VERY VERY Competitive High School...but grades...

Applying to College
1

Hey CC members,

So I live in the midwest, and I attend one of the MOST competitive schools in my state.

I’m very worried about my grades situation, however. By the way, I am currently a sophomore. I have good academic achievements (AIME (hopefully USAMO eventually), published science research paper, computer science awards, math awards, entrepreneurship/innovation awards, I own my own company), decent SAT score (2310), probably will have good recs and essays…but my grades are as follows.

9th Grade - 2 B’s in World History (B+'s), everything else A’s - 1 each semester
10th Grade - All A’s 1st semester, the second semester is still going on, but I bombed an essay…and I calculated my grade, which showed that the highest I could receive in the class (US History - my school doesn’t officially call any classes Honors/AP because it doesn’t like that system…but it’s practically the AP class…definitely same difficulty)…

Junior year is probably going to be very tough…but I hope I can get all A’s
Senior year should be all A’s

So just say, hypothetically, I get 4 B’s throughout high school…when I apply to college, which means that 7 semesters would have passed, my GPA would be 3.91…

I aspire to get into colleges like Stanford, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, UPenn, CalTech, and other colleges with great computer science programs. I very worried because I know that this GPA will have a bad impact on my chances…especially since the admissions officer look at the transcript first, and that sets the mood…

By the way, on the Common Application, is there any place to talk about how although I had bad grades in the beginning (seems like always in history classes…is that a bad thing for college…I feel like it is), I improved? Like an additional comments section?

TL;DR - very good school, 3.91 gpa, good sats, essays, recs, achievements…I’m worried abt bad gpa…chances at colleges?

2

I don’t see how 2 Bs in 9th grade will have the kind of impact you think it will.

3

When the HS sends your transcript they also send a school profile which will give colleges a very good indication of the type of school you are at, the different levels of classes available etc. This way your transcript will be reviewed in the proper context.

4

@happy1 umm so like the problem is that my teacher right now for that history class is just a proxy teacher, because my old teacher got fired…and this new teacher grades super hard and only like maybe 5 people have A’s out of all 3 of his classes…but the bad part is that there are 2 other us history teachers, and there are a lot of people with A’s in those classes (maybe 40%)…so colleges will not recognize that part… what do I do?

5

oh yeah and I’m probably gonna get a B in the us history class…maybe B+

6

Don’t worry, your HS naviance will show how competitive the school is and what would your gpa lends you to the level of schools. In the SF Bay Area, an average student(Ranking ~100) from the most competitive schools will get into some thing like UCLA or Berkeley, top students go to Harvard.

7

@artloversplus oh ok! But the problem is that my school does not release class rankings…

so in my class (selective school with about 200 kids in the class by senior year - starts off as 250 at the beginning of high school, but a lot drop out…usually 50 by the end of high school), out of 200 students, approximately 10 will get GPA’s of 3.95 or above, and then I’m guessing that another 20 will get 3.90-3.95…

I’m just super worried right now…and that teacher is just so detestable and unfair. For example, he assigned a grade, and I got an A-, so I wondered why an A- and not an A/100. He said that the highest grade he usually gives out is an A-…which is unfair, since it automatically lowers my grade and reduces my chances at an A…

8

I still can’t see how a 3.91 can be thought as a bad GPA.

9

As I told you, check your school naviance and you can tell who go into what at what gpa. Ranking or no ranking does not matter.

10

But in a highly competitive environment, especially when I’m looking to apply to such difficult schools, the fact that I might have 3-4 B’s is an immediate turn-off…especially based on the surprising decisions I’ve seen in the ED/RD threads from this year from schools like Stanford, MIT, etc…

For example, I’ve seen people with great sat’s (2370+), 4.0 gpa, great awards, supposedly good essays and recs, and STILL get rejected from all of these colleges…which is kinda scary

11

Because there are already dozens of 4.0ers and 2350+ scorers tossed in to the accepted pool.
Someone on CC had a 1750 on her SAT, but she got into Yale.

12

That GPA should be pretty good but still try to get all As. Also try to get involved with your community, do lots of extracurricular activities, and, overall, just be an interesting person. I think that no matter what happens you’ll definitely get into a great school. I believe that you have a pretty good chance at Carnegie Mellon and UPenn. Your chances at Stanford are decent. MIT and CalTech might be a bit more difficult. Regardless, try to take the hardest courses and standout. Don’t be like me and start thinking about college in the spring semester of Junior year. I breezed my way through Sophomore year and earned 2 C’s in my Junior year. Always study even if you hate the subject or hate the teacher.

13

@WiliyamMSL haha thanks! Although Stanford…haha it’s just like kinda random in its acceptances, don’t ya think? well not really random, but their decisions that we see on CC threads are just kinda surprising…

and for CMU and UPenn, I hope so!

MIT - haha well that’s a tough one for everyone

CalTech - from my school, I guess it’s kinda hard? but not too bad I think…I just need more science awards.

And just to give you all a general idea of the competitive nature of my school:

This year:

MIT - 6 acceptances
Yale - 4 acceptances
CalTech - 3-4 acceptances
Columbia - 2
UPenn - 2
CMU - idk haha no one talks about that…idk why it’s computer science program is VERY good
Stanford - 2 (mmm a lot of people were surprised that this one guy got in)…and the other one who got in is like an outlier cuz she’s just tooo good at literally everything…like everything…she got into MIT, Stanford, CalTech, a couple of ivies, perfect gpa, 2370 sat, a lot of leadership/board positions, USAMO, etc…

14

I guess all I can do is stop worrying and instead try to do things…like make myself more interesting on paper, get things like Intel and USAMO, improve SAT, and just keep on trying…there’s nothing I can do to reverse those grades…any other advice?

15

What everyone else said.

Adding this: Stanford doesn’t even look at 9th grade grades.

16

@thanksagain really?! woah that’s awesome! But haha stanford is stanford…but yeah I’ll definitely try very hard.

17

First: 3.9 isn’t a bad GPA at ALL. Second: a few B’s in 9th grade and even a B or so now is not going to break the bank. Colleges will see the competition of your high school and understand that it is rigorous.