<p>i got of to a pretty slow start in hs and my freshman year gpa and 1st semester sophomore year grades were pretty poor. however since then my gpa has been steadily increasing:</p>
<p>freshman:3.3, 3.5
sophomore:3.2, 3.8
junior: 4.3, 4.4
total weighted gpa after junior year: 3.73
uw: 3.5
estimated gpa first semester senior year: 4.3</p>
<p>i am in almost all honors classes, have a 2100 sat, 32 act, and have decent ec’s (200+ hrs volunteering at hospital, 50+ hrs shadowing a doctor, varsity tennis, all suburban jazz saxophonist). however im in like the top 25% of my class now and should be top 20% after first semester.</p>
<p>Sorry I don’t mean to be harsh but top 20% will not cut it unless you go to a public magnet school or a top private. Also Brown does not discount freshman grades unlike other schools so GPA will hurt you. Your test scores are not that high for an unhooked applicant. I take it you are not a URM. Your EC’s show no passion. Also there doesn’t seem to be anything special about you.</p>
<p>However, focus on what you do have. Can you bad grades be explained? Play up your upwards trend? Discuss the commitment varsity tennis takes, try to get recruited. Play up the saxophonist thing. Apply ED if financial aid is not an issue. Maybe you will get in. Compared to its peers Brown does take kids OCCASIONALLY with lower GPA’s assuming a good personality and personal background (A person who was unhooked with an 88 GPA go in from my school). It doesn’t hurt to try.</p>
<p>If nothing else you can try to transfer in. That’s what I did. I had an F in a class in highschool (stupid ceramics teacher) so it tanked my GPA. But as a transfer they don’t put as much weight on that stuff - especially if it was nearly 10 years ago like in my case.</p>
<p>If he applies as a second year transfer it will matter. It will just matter less. It will hurt since there are a limited number of seats. And I doubt he is going to wait 10 years to reapply. Good Luck!!!</p>
<p>I didn’t wait 10 years. The F was 10 years ago or so. either way, i still had a mediocre HS record and got accepted. did you collegehopeful? Oh yeah, I forgot you haven’t even applied anywhere yet.</p>
<p>The picture changes dramatically if you are good enough at tennis to be recruited or good enough at music (i.e. potential professional musician) to be viewed as a major contributor in that dimension.</p>