I’m a junior in high school and have a 3.0 GPA. This is mainly due to the fact that in 9th and 10th grade there were several classes where I was incredibly incompatible with the coursework and the teacher (so I earned C’s and low B’s). I also had a very hard time in school mentally and socially from a move freshmen year.
This year I am not taking any of those classes so I assume my GPA will rise slightly. I also go to a very difficult college prep school, so if I went to an easier public school I would have a much higher grade average.
I do not know what else I can do to get colleges to look past this. Overall, I am great student personality and work wise, so my teacher recommendation letters should be pretty good. I earned a 25 on a practice ACT without studying at all so I assume I’ll go up several points on the official one which I’ve read could slightly balance out this gpa.
I am looking to major film production and my top schools are Chapman, Uni Miami, and UCLA (although this is probably a stretch). I don’t my chances on being admitted in these schools. I don’t have as extracurriculars either, but I’m trying to focus on quality not quantity with a few leadership positions and focusing on what I am truly interested in.
Sooo…what could I do to show colleges that I am more than my GPA and what are my chances in general?
what T26E4 said is not fully true; while GPA is definitely the most important part, if you show an upward trend (getting 4.0 the last 2 years) while taking some challenging classes, study hard and score highly on ACT, and get some good leadership in your extracurriculars and make it stand out, you have a graet chance! good luck!
@Summahh: you’ve basically confirmed what I posted. Your solution for the OP’s 3.0 GPA is to * get a better GPA*. Like I said, there’s no substitute for GPA.
But even if OP gets a 4.0 for the next 3 semesters, his/her GPA will only rise to 3.43. And the suite of viable and realistic colleges for this GPA range are the sorts of colleges where “leadership” and “ECs” really aren’t gonna be much of a boost.
Hopefully OP can break out and get fantastic GPA plus a great ACT (above 30? unlikely but possible) to expand his/her choices. But there’s no hidden pathway outside these.
(so I earned C’s and low B’s). I also had a very hard time in school mentally and socially from a move freshmen year.