This will be somewhat of a long read, so I appreciate those that will take the time to help me out.
Firstly, I’m new to this forum and haven’t even really started the college process. Secondly, I’m currently a freshman just starting my second term at a private college preparatory day school in New England. There are about eighty kids in each grade, with a student to teacher ratio of about 15:1 in every class. I’m caucasian and come from an above average income family (I don’t really know how much money my parents make, but I’m pretty sure it is above average just based on my house/clothes I wear). I don’t mean to brag or anything, I just don’t know if this type of information helps you guys at all or not, so to be safe, I put it here.
Secondly, I’m not stupid or dumb. My grades do not reflect on my intelligence as an individual or character as a person, and quite frankly; I consider myself to be pretty smart. However, I will be the first to admit that I do not put as much effort into my studies as I should. Everything I do academically is basically without much effort. I do not spend much time studying for tests and quizzes, and do my homework as simply as I can simply to be able to say, “I did it,” and avoid disciplinary issues. My parents are very aware of this, and they call what I do “cruise control”. Do not put any of my actions on them, as they try very hard to get me to be my best. I just find myself distracted very easily and constantly tired, making it hard to focus and put in the effort to excel.
I spend a lot of my free time surfing through different college websites, looking at each school’s freshman profiles to see what is expected in hopeful applicants. These schools include the University of Michigan, the University of Southern California, University of California at Los Angeles, University of Virginia, Boston College, Villanova, Notre Dame, Wake Forest, Colgate, maybe Bucknell but that is on the bottom of my list, etc. Mostly schools of that caliber. My father attended Stanford University and that school has been in my dreams forever, but I realize now it is simply out of reach for me. As are Harvard, Princeton, Duke, and the rest of the Ivy Leagues. Of the schools that I have been looking at and found legitimate freshman profiles, I have observed that the average GPA of most admitted applicants range from 3.6 to 3.9 (these are unweighted, I believe). Now onto my current situation.
Before I start, I know that more than just GPA matters. Things like essays, SAT/ACT scores, recommendations, etc. However, I’m still a freshman, so just try and keep those out of the picture for now, and base your opinions on my GPA only.
For the first semester of my freshman year (it just ended), I had a 3.28 unweighted GPA (on my transcript). This GPA includes concert choir, which is a performing art, in which I earned an A-. In my five core classes, my unweighted GPA was a 3.2. My transcript looked like this.
Geometry Honors: B-
Biology Honors: B
Spanish: B+ (was an A- before the last quiz of the semester, which dropped me to a high B+)
English: B+ (was an A- before the last essay of the semester, which dropped me to a high B+)
History: A- (high A-)
Chorus: A- (not a core class so I choose to not think about it)
However, if you add an extra point to the two honors classes, my weighted GPA would have been a 3.6. My school doesn’t do a weighted GPA though, and so that was not shown on my transcript. I simply calculated this using a scale in which an A+ equals a 4.33, an A a 4, an A- a 3.67, and so on.
Obviously, a 3.2 does not look good. Especially when several of my friends’ unweighted GPAs ranged from 3.6 to 4.1.
However, I intend to earn a 3.5 in the second semester, and maintain that GPA throughout the rest of my high school career. I also intend to stay in honors classes and take AP classes where I can. My school offers an AP World History course for sophomores, which I am on track to take next year. In addition to these academic stats, I am part of the highly selective all male A Capella group at my school, and intend to remain a part of it throughout my high school career. I will be attending a school supported but independent, non-profit company run service trip to developing Central and South American countries over spring break, and will remain a part of that program throughout my high school career as well. I was on the JV soccer team this past fall, and intend to make the Varsity team next year as a sophomore and stay on the team throughout the rest of high school. I will also play baseball in the spring, hopefully on the Varsity team. If I do not make it, I will certainly be on the Varsity squad next year and throughout high school. I have played guitar for over eight years, and it and singing is my passion. While it may not be relevant, my younger brother was born completely blind and with several other mental disabilities. He has never been able to speak or see. (Just putting that out here as it may mean something to college admissions but I doubt it.) Also, I doubt I will be looking for financial aid regardless of where I go, so that might help I guess.
So if you have read through this entire thing, please humor me by answering some of my questions.
- Will colleges look at a 3.2 from a private college preparatory school and think of it as being worth more than a 3.2 from a public high school? I.E. will a GPA at my school be worth maybe .2 or .3 higher than the same GPA at a public school?
- If I get on the track that I suggested I will be on, do well on my standardized test scores and essays, will that and my extra curricular activities be enough to get accepted to any of the schools I listed (and if so, please say which ones)? Or are the schools listed completely out of my reach?
Thanks for reading, and hopefully you can help me destress about this whole thing… I’m just worried I won’t do well in life I guess and am kind of depressed about the college process as my 3.2 has gotten me down and expecting to go to some not great schools.
Thanks again