I’ma sophomore, and in the first semester of freshman year, I received all Bs. In the second semester, I reduced that to one B. In the first semester of 10th grade, I have 2 Bs, but for the rest of high school, I expect all As. This will be in primarily AP classes. What should I do to make up for my low GPA? Is there anything that UChicago looks for specifically, such as community service or leadership? Should I do scientific research? In understand that poor freshman and sophomore year grades will hurt my chances, so what should I do to get admission to UChicago?
Thanks
What was done was done, nothing you can do about it. If you keep all As from now on, you might have a chance with a killer essay. Some times adcoms will overlook freshman grades.
Killer essay is the word.
Your essay should be so good that the adcom literally dies. Literally killer essay
“Write killer essays” may be good advice for a Senior (when that’s the only element of the admissions process you still have some control over) or for a second-semester Junior whose grades and scores are already competitive, but it’s not good advice for a Sophomore. There are a couple of different ways younger HS students could/should look at this issue (and the best answer might be to approach it from both perspectives simultaneously).
On one level, you need to keep improving your grades and to do what you can to get high test scores (note that I didn’t say to maximize your test scores). Wrt grades, the place to start is to think about what is and isn’t working for you. Look for patterns – are the Bs in course where there’s lots of writing or memorization or reading or math involved? Are they from teachers who want you to do more than show that you learned the material? Are they the result of last-minute cramming rather than doing the work as it’s assigned and making sure that you understand what you’re doing on a day-to-day basis (rather than going through the motions and hoping it’ll all make sense in the end)? Once you start to understand some of the things that get in the way of you doing consistently excellent schoolwork, you can think about how to change what you’re doing – study habits/time management/organization, course selection, ways of interacting with teachers – and/or what skills you need to focus on improving (reading more closely, writing more clearly/precisely, avoiding careless math errors). This should be priority one for you right now because it’ll make you a better student/learner – and that’s important not only for getting into college, but for doing well in college and beyond. By comparison, standardized test prep is something that can wait (until summer) and should be done as efficiently/strategically as possible.
On another level, the challenge is to start becoming the kind of person you want to be. Given your interest in U of C, I’m guessing that that person is “intellectual” in some sense. What interests you intellectually and how would you like to pursue that interest? Odds are “doing well in school” isn’t the answer to either of those questions. So what resources do you have to pursue your interests? Realistically, what could you do and where/how should you start? This is a very different mindset from “what are they looking for?” or “how can I build my resume”? It’s “what do I need to know or to do to put myself on a path that will help me find the kind of work and build the kind of life I aspire to?” And, once again, it’s the kind of effort whose rewards go way beyond college admissions.
Sophomore year in HS is a great time to start asking yourself these bigger questions.