Chances, do great awards make up for weak grades?

thecow
Sun, 03 Mar 2013 16:43:23 +0000

Hello,
I’m a sophomore in Illinois. (a fairly competitive school). How am I doing if I want to get in to Stanford or similar schools? I love computers and business. I know my first semester GPA is horrendous, but I’m definitely on an upward trend. Hopefully my extracurriculars will make up for the lower grades.

GPA sem 1 = 3.9
GPA sem 2 = 4.25
GPA sem 3 = 4.25
GPA sem 4 = 4.35
Between 10th and 5th percentile class rank, probably about 7th.
By graduation, I will have taken 7 or 8 AP classes.
ACT: 30 composite, but that was last year and I know I can easily do better.

Founder & President of Stock Market Club
V.P. of Business Professionals of America club
JV Tennis 2 years, won’t play on varsity or play my junior and senior years.
Student Council Member
First in regionals and top 5 in state for web design competitions, two years in a row.
4th in state for an entrepreneurship contest
Adobe certified associate in web design and rich media (photoshop).
Will have interned at dayawaycareers.com for 4 years during summers
National qualifier in web applications contest
I have built two android apps, both available on Google Play. I plan on making more.
I have made multiple computer games.
Next year I will participate in a startup incubator sponsored by my school in which I will found a company.

I know my grades are on the weak side. Do I still have a chance? Also, I tend to focus on my own projects (that I truly enjoy) instead of school work. Should I drop some extracurriculars and study more? Other thoughts?

Thanks!