Will one semester of poor grades ruin my chances?

Colleges & Universities A-Z University of Pennsylvania
1

<p>Freshman year (1st semester):</p>

<p>English A
P.E. A
Architecture A
Biology A
Geometry B
Modern World History A
Italian A</p>

<p>Freshman year (2nd semester):</p>

<p>English Honors B
P.E. A
Architecture B
Biology A
Geometry B
Modern World History C
Italian A</p>

<p>Sophomore year (1st semester):</p>

<p>English Honors B
P.E. A
Physics A
Adv. Algebra B
AP World History A
Italian A
Health A</p>

<p>Sophomore year (2nd semester):</p>

<p>English Honors B
Swimming A
Physics A
Adv Algebra A
AP World History A
Italian A</p>

<p>Junior year (1st semester):</p>

<p>AP English Language A
AP Biology A
Pre-Calculus A
APUSH A
AP Psychology A
Italian Honors A
College/Career A</p>

<p>Junior year (2nd semester):</p>

<p>AP English Language B
AP Biology A
Pre-Calculus A
APUSH A
AP Psychology A
Italian Honors A</p>

<p>Senior year classes:</p>

<p>AP English Literature
AP Physics C
AP Calculus BC
AP Economics
American Democracy (might switch to AP Gov/Politics)
Italian Honors </p>

<p>Do you think my 2nd semester freshman year grades will ruin my chances of admission?</p>

<p>P.S. I attend a competitive magnet school (ranked #28 in the nation by US News and World Report). I will be applying ED.</p>

2

<p>Absolutely.</p>

3

<p>I have a friend who got a few Bs freshman year. Don’t worry, he had great luck getting off the wait list at Cal State.</p>

4

<p>Going from a few Bs to straight As will help you</p>

<p>Going from straight As to Bs will hurt you</p>

5

<p>How did you get a “C” second semester in Modern World History, but then got As both semesters of AP World? Your grades are fine in my eyes. An admissions office may like to see that you got a C in Modern World History, learned from your mistakes, and got an A both semesters in the same class next year, but on an AP level.</p>

<p>Nothing will ruin your chances, and you seem to have made forward progress since then. You’re applying to UPenn Early Decision regardless, so why worry about what happened three years ago? Focus on the now, and specifically, your essays for Penn!</p>

6

<p>Your grades are fine in my eyes. An admissions office may like to see that you got a C in Modern World History, learned from your mistakes, and got an A both semesters in the same class next year, but on an AP level. But that begs the question, how did you get a C in Modern World History, but an A both semesters of AP World History?</p>

<p>Nothing can completely ruin your chances, and you seem to have made forward progress since Freshman year. You’re applying to UPenn Early Decision regardless, so why worry about what happened three years ago? Focus on the now, and specifically, your essays for Penn!</p>

7

<p>^ The second semester of my freshman year was definitely my least favorite. For one, my English teacher was extremely difficult. I loved her as a person and learned a lot from her, but she would give unreasonably long assignments which were graded quite harshly. Students in her regular classes struggled to maintain C’s, so I had to put in a lot of time and effort to get a B in honors. Secondly, my Spring architecture project took a HUGE chunk of my time. As I spent more time on my architecture project, I had less time for my other classes and my grades dropped as a result. I had a terrible Modern World teacher 2nd semester. At first, he seemed like a decent teacher. I actually got A’s through the first half of the semester. But as the semester progressed, he would give us unpredictable assignments that weren’t even related to World History. Because, I spent so much time on architecture and English, I didn’t have much time for history. Our final was an unexpected geography exam, which I probably failed since I had no time to study. (I easily maintained A’s in biology and Italian because they were easy subjects for me.) I know that this doesn’t excuse my poor grades. But I just want to let you guys know that I didn’t slack off that semester. I did much better in following semesters because I had better teachers and better time management skills. My C in Modern World and A’s in AP World might suggest that it was an easy AP class, but I got a 5 on the exam and 750 on the subject test with barely any studying. (I also got 5’s on AP Psych and APUSH. I got a 4 on English Language.)</p>