I’ve tried to find a similar thread, but they’re all about what happens if you do badly; I want to know the opposite.
I had pretty middling grades from freshman to junior year (mostly Bs, a few Cs, Ds, and an F with the most challenging course load possible at my school (AP/preAP courses)). How favorably will colleges view a huge spike in grades for the first semester of senior year. (say, all As with 95+ on transcript).
I’m just wondering if it will be worth applying RD to some selective schools like USC / Northwestern / Rice / Cornell, or if they’ll judge me by past mistakes Will it show them that I’ve finally matured and am a good candidate or will I be ruled out for my previous lack of work ethic? It just really sucks that I’ve started to open my eyes this late in the process, and I want to do everything I can to salvage my situation, especially because my SAT score is pretty competitive (2310).
Edit: Also, how would I explain being the previous bad grades if I was pretty much just too lazy lol? Would I make something up?
It’s hard to say exactly how it will be viewed. Generally, an upward trend in GPA is a good thing, but a high and consistent GPA is better. I don’t know if one semester of great grades will “cancel out” 3.5 years of laziness, especially when other candidates to these top schools will have had great grades all 4 years. What in your application will make a college want you over them?
My advice to you would be to apply to a couple of these reach schools with low expectations. You’ll never know if you don’t try. However, it is very important that you find safety schools you will be happy to attend and can afford if you get rejected from these schools.
It’s also never a good idea to lie on a college application. If a school finds out somehow (ex. through your guidance counselor), you’ll risk being automatically rejected/rescinded if accepted from possibly every school you applied to. Don’t do this to yourself.
@sophie9999 Thanks for the reply! I feel like I have pretty solid safety/match schools, so I’ll give it a shot. It’s just a bummer that I can’t go back and redo what I did wrong now that I’m motivated haha.
I don’t think a big uptick in grades will make a huge difference after three years of “middling grades.” You can certainly throw in a couple of reach schools but focus more on match and safety schools (and you say you already have some in mind). And don’t lose your motivation to do well in school – go to college and do amazing things there!
Good luck but you have to realize that selective schools are… Selective. So you are already out of the running for selective schools, by definition, with the grades that you describe. The good news is that those schools are not the only game in town.
Yea of course. I won’t keep my hopes up or anything. I just feel awful that I didn’t care as much as I should have when I first became a freshman in high school. I definitely have the potential, but I completely ignored it.
You still have the potential, and perhaps a lesson learned. You can still go to a CTCL, a regional LAC,or a directional U, work hard, and have a great life. If professional or grad schools are a goal for you, you are by no means out of the running by not going to an elite school. Most professionals across the USA went to run of the mill local LACs and state universities for undergrad.
That’s very reassuring. Grad school is something I’m planning on (although I haven’t stepped foot into college yet so I’m not really informed enough to say that haha).
I’m going to say that schools like Cornell, NU, and Rice are entirely out of reach if you have multiple Cs and Ds on your transcript, along with an F. These are universities with acceptance rates around 10%, and you’ll find that even schools with acceptance rates much lower than that still require a higher GPA.
You can’t cancel out a poor transcript with a good SAT score, even if you had a challenging course load. College coursework is much higher than high school coursework, and schools are looking for someone with the work ethic to handle what’s thrown at them.
I’d suggest a year or two at community college before transferring to a 4-year college or university. If your work ethic has truly improved, you should be able to maintain a good GPA and have a better chance at college applications.
@marioooooo Don’t even think about trying to explain your previous low grades with a false story. No college will buy it. Anyone with genuine issues leading to poor grades will have a counselor’s explanation to accompany an application. Your applciation would be totally dismissed if you made up an excuse. So I suggest you own it and address the issue head on. Write a supplement, or even make your essay about the fact that it took you a while to mature, that you now realize how foolish that was, and that you are demonstrating your ability to work hard by getting good grades in senior year. Getting amazing grades in the first half of senior year will absolutely NOT harm your application, and will only help you. It is very possible that any college accepting you will make admission contingent on good grades for all of senior year, so do not succumb to senioritis.
I don’t agree with hufflepuff’s advice above. No, you will most likely not get into super selective colleges, but I know for a fact that a great test score can help a lot. I personally know two boys who basically got Bs and Cs throughout high school, but did get excellent ACT or SAT scores. One of them had two colleges fighting to enrol him, and he was offered substantial merit aid. He wrote his essay about how he was a slacker, unitl he woke up and smelled the coffee. The other boy got into 13 of the 14 colleges he applied to and was offered close to a full ride at a state university. These colleges were not Cornell, et al, but college is what you make of it. If you do get offered any merit aid, be aware that it will come with strings attached, so don’t go to college and expect to party your way through and still keep the cash. Good luck to you.
@hufflepuffle Thanks for responding. My GPA still lands me in the top half of my class (around 40%), which means schools like University of Houston, UT-Dallas, etc are still options for me given the other parts of my application are fine. community college doesn’t seem necessary to me.
@Lindagaf Thanks for the reply. I definitely know not to make anything up on my app now, and I’ll try to write a strong essay about my grades.
