<p>I’m Asian (a sophomore) and I am planning to apply to MIT and Columbia in senior year. I just looked at my report and realized I had a C on my PE exam, and a B on my biology exam. I also had a B in conduct in Spanish.</p>
<p>I have straight A’s, but my school puts exam and conduct grades on our transcript. Since they will send the transcript with my bad exam and conduct grades to the schools I am applying to, will it hurt my chances of getting in? (Or do they even consider exam/conduct grades at all when they look at my application?)</p>
<p>Each institution reviews applicants differently, but overall they will notice your strong performance (assuming you receive all/most A’s and then a B and C). However, MIT and Columbia are some of the most competitive schools, and just about everyone who applies has a 4.0. Not to discourage you, but college in the US is becoming very competitive. Now, the fact that you are Asian does give you a leg-up on the competitive. Universities pride themselves on being diverse so having more international students looks appealing to them. Hope this helps and good luck!</p>
<p>^uh hate to burst your bubble, but being asian does not mean anything in U.S. schools, in fact it will probably be more competitive being an Asian male applying to MIT than maybe being a caucasian male.</p>
<p>And since they are such high level schools, anything short of perfection will hurt you. However, as long as all your other grades are exemplary and you have excellent SAT scores with the right level of extracurriculars you will be fine</p>
<p>Yeah, the fact that I’m an Asian female is already putting me at a disadvantage, haha. I have a 4.0 GPA unweighted, it’s just that my exam scores for two classes were low. Is the final GPA for each semester/trimester all they care about, or do they take exam grade into account as well?</p>
<p>For example in a situation where two people with the same GPA/SAT/extracurriculars/awards/etcetc (hypothetically speaking, since that isn’t really possible), except one person had a few low exam grades and the other had straight A’s, would they prefer the person with straight A exam grades over the other, even if their GPAs were both 4.0?</p>
<p>Oh and yes, it is significantly harder for an Asian to get into a competitive school than for a Caucasian/Hispanic, etc. It also shows through this article I read about many Asian Americans not ticking the Asian box or not even stating their ethnicity at all in order to have a better chance at getting into the university of their choice.
It’s just that the Ivies and other schools’ student bodies are usually only about 22% Asian (or even less), but there is a TON of competition between Asians. I don’t want to sound like I’m stereotyping, but there are a LOT of smart Asians who get perfect 2400’s, straight 5’s on their APs, 4.0 GPA, internships at prestigious places, etc. As an Asian I have a disadvantage because they don’t accept many Asians and within that small ~22% spot, there is a TON of competition.</p>
<p>And I’ve also read the Official Yale/Harvard/Princeton Class of 2016 boards on CC, and all of the Asians who got accepted had over a 2300 on their SAT and a ton of other stuff. For everyone else though, I did see some 2200 scores, etc.</p>