<p>I am currently a senior. I would really like to go out of state to a more elite school. However this may not be possible due to my low freshman GPA. My grades are as follows</p>
<p>8- A
A</p>
<p>9- C A A D B C
B A A C C C</p>
<p>10-A A B A A A
A A A A B B</p>
<p>11-A A A A A A
A A A A A A </p>
<p>I believe I will have an A in 5 of my 6 classes this year, the only exception being AP Calculus. I have taken a total of 6 AP classes as well as 8 Pre-AP classes. Until this year I have made A's in all of my AP classes, up to this year. I made a 31 on the September ACT. I firmly believe I can make a 34 on the December ACT. I am in NHS, as well as an officer in Spanish National Honor Society. Over the summer I attended Oklahoma Boys State, I was one of the 5 out of 541 students. My weighted GPA is 3.92, but unfortunately my unweighted GPA is 3.52. </p>
<p>With all that said are schools such as the University of Chicago too far out of my reach, and if so what schools should I look at. Any help is greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>I forgot to mention that the reason for my low freshman grades was the fact that I missed a total of 26 days due to illness. Would it help for me to mention this to colleges?</p>
<p>As I have already mentioned, I would be thankful if anyone could help me to figure out what level of school I should be looking at (i.e. Ivies or top 50’s)</p>
<p>Yes - mention the 26 days missed because of illness. Yes - the upward trend will help. Yes - you are correct that the AdComms will care more about your junior year PGA than your freshman year GPA. Yes - you will be able to matriculate at a university outside of your state.</p>
<p>The illness is an important factor explaining your grades and should be mentioned. But rather than you mentioning the illness, it would be better if it is in your counselor letter. No knock on you, but many times people don’t word these things the best way when they’re talking about themselves and it comes across a bit as making an excuse, whereas when its in a rec from your school it gains in credibility because it comes from an outside observer. </p>
<p>And on the flip side a counselor can turn something like this into a strength in a way that would seem awkward or worse if you wrote it yourself (eg. “I was impressed by the way Johnny applied himself to his studies in 10th grade. I’ve seen far too many students fall behind in 9th grade due to external factors and then give up, never reaching their potential. Johnny had to work harder than his classmates his sophomore year but his teachers told me he never gave up, and within a year was one of the top students here at City”).</p>
<p>most colleges, especially the more selective (lets say top 30) will not pay much attention to your composite GPA. They will actually take the time to look at your transcript class by class, and grade by grade, to make a gestaltic evaluation… the GPA as a collapsed, condensed number is meaningless. They actually do pay attention to the difference between AP Enviro and AP Bio, Between AP Stats and AP Calculus AB (even further to BC), etc. Read a couple of admissions books and you realize the selective schools give a thorough, rigorous evaluation to all files that are even close to admit quality. The book I read a couple of years ago was “GATEKEEPERS”, which made me realize how much effort selective schools put into each and every legit application file. More than 30 minutes and up to an hour to read the essay, read the letters of rec, review the depth of the ECs, and thoroughly review each year, and each class, on the transcript.</p>
<p>As to level of school, I cannot comment without know how competive your HS is… a GPA in isolation is pretty meaningless except to scholarship award committees.</p>
<p>Assuming an above average school, looks to me that your match range would be (with 31 ACT) USNWR national Unis from 30-60. With a 34 ACT, you can bump that up 15 positions.</p>