Hi,
I am rising junior, and I am wondering if a few not “A” grades in my freshman and sophomore years will significantly lower my chance of getting into my desired colleges.
For the first semester of freshman year, I had
English 1: A-
Spanish 4: C
Hnr Biology: B-
For second semester, I managed to raise up the grades to
English 1: A
Spanish 4: B+
Hnr Biology: B-
My non-weidghted GPA was 3.71.
For the first semester of sophomore year, I have 4 A-'s and 2 A’s.
I think I will end up with two or three B+'s for the second semester.
I have not taken any AP courses yet because my school is not offering me any, but I am planning to take AP Bio, AP Calc AB, AP Spanish, and AP Art Portfolio for next year.
I am currently doing 13 extracurricular activities including music and art that are giving me actual credits.
I am looking into Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Yale University School of Art, UC Berkeley, and UCLA.
Is it impossible to get into the schools because I have A-'s, B’s, and one C in my grade?
Should I maintain only A’s, not even A-'s, to get into an Ivy League?
Thank you!
It will lower your chances, but won’t shut you out. Idk how you do 13 ECs and dedicate appropriate time to them though.
- What matters most is your overall GPA. Colleges also like to see improvement over time. Obviously, they like a 4.0 even more, but getting a few Bs in freshman year is a lot better than getting Bs in your junior year or having grades crater in your senior year.
- Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Yale, Berkeley, and UCLA are all fiercely competitive schools from an admission standpoint. Your GPA will, barring a string of nothing but As, be below the mean at several of those. With that said, the first three schools you've listed are now glorified lotteries-as long as you have a GPA above 3.9, an SAT score above 2200 (or the ACT equivalent), and decent extracurriculars, you have the same 20% (JHU) or 10% (Stanford/Yale) chance as every other qualified applicant.
- 13 extracurricular activities is borderline absurd. That tells a college admissions officer that you aren't pursuing many activities in any real depth. If you have few or no leadership positions this will be an easy assumption to make. There are 168 hours in a week, of which you (hopefully) spend at least 50 sleeping and likely another 30-40 in school.
On the assumption that, like any regular human being, you don’t spend every waking moment in school or doing extracurriculars, it’s not possible to invest a significant amount of time in 13 different extracurriculars. It’s better to have 6 ECs that you’ve shown a real commitment to, excelling in one or two, than 13 half-baked activities that each warranted an hour a week before you dashed off to the second of two or three activities on any given day. This is similar to the recent trend towards taking 10+ AP courses by the end of a student’s junior year, which is often either useless or, when it leads to lower grades overall, downright counterproductive.
Some schools will cut a little more slack for your freshman year than others. If you’re able to get all As or mostly all As next year and the first semester of your senior year, with nothing lower than a very occasional B+, and you do very well on the SAT or ACT, you many still have a shot. How would you characterize your grades relative to your peers? If straight As are common at your school, and you’re in the next group or two down, that’s not helpful. But some schools have a deflated grading rubric, and the most selective colleges will look for that. Neither of my sons had 4.0s, but both were accepted to a few of the sorts of schools at which you’re looking.
Thirteen extracurricular activities may be more than is really necessary. If these are impinging on your study time, and costing you somewhat better grades, you may wish to cut back on these activities and focus more on your grades.