Idk. I have just been feeling sad af rn. At one time i was so optimistic and hopeful but as the days go by and the semester comes to an end I slowly see the hopes and dreams fall apart.
I legit try so hard and do all my homework and practice but I just cant do good in my tests. Im really not sure what I’m doing wrong but the damage has been done.
I had a 3.8 UW GPA overall but now I’m sure it would dip into the 3.6 range.
Final grades - AP Calc AB (B), Engineering Applications (A), Chemistry Honors (B+), AP Lang (B+), US History Honors (B+), AP Physics 2 (B), AP Econ (A).
Don’t be sad. You are taking on a big schedule. Be proud of your accomplishments. Focus less on grades. More on ensuring what you missed, especially in calc. It builds.
What you need is a school that will admit you and that you can afford. Top 20 - whatever that means - assures you nothing. Similarly, lower ranked schools don’t mean failure.
Look at some of the threads today from schools ranked well below 20. Kids with 4.0 and 1500 with rigor aren’t getting in.
At the same time, less than perfect kids
statistically do get in top schools too.
Control what you can - and that’s you. A GOA, test, essays, extra curriculars.
There will be many schools that will be lucky enough to have you.
Are you looking to do engineering ? If so, rank matters little. Kids from all sorts of schools get the same job.
You don’t need so much stress. Stop beating yourself up.
Yeah im planning on doing CS, which is so competitive
The thing that stresses me out is that as much as I hope that a college gives me a second look, there will probably always be an applicant right after me who has a 3.9+ and a 1500+ SAT score so in an admission officer’s viewpoint, it would probably be best for them to select that next applicant. Whats even more annoying is that I was dealing with a big extenuating circumstance which is why my grades dropped in the first place
I definitely think that I can get the grades back up in second semester but idk if that would change anything because the damage has already been done
TBH, my advice is the same as it would be if you had hung onto the 3.8:
Build your list from the bottom up.
Starting from a mindset of “all my hopes and dreams will fall apart if I don’t get into a T20” is terribly unhealthy. Only a tiny minority of US college student attend one of these super-elite schools; and there are hundreds of thousands getting a great education and having a great college experience at hundreds of other reputable colleges.
I see from your other thread that you’re in Washington. I realize that this puts additional stress on you, as an aspiring CS major, because UW-Seattle CS is so hard to get into, even in-state.
The sanity-saving (as well as practical) thing to do is to find at least one or two affordable schools that are very likely to accept you and that you could be happy to attend. Table the whole “T20” line of thinking until you have accomplished this. Everybody needs a balanced list; and that shouldn’t mean having “safeties” that you see as a fate worse than death. You’re a strong student, and there are great schools that would be happy to have you attend!
Grade-wise, do the best you can in the spring semester, obviously. Communicate with your guidance counselor - do they already know about the issue(s) that caused the grade dip? The counselor recommendation is where extenuating circumstances should be explained, and your counselor can do a much better job of this if they’ve been following the situation all along and observing how you’ve dealt with it.
Instead of fixating on rank, think about what kind of learning environment you want in a college. School size, geography, urban/suburban/rural, the “vibe” of the campus. Would you enjoy a STEM-focused school, or one where there are lots of humanities and social science majors as well? What’s your budget, and are you eligible for need-based financial aid?
Once you know that you’ll be okay, even if you don’t get into a super-elite college, then you can think about some well-chosen “reach” schools. Focusing on “dream schools” first is a recipe for toxic stress and misery. People here will gladly help you to brainstorm and build a balanced list - from the bottom up.
THIS. I can’t emphasize this enough. Starting with a top 20 or bust approach to colleges isn’t the best way to go. There are plenty of colleges where you can get a CS degree outside of the top 20. And really, some of those top 20 colleges are not well known for CS while colleges lower in the rankings are.
Those are difficult courses and you’re doing really well. Will you get into a T20? Hard to know, but there are literally thousands of other amazing schools out there.
There are a lot of universities that are very good for computer science. I have worked in high tech for my entire career. I have worked with coworkers who had graduated from a very, very wide range of universities. You do not need to attend a “top 20” university to do very well in high tech / computer science.
Once you are working, people will care about whether your code is relatively bug free before you try to merge it into the main line. They will care whether you are reasonable to deal with as a person. They will have forgotten where you got your degree and will not really care where you got your degree (which is why they will forget it).
You are taking a very tough combination of courses. Do the best that you can. Then don’t worry about it.
To me, a “top 20” university at this point looks unlikely, and very much not necessary. There are lots and lots of other universities where you can do very well.
Focus on what you can control. Those are all respectable grades in tough courses. It looks like these are year long classes -with the AP courses, etc…so figure out where you may need a little extra help. Tests, quizzes, labs, assignments, projects…talk to the teachers about study tips or concepts that might be building blocks for semester 2, the final, and AP tests - those will come up again with year long courses.
And as others have said, build a balanced list of schools that include a few high reaches, likely admits, and sure things. Those top 20 colleges are elusive for all, so don’t miss out on unique programs on other campuses because you are looking just at a brand name label.
do you think some good ec’s and essays could save me?
I get your point, but there will always be an internal desire which I can’t easily let go of. I want the satisfaction of knowing that I tried everything that I could before letting go
Go read the Ga Tech, Michigan, Wisconsin threads. There are people that walk on water getting rejected.
The school name doesn’t necessarily make your outcome better.
And then there’s budget - can your family pay $90K a year or do they want to?
You are not broken - there is nothing to save.
Be the best you that you can be - and you’ll figure out at the right time a reasonable list and you’ll end up in a great place.
PS - nothing is more important than academics.
Let your internal desire power you to a fantastic program.
PS - you know how many people turn down “top” programs. They take their stats and let “lesser” pedigree schools buy them in. My kid goes to #16 of 17 she got into…and will be fine (I hope)…as will you.
Focus on school and keeping your grades up vs. something out of your control.
Seriously.
You’ll be fine - and get to a wonderful place that hopefully your family can afford. This (below) was Georgia Tech’s thread yesterday…you know what…the student is great…but there’s many great…and it’s fine. The where really doesn’t matter…and even rock stars are having a tough time - but these kids will be fine too!!
“Same as one of the threads from last year my son was denied the GT fall 2024 for engineering. I can’t digest it and look for a valid reason where we went wrong. He has 22 APs (4 or 5)| SAT 1590|3.8 GPA|NMSQT national semi-finalist|winner for a few science oly|President of two clubs and ranked 35 out of 750 class size. We are shocked to get this rejection. Not sure, whether we can get any answers through the appeal process or talking to admission counselors here…”
You don’t need saving. It’s great to have that drive and apply, but also know that very few get into T20 schools. Even beyond that CS is very competitive. Just had my friend’s kid get deferred for NC State for engineering. He has a 4.0 uw, 4.59 w, NMF, 1560 SAT, and has taken 3 college math classes beyond BC calc. Even the best of the best get turned down at these places.
You should focus on what you can, which will be doing well the rest of hte year and writing good essays.
My advice is to decouple effort from outcome. If you do the best you can, try your hardest, your outcome will be good! Whatever it is. You can be proud of what you’ve done. The effort is under your control, the outcome (ie which school you are admitted to) is not.
You’ve been given some great advice on this thread. Guarantee there is more to life than T20 schools, in fact MANY school have far better CompSci programs.
I do not think that you need saving. I think that you will get into very good universities. They just are unlikely to be ranked in the top 20.
I think that ECs and essays are how “top 20” universities choose from among a very long list of applicants with nearly perfect grades. I do not think that ECs and essays make up for a slightly low GPA at a “top 20” university.
I think that you will be able to get into a very good university. If you do very well in university, and if you want to ever go to graduate school, then the very strongest graduate programs will still be available also if you ever want to consider applying to them. For CS graduate school however is not needed. For the software engineers who I happen to know (and there are a lot of them), very few of them (low single digit) have PhD’s, but a meaningful number of them (still way less than half) have master’s degrees. Of the ones with master’s degrees, most got their master’s degree at a university that is ranked higher compared to where they got their bachelor’s (which implies that they did very well as undergraduate students).
Exactly. Make sure that you apply to safeties. Do as well as you can. Have faith that this will work out.
Lots of us here on CC have experience working in industry. We have worked with people who graduated from Stanford and MIT and U.Mass and San Jose State and UNH and U.Maine and Rutgers and RIT and WPI and Michigan and UCB and a very, very wide range of other universities.
You will do fine, but you need to make sure that you apply to safeties, and your safeties will not be ranked in the top 20 overall nor most likely for CS.
