Congratulations and welcome to the Big Ten!
I shifted to the US after my Freshman Year in India, there I went to a very competitive private school, So my grades were quite low, My high school in the US converted my grades from India to all Bās, So I had a freshman year GPA of 3.0
Here in the US, my sophomore year just ended and I got a 3.93(Weighted) in my 1st semester(I got 2 Bās because I was adjusting to the system here) and now I got a 4.21 GPA in my second semester.
I plan on getting all Aās in my Junior year and my GPA for that year can go as high as 4.43
But because of my Freshman year grades, my cumulative GPA would only be 3.63(Unweighted) and 3.9(Weighted).
How will it affect my college Application? Will top colleges like the ivies take into consideration of my grades in my freshman year?
I have been very stressed about this for a long time
Thanks!
@Boxcar101 Thank You!
@CheddarcheeseMN Thank You
@FutureNotDoctor Thank you! I will definitely reach out if I have an questions.
@momofsenior1 Thank You lots!
@PackerBacker123 First, Thank You. Iām happy that even through post I seem decent.
I was that with my CS degree that I would hopefully have a jobs(probably as a software engineer or app developer), but also do some voluntary teaching since thereās a lot of people who havenāt been exposed to CS.
I think essays were the most stressful, but I was also worried about my extracurriculars. When I did the WISTEM program I met other girl who were applying to schools for CS, but doing way more interesting activities that me. It made me stress out, and I tried to participate in more STEM oriented activities like Robotics Club(which I ended up loving). Looking back now there was no need to sign up for a billion things, you just need to focus on a few and put your best effort into them.
For essays, I cannot stress this enough, START EARLY. You daughter/son may think that they have the essay right the first time, and the delete everything and start all over. I put time into my essays, but I wished I had put even more time. The why do you want to go school here essays especially take time since you also need to research to mention specific things about the school in the essay.
Hope I was helpful.
@privatebanker Thank You!
@BuckeyeMWDSG Thank You!
@doodoo27 Thank you for the advice. Very helpful, especially the part about the essays. CS is such a stressful major for college admissions right now.
Good luck to you! Youāll do awesome no matter what you end up doing.
Hi! Of the 20+ schools that you applied to, were many of them āreachā schools for you, or were the bulk of your applications for schools that you expected to get accepted into?
Thanks so much for doing this!
@mczchl, I applied to quite a few safeties, but mostly reach schools since theyāre obviously harder to get into. Sometimes counselors try to stop you from doing this, but honestly you can never be sure where youāre getting into. Also if fees are a problem then you can ask the university for a fee waiver.
Congratulations! You earned it! I think your ECs are very impressive. I suspect that you had very good teacher recommendations. Those things probabaly helped you.
If you had a re-do, is there anything youād do differently?
Iām applying to competitive schools (UCLA and UC Berkeley) but I have a total of 5 Bs (so about a 3.83 overall unweighted). My overall weighted is 4.41. I regret not putting in more effort and getting straight As, but senior year Iām taking 5 APs and aiming for straight As. At this point, will this help me despite my (relatively) low GPA?
@Lindagaf Thank You!
I probably would have started earlier when it came to writing essays and sending in applications. I also would have tried to apply to some of the bigger outside scholarships, because with cover-19 they would have been such a great backup when it came to paying.
@curlyphysics YES!
This was my exact situation. The reason my GPA is so bad was because my tenth grade year was a complete mess. I was so worried that I called a MIT admissions counselor(even though I ended up not applying) to ask if I could still be a competitive applicant if I did well my junior year and senior year. She told me yes since it show an upward improvement. So I worked my butt off and took more APs and Honors and Aced them. Obviously it didnāt turn out that bad for me, so Iām sure youāll do great(you even have a higher GPA than me). Schools like UCLA and Berkeley look a lot at coursework and I think if you take APs it definitely make youāll more competitive.
Also just wanted to tell you that your GPA is definitely not low. A 3.83 means that you had higher than a A- average(which is really good especially compared to some other people).
Thank you! That makes me feel so much better lol, I appreciate it.
@Doodoo27 Hi. I am a rising senior and Iām planning on applying to NU Early Decision in the fall of 2020. In the midst of current events and school closures, I want to know what my chances of getting in would be. My school is planning on going back in person and we kept number grades for the semester. For context, I am a Pakistani Muslim girl and I want to go into journalism and I attend a nationally competitive private high school in a geographically underrepresented area. Here are my stats:
GPA: 3.68 unweighted
3.86 weighted
AP (my school doesnāt offer many): World History (4 on the exam), US History (current), English language (my school doesnāt offer the class but Iām self-studying for the exam).
Iām planning on taking the ACT but as of now, Iām not sure when Iāll be able to take it. On practice tests, Iāve gotten 29-31.
As a side note: Iāve been taking Japanese at school since 8th grade. Not sure if this will count for anything.
As for ECs, I have a lot. I was the state champion in informative speaking for speech and debate this year and have won numerous other second and third placements in oratory and duo interpretation. I was also on the youngest mock trial team to ever qualify for nationals last year. I am co-editor in chief of the school newspaper and have been an editor since last year and contributor since 7th grade. I also initiated an advanced journalism independent study with my newspaper advisor since we donāt have a formal course. I did a two summer internship with a local neuropsychologist and co-authored a book chapter with him the Cambridge Handbook of Intelligence and Cognitive Neuroscience. I spent the last summer teaching an English course as a local program designed to help kids from low-income neighborhoods catch up in school. I also founded two clubs at school: girls who code and the Muslim Studentās Association. I spoke at this yearās TEDx Youth Day and have won numerous awards from the Scholastic Writing Competition.
In other words, Iām not a very strong student academically but I have a lot in the EC arena and Iām not sure if itāll balance out in a way that will get me to NU. Please let me know what you think-- I would appreciate it so much!!