listed at <a href=“http://doorways.ucop.edu%5B/url%5D”>http://doorways.ucop.edu</a> ) and no D or F grades.</p>
He once (proudly) informed us of how he’s gotten several kids who got into Ivies the past couple years put on academic probation before due to his class, so I’m afraid I won’t get much sympathy there. Anyway, I hope you manage to pull off straight A’s this semester! </p>
Good luck and try to enjoy your last semester of high school.</p>