Hey,
I’m a 7th grader who had some pretty bad grades in 6th grade. They were mostly high Bs but I once had a 70 in art because I was trying to force myself to be artistic when clearly I was not. I have gradually improved, with my grades this quarter being 93s and up. I’m trying to get into a competitive boarding school. If I continue to grow, will this make up for my bad grades in 6th grade?
Also, I don’t really have any extracurriculars except for making it to state on my robotics team and participating musical theatre (does that count?), though I don’t think those will help me. Is there anything I could do to help my ec list a bit? What would be considered good ecs when applying in 8th grade?
Thanks.
It will help that your grades improved. Give some thought to what you learned about yourself during that process and consider whether you can fit it into an essay. Why did you try to be artistic? What didn’t work? What did you learn about yourself? Many schools like to see that you can take risks and grow even if they don’t turn out as planned.
Robotics and theater are both great ECs. There is no need to add more if these consume your time and you are invested in them.
Many schools have athletic requirements so you may want to give some thought as to how you would approach these.
Thanks. What exactly are these athletic requirements?
Also I want to add that (to my surprise) not every school required 6th grade transcripts. I know this because my DD went to a different school for 6th grade, and I was suprised by the number of schools that did not want her transcript. (In her case, that was a bad thing because she had straight A’s and she is hoping to make up for some softer test scores.)
Athletic requirements vary by school so you’ll need to look it up for each school you’re interested in. Most schools expect students to play a sport at least two of three semesters.