Hello all,
I go to a VERY COMPETITIVE high school in Virginia… it is one of the top schools in the nation. Freshman year was extremely bad for me.
In freshman year first semester I got 5 B’s.
Second semester I got 3 B’s. At this point I was in the 50th percentile of my class and had a 3.667.
However, sophomore year I got my act together and got one B and all A’s other than that with the B being first semester. At the end of sophomore year I had a 4.18.
Junior year which just ended I got all A’s. Now my GPA is sitting at a 4.45 with a 3.8 unweighted with 8 B’s freshman year, 1 B sophomore year and no B’s junior year. I am now in the top 7% of my class and have clearly significantly improved.
Recs wise: I have a lot of teachers who quite frankly adore me. One I started two clubs with, both of which are doing very well and are things that both my teacher and I care about. Another I talk to all the time and we genuinely interact and connect.
Extracurics wise I am slightly under average for an Ivy league… for identity purposes I won’t go into details.
ACT wise I got a 36 second try with all 800’s on SAT Subject Tests (4 of them.)
I think my essays will be rather high quality… but I’m not sure yet. Assuming these good essays what schools do you think I have chances at (like am I Stanford / Columbia / UPenn calibar or do my freshman grades matter enough to hurt me in that regard.)
Apply to many schools. One will take you with that high of score on ACT and improvement throughout high school
Thanks so much :). I know some schools like Stanford don’t consider Freshman grades at all… does that policy mean that my grades would be considered equally with someone who got 1 B sophmore and junior yearS?
Although you do have a low GPA, it probably won’t matter much since you have a very good class rank. Colleges will take the fact that it’s difficult to get A’s at your school into account.
If you’re applying to Stanford and the UCs, they will completely recalculate your GPA without freshman grades, so you don’t even have to worry about it:D
just how much is freshman forgiveness a role in other schools though… like i got a 3.4 freshman year but essentially 4.0’s in my tougher years… does that make me around a 3.9 student or worse or better?
I have the exact same issue, 3.5 freshman year and then 4.0 and above soph-junior year and wondering how much of an impact that will make in the college admission game…
Well if you have a 3.9, colleges would rather have you, who improved throughout high school , than someone with the same GPA due to senioritis or something
In general though what are my grades realistically competitive for. I have 13 AP’s under the belt so a very rigirous schedule (the most rigirous) at my school. By next year I’ll have 20 AP’s and will probably be in the running for State AP scholar (maybe 3 or 4 short.) My B’s weren’t in these AP classes but rather dumb things like Latin in freshman year.