Will my grades severely hurt me?

Applying to College
1

Hi guys. I am going to be a senior next year, so I wanted to ask you guys for your opinions about my situation for my high school because I would like to know how much my grades will impact my college admissions. In short, Hopkins is my dream school and top choice because of all of the opportunities for research and medicine. I plan to study biology or chemistry in college. I know that Hopkins is a very selective school, so I am worried about how they will view my poor GPA.

So here are some stats:

GPA: 3.5 UW, 4.05W This is way below their average :frowning:
SAT: 1540
SAT II: 770 Chem, and I am taking the biology one soon (expecting greater than 700)
ACT: 33 (retaking next month, I think I will be able to get a 34 because this 33 was close to exams week so I didn’t have time to study that much)

Honors/Achievements: I don’t have too many, but I have won a state award for foreign language, and a few regional ones (which probably don’t really matter to Hopkins)

EC’s: Biology Club (Founder/President, 1 year), Business Club (member, 2 years), Quiz Bowl (expecting leader of A team next year, currently B team, 3 years), SmarterStudents (2 years, I will be the president next year),

Spanish Club (member, 3 years), Math Club (secretary, 4 years), Chemistry Club (member, 2 years), and lastly, I am the founder/president of a fundraiser for a hospital that my school hosts every year.

Other: I have 200+hrs of community service. I did tennis during my sophomore year, but I decided not to continue after a season because I didn’t enjoy it, and it didn’t allow me to do much other stuff.

Teacher Recs: Both of my teachers loved me as a person and a student, and I think I can get great recommendations from them. One of them knows how good of a coach I am in SmarterStudents (where I tutor classmates for free). He choose me to become a the leader for that next year as a result. I helped multiple students improve their grades from C’s to A’s, and I talked about this in my essay.

Anyway, this is the situation:
I had good grades (a B in English, but the rest are A’s for both semesters) during my freshman year. But during my sophomore year, my grades plummeted. I got 6 B’s and 1 A in first semester, and in second semester, I got 3 C’s, 2 B’s and 2 A’s.
Because I did so bad in sophomore year, I formed different study habits and ways to focus. I had a completely different game plan for next year because my original one wasn’t working.
In Junior year first semester, I got 4 B’s, and 2 A’s. Then in second semester, I got 2 B’s and 4 A’s. I studied hard again over summer, and I believe that I will be able to get all A’s during senior year.
So my sophomore year pulled my GPA down a lot. But I tried hard and am on an improving path I guess? I have written a college essay about this challenge (of my GPA, and how I took action to learn and improve), and my teacher and other peers say it really good. And my teacher recs can also vouch for that (one is from a teacher who taught the class I struggled in, but improved).

Do you think that Hopkins would be more forgiving of my grades, and see it in a less negative manner since I am on an upward trend (if I reach my straight A goal next year)?
Also, do you think that the other parts of my application (since they look at the student holistically) might help cover for those?
Lastly, do you guys have any recommendations (for anything at all)? Sorry for the long post guys. Thanks for taking the time to read. Any insight will be appreciated.

2

I forgot to add, I did an internship that I found at a biomedical company and I think it would be valuable to my application. Furthermore, I am doing research at a lab (about antibodies) with a professor who really enjoys having me there. He knows that I am not doing research just to put icing on my application, but I really enjoy working in the lab. And he can write me an optional rec letter talking about this and how I work hard and have developed a genuine interest in that field. Again, I appreciate any help (especially if you are applying there or attend Hopkins). Thanks a lot.

3

Are you intending to be premed?

There are a LOT of universities in the US that have very good premed programs, and very strong biology and chemistry programs. You should plan to apply to your dream school, but start to spend time thinking about and researching other options. There are many schools with “opportunities for research and medicine”.

I didn’t see anything in your post about finances. You need to understand that your financial constraints are.

By the way, how can you win a state award for a foreign language? There are huge numbers of fluently bilingual and even trilingual people in the world, and even in the US.

4

That is my goal. And yes, I am planning to apply to 4 other universities (local and state, they are much less selective). I have researched them and have a plan, but I wanted to know if Hopkins is within my reach. So my goal with this post is to kind of get a feel of what my GPA will do for my application to Hopkins.

Sorry, I didn’t think finances would be relevant. I am a family of 4 and my parents make a combined of about 60k. We don’t have many savings so I will need financial aid.

I guess I should have been more clear for the award. It was an essay I wrote that won 2nd place in my state (for a foreign language).

Lastly, I can speak 4 languages (3 fluently speak, read, and write, 1 fluently speak). So I don’t think that would be a problem, hahaha.

Thanks for the reply.

5

What happened between freshman and sophomore year? More alarming that the grades are the order in which they came…you seemed to have been on a downward spiral…do you have an explanation?

6

That is what I am worried about. I am not really sure why I suddenly lost track. But I think the problem was that I wanted to get A’s. But while trying to do so, my grades started going down because I tried to just get through school without really learning, but instead just trying to “memorize” everything for tests and so on. When exams came, my grades suffered even more because of this.

In junior year I changed this idea and focused a lot on learning and got a lot of help from teachers and I believe I am on the right path now. I talked about this in my essay, and explained how I have changed and now because of that challenge. I have found a true interest which I am pursuing. So I guess I turned that negative into a learning experience and made it positive.

Although there was a downward trend between 9-10 grade, I think there is an upward trend after that from 10-11-12 grade (I have worked hard this summer and believe I can get all A’s next year). So I was hoping that Hopkins would be able to see that I am capable of doing well, and I also have an intellectual vitality. As a result, I wanted to know what you guys thought. Thanks for taking your time to help ConcernedRabbit.

7

Also, my teacher rec letters can confirm that I took action to improve and drastically increased my grades. I used the same method I used to improve my grades and taught it to my classmates who I teach at SmartStudent, and their grades also began imroving. This can also be confirmed by my teacher (who made me the president because of this), so it is not just an “un-credible” student making something up. Hopefully this will help? I am fousing my essay on how I made that experience a positive for me and my community so that is why I added this info.

8

You are trying to convince the wrong people. JHU is a reach for all. Your soph grades will not help. Getting great grades from now on is the best you can do. You can’t change the past, and you know how hard it is to get in. Good luck.

9

Lindagaf, I think you are right. There isn’t much use trying to explain it. I think I will re-write my essay and talk about a something else I guess. Thanks for the help guys.

10

I think Hopkins is a reach for you but it is also a reach for a lot of people. It’s very competitive and there will be kids who didn’t struggle some years. That being said you are still a great student and there are many great schools that will be a fit for you.