<p>Okay, so I go to one of the best high schools in the United States, and I've gotten straight A's in freshman/sophomore year. This year, though, I got involved in my extracurriculars a lot more, and I ended up with 2 B's in first semester (one was an AP, the other an honors course). It looks as thought I'll be getting 2 B's this semester as well (same honors course, one non-honors course). The non-honors course was a mandatory class, though, and the teacher is extremely subjective. He doesn't seem to like me much, and I'm not trying to blame him for my B, but honestly, I could have gotten the same number of problems wrong as another guy and I would get 15/20 on the test while the other kid gets 20/20...either way, I might get a B in that class this semester. So overall, I would end junior year with 4 B's.</p>
<p>I must say that I have pretty impressive EC's (nothing like curing cancer or anything, but impressive nonetheless) and my SAT score is 2200+.</p>
<p>I wanted to apply to some Ivy schools (namely Stanford and UPENN), as well as USC and Berkeley...are my chances completely gone at this point? I know it's not easy to definitively state whether or not I will be rejected, but the answers on CC are so mixed. Some say that EC's and SAT's can weight out some B's, others say a few B's destroy one's chances of getting into said colleges.</p>
<p>Any opinions? My schedule is not that rigorous, with 2 AP's, 1 honors class, 1 non-honors, TA, student leadership, and art, but our school has very few AP's. Any thoughts? I'm freaking out and I'm completely disheartened over my grades this year.</p>
<p>4 Bs in a self-admittedly non rigorous course schedule is pretty much a deal sealer for the Ivies imo. Berkeley and USC could happen but I think you’d still need good ECs and essays and it’d be a reach nonetheless. Time to look for other options</p>
<p>@kei04086 I say it’s not rigorous because I only have 2 AP’s (which, for our school, is standard), whereas students at other schools have 6 AP’s…that’s impossible for students attending my school because of the lack of AP courses (our school is small). I guess I’m just trying to make myself feel better, haha. I know it’s a reach - I mean, an ivy is a reach for anybody! - but do you think it’s impossible?</p>
<p>Without seeing your application as a whole, and even if they did, nobody here could tell you with certainty. Stanford, UPenn, and USC are crapshoots for everybody. Work hard, write good essays, and I am sure you will get into a fine school.</p>
<p>A lot depends on what sort of stats previous students from your HS had to get into colleges like that. Don’t know if it works that way any more, but there was a time when someone coming out of certain feeder schools could come out with the right recommendation and land a spot at an Ivy. Maybe that still happens at your school, but the best person to ask is your GC, not a bunch of random people on CC.</p>
<p>Your chances are probably astromically low. There are several reasons why though. 1) Berkeley doesn’t even look at Freshman year, so all they will see are A’s and a lot of B’s. 2) You have a downward trend in grades. 3) ECs and test scores NEVER outweigh GPA unless you went through extreme hardship that dramatically affected your ability to do well in school.</p>
<p>@billcsho - Try not to be such a nitpicker ;). I know people usually use HYPS or something similar, but I think in this context her meaning was clear.</p>
<p>@toxiccriminal - I think some of the posters are being overly negative. First of all, are you a California resident? Second, while the odds are low by definition for schools of this caliber, especially Stanford and UPenn, I think you can turn your downward trend into, if not exactly a positive, at least into a point to talk about. What I mean is you say that you think you took on too many EC’s. OK, that can happen. Obviously schools want students that can do things outside of the classroom while still maintaining their grades, but they also know that doesn’t mean that too heavy a load won’t affect your grades. If this were food, we might say your eyes were bigger than your stomach. You misjudged how much you could take on and now you learned from that. So if you can go back to getting all A’s your first semester senior year while taking on a couple less EC’s, that will show growth and maturity on your part. I think this is something you can talk about in essays and/or interviews, and I think it is all in how you position if. You don’t want to make it sound like you can’t so anything outside the classroom without your grades suffering, just that you have learned from the experience as to how to strike the right balance for you.</p>
<p>Finally, I think USC is not quite at the difficulty level for admission as Stanford and UPenn, and Berkeley might depend a lot on if you are in-state. No doubt AnnieBeats is right that Cal’s deemphasis on freshman grades will hurt you, but again that is something you might bring out in your essay. I think with your test scores, overall good grades, and EC’s you have a decent shot at USC. But for sure you will want to throw in some real matches and safeties into the list of schools to which you apply.</p>
<p>Don’t “freak out” and be “completely disheartened”. It certainly won’t accomplish anything except to raise your anxiety level about something you cannot undo, but you can make your very best effort moving forward. Really pour yourself into your first semester this fall. A huge push to give yourself the best chance possible. Then you will know you did everything you could given the current situation.</p>
<p>@fallenchemist Wow this was really insightful and helpful!</p>
<p>I am currently a resident in California. My high school is one of the top 3 high schools in CA and in the top 25 in the nation, so I’m hoping that our good academic reputation can help.
I definitely did overestimate myself and plan on being more reasonable. I essentially took on every project and got involved in every EC, which obviously hurt my grades.
If my dad and sister both went to USC, would that help with legacy? Haha. I really want to go to UCB, though! I definitely think Stanford and UPENN are huge reaches, but I’m still going to try!
Honestly your response gave me a lot of hope and reassurance. Thank you :)</p>
<p>@fallenchemist I do understand what the OP means. However, when someone call Stanford an Ivy, it indicates they have little idea about the school other than the name. That is not a good sign at all when searching for good fit schools. Top tier schools or HYPS would be more appropriate if one would want to include Stanford in the same group as Ivies.</p>
<p>@billcsho - I agree you are technically correct. I guess I give people more leeway on these issues, at least in the context the OP was using. I think there is little need for the writer to be so exact in a discussion such as this. She might have known perfectly well that Stanford was not an Ivy but chose to just assume that every one would know what she meant. Personally I don’t think it says anything one way or the other about the OP. Ivy, HYPS (and all its variants), extremely selective, elite…these have all become synonyms for a certain handful of schools, although I grant you that Ivy is the least accurate.</p>
<p>@toxiccriminal I sincerely hope you have safety colleges, because USC should be a reach school for you. My friend who had a 4.0 GPA and had a 35 on ACT got rejected from USC. And USC’s average GPA for this year’s admits was 3.8, and that’s unweighted, most likely kids with a lot of IB/AP classes. And to top it off, you only have two APs your junior year… No offense, but your chances for ivies look somewhat bleak. That would be like an extreme reach school for you. </p>
<p>I’m actually going to USC next year (FIGHT ON) but USC’s middle 50% SAT score range was 2100- 2250. 2200+ is not something you should bet your chances on. 2200 is a good score,yes, but that’s only one part of your application. SC is becoming extremely competitive. And I understand that you have a legacy, but idk, it seems iffy to me. Your courses should have been more challenging. I sort of made the same mistake as you, and I want to advise you against this. I had an extremely high SAT score, I had a 2290, and my Weighted GPA was 4.17, and my UW GPA was like 3.7, but this is with 12 IB/AP classes we’re talking about here.
I thought my SAT would make up for my ehhh GPA, but I got rejected by so many schools this year, and I also got rejected by every UC I applied for. My advice, not trying to scare you or anything, but is to not count on your ECs or SATs. GPA is what matters the most. Other factors can make up for it, and even your GPA was high, but you’re lacking the rigor in your curriculum that other people have. And even if your high school is one of the best in CA, it doesn’t really matter if you’re not challenging yourself THERE. Then they would be like, oh she had opportunities, but she didn’t even take it. (or he, if you’re a guy…)
They’d rather have you take advantage of your school than to have you chilling on a non-challenging course.
I’m going to have to say all those schools you listed above are reach schools. </p>
<p>and also, all those stats I posted about USC are the most up-to-date ones for the 2014 admits. USC’s admit rate this year was 17.8%. These are the stats I received from USC itself when I went to one of its programs for admits a few months ago. These stats are more accurate than the ones you can find online, because they are directly from this year. </p>
<p>Of all these schools, USC has the highest acceptance rate, so your chances are seemingly the best there, but admissions can be unpredictable. With good ECs and test scores, you still have a good overall resume, but these schools will be reaches (as they are for pretty much everyone). Focus on keeping your grades up next semester and writing strong essays, and your chances will increase. </p>
<p>@iamnotready Do you have any advice as to what I can do from now? I actually discovered that the course I thought was not an honors course actually is! So my schedule has 2 AP, 2 honors, student leadership, TA, and art.
My EC are pretty impressive, if I do say so myself. I know I’ll be getting great letters of rec. should I stack up on AP courses next year? I could take 4, but I know I would be unable to get straight A’s. I was planning to take 3, and even then, I’m not sure. I’m really worried. I know USC and UCB are still reaches, but I was hoping I would have a decent chance (until all these B’s appeared, at least, lol). Any advice on what to do from here? Thanks for your honest advice!</p>
<p>@sw0206 Thanks! Any advice on how to continue into the summer/senior year? I plan on keeping my grades high (easier said than done). Is there any way to possibly explain that I definitely overestimated myself in that I thought having a balanced schedule would allow for more EC time? I spent way too much time on EC’s, and my academic classes are extremely tough (tough teachers), which explains my B’s. I’m not trying to blame others or anything, but would it be possible to show that to colleges? And if I got better grades senior year, would I be able to show I learned to be more realistic and learned from this mistake?</p>
<p>It really depends on if your school as tough as you say it is because colleges definitely take into account the difficulty of your high school and it’s national rank in the US. All the valedictorians of my high school (top 15 high schools in US on Newsweek and top 10 on Washington Post) 95% of the time have never had a 4.0 unweighted GPA by the end of their senior year and they have all gone to attend ivy league level colleges, and if they weren’t able to attend the college they were at least ACCEPTED into the most prodigious colleges in the US such as MIT, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, etc… so it’s not like colleges are going to deny you automatically after seeing a couple of B’s… </p>
<p>@toxiccriminal I feel like EC’s as long as you have them, won’t really help you unless you’ve done something extraordinarily amazing. This is just my honest opinion, but EC’s don’t really hurt you or help you as long as you have them. (If you founded a school in Africa, that’s another story) but it’s hard to find kids who don’t have good EC’s nowadays. EC’s are one of the easier parts of the applications. You just do something you love and are passionate about. And keep in mind, EC’s are only ONE part of the applications.
Here’s how holistic review works: They look at each part of your application separately and give you a score on each part. There’s only a certain number of points you can get in each category. And they end up taking the number with the highest points. Of course they do count in family hardship and extc while giving you those points, but the misconception kids have is that one part of the application that is amazing will not get you in, because they can only give you so much credit for so little of the application. You get what I’m saying? (This is how a UCLA admissions rep explained holistic review to me, btw) You can’t just expected to get in on one part of the app, you have to be well-rounded.
If you know any powerful USC alums, I would use them to your advantage. I know some kids who have had their admission offers from USC changed before they were mailed bc an alumni gave them a strong personal recommendation to admissions, but this has to be done the right way. It’s tricky, bc they’ll either think you’re trying to schmooze your way in, or be impressed by the fact that an alum would vouch that much for you. In the case of my friend, we go to a huge public high school, (3,600++ kids) and our counselor is very close with the admissions called USC personally and gave her a very, very strong recommendation. When a counselor personally recommends you out of the 1,800 kids she has to oversee, it shows that you have something special, so that can also greatly boost your app.
I would also recommend getting an interview with USC during application time, try to sign up for those early, they fill up fast!
Also, if your school offers AP versions of the honors classes youre taking that’s not going to make your situation any better. I don’t think USC weights honors classes anyways. The schools receive a list of classes that are available at your school. I dont know, but at my school, the title “honors” next to a class means almost nothing. Especially if you are attending such a competitive high school as you described, I dont think those two honors classes are going to change anything. </p>