<p>Okay so I have a 3.6 unweighted BUT with 3 Ds I got in freshman/early soph year that I retook online and got As in those courses that replaced the Ds in my gpa (although the Ds didn't affect my gpa, colleges can see them on my transcript). I got the Ds those years because I was very sick and missed weeks of school (though I doubt they will care about that, I will mention it on my app). I got straight A's after the 2nd half of sophomore year & most rigorous courseload.</p>
<p>I have pretty good SATS (2100)/& good extra curriculars, but I'm hoping the Ds won't set me back enough to be rejected everywhere... =(</p>
<p>the schools I'm looking at (just a big list, it will definitely get WAY smaller!)</p>
<p>Barnard College (applying early decision).
Tufts University
Vanderbilt University
Pomona College
Oberlin
Wellesley
NYU
Amherst College
Rice University
Northwestern
Smith College
University of Chicago
University of Michigan
University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill)</p>
<p>Backups (there are no backups nowadays, I know lol, but these are the places I supposedly will have not much trouble getting into):
University of Miami
University of Florida
FAU
Florida State University
University of Central Florida</p>
<p>So, any idea what schools would tend to overlook the Ds more? Any tries for shortening the list? Thanks soo much!</p>
<p>ps. ignore my 'ivyhopeful' username lol, made it when I thought I had a chance, but I know that's not being realistic. =)</p>
<p>Ask your GC to explain the Ds. If you got them because of illness, I think that most colleges -- even very competitive ones -- would understand.</p>
<p>highly selective schools definitely will see that the d's do not represent the caliber of student you are...</p>
<p>however, i have a question for you...how much homework about the schools you are thinking of applying to have you done? i only ask because they are all very, very different from each other...except that they aren't in florida like your "backups" :)</p>
<p>Presumeably ivyhopeful is a resident of Florida -- hence the safeties including many in-state, public universities. </p>
<p>Ivyhopeful -- my daughter has a friend at Barnard who had D's in 9th grade... so it's possible to overcome that -- obviously you need to explain the circumstances. (they definitely WILL care!)</p>
<p>Even if you hadn't retaken the courses, and even if you didn't have the circumstances, it seems like most colleges would look at such a transcript and see a kid who got off to a bad start, but realized he needed to change and turned himself around, which is a quality more colleges need. </p>
<p>Of course, I haven't turned cynical yet....</p>
[/quote]
Well, I am assuming that ivyhopeful22 is a she... or else the ED app to Barnard and possible apps to Wellesley and Smith are not likely to go well...... </p>
<p>But I do think that under these circumstances, her chances probably are not hurt too much by the lower grade.... in a sense, this really just demonstrates her her strength as a student. Another kid might have essentially given up, but she really put in effort to bounce back. It might even be good fodder for a "challenge you have overcome" type essay.</p>