Hello!
So I have around a 3.2 GPA. I messed up freshman year so bad. I think science threw me off the most for sure. I have a disease/disorder which I’d rather not talk about. But becuase of those, my grades are terrible. If I work my butt off junior year, will colleges see that as an improvement and a hard worker?
Freshman year:
Earth Science: 66
Geometry: 72
Global History: 86
Research: 75
English Honors: 80
Photography: 94
Physical Education: 98
Spanish: 91
Writing: 100
Sophomore Year:
Spanish Honors: 89
Studio Art: 96
English Honors: 82
Physical Education: 100
Health: 100
Global History Honors: 85
Biology Honors: 76
Algebra 2 and Trigonometry: 71
Video & Audio Production - 100
As far as extracurriculars go:
World Honors Society Member
President of key club
President of students against destructive decision
JV Volleyball - 1 year
Varsity Volleyball - 1 year
Varsity Gymnastics - 3 years
These are the colleges that I’m thinking about:
Binghamton
University of Arizona
University of Connecticut
U of Delaware
Drexel Univ
Florida Atlantic Univ
U of Florida
U of Hartford
Hofstra Univ
U of IL Urbana-Champaign
Indiana U Bloomington
UMD College Park
U of Miami
Pennsylvania State Univ
SUNY Stony Brook
SUNY Geneseo
Syracuse Univ
The Ohio State University
West Virginia Univ
UMass
University of Colorado - Boulder
UPitt
University of Wisconsin - Madison
These schools are out of reach unless you can get your unweighted GPA up to at least 3.6 and have a comparable SAT/ACT score:
Drexel Univ
U of Florida
U of IL Urbana-Champaign
Indiana U Bloomington
UMD College Park
U of Miami
Pennsylvania State Univ
Syracuse Univ
The Ohio State University
UPitt
University of Wisconsin - Madison
If you google “common data set” for each school, you find out the average unweighted GPA for each school along with 25th and 75th percentile for test scores. This will help you gauge your chances and give you target UW GPA for each school.
See sections C10-12:
http://ir.uair.arizona.edu/files/Cds/CDS_2014-2015.pdf
You should strive for straight A’s junior year
A lot is going to depend on your ACT / SAT and your junior year grades. An outstanding junior year and standardized test scores will go a long way for a shot at the better schools on your list. Your non-academic classes do not matter for GPA at most schools.
btw just letting you know you aren’t doomed with that GPA. Do you need financial aid at all or will your family cover everything? Sure you won’t get into extremely competitive schools but there are plenty of schools out there for you. I’m sure you will get into some of the schools you listed. I had a 2.9 gpa when i graduated high school. My parents paid for college but I had to stay in-state, which wasn’t bad since I lived in virginia. I applied to less than competitive schools and got in at all four. Just focus on junior year and take practice tests for the SAT/ACT. Whats your home state? Maybe add some of those schools vs the hard to get into ones? Good luck!
My school system was
94-100:A
86-93:B
80-85:C
70-79:D
Anything below 70:E (which was failing)
If your weighted gpa is above a 3.5 weighted gpa, you can get into majority of those colleges. Don’t worry, but work hard! Highschool is meant to show colleges your work ethics (hence your gpa). So work on your work ethics. Get a really good gpa junior year and you can get to at least half of those universities.
You must be out of state for a lot of those schools. Even if you can get in, can you afford them? Run the net price calculator on each school website for an idea of what you would pay. Out of state (OOS) students pay higher tuition at public universities.
You can’t get into u of d with that GPA. But it also depends on the major you choose. You might get into FAU if your out of state they might give you a nice scholarship.