Grades vs ECs vs SAT?

Applying to College
1

Hey everyone, I am a current senior in high school and have submitted all of my college applications. However, my first semester grades just came out, and I was unhappy with the results. In fact, multiple semesters the past few years have been pretty bad for the standards of the schools I am applying to. I want to know what you think about my chances of getting into my reach schools are. My EC’s, essays, and SAT are strong–grades my only weak point.

The reach schools I am applying to are all RD and are:

Amherst, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Duke, Middlebury, NYU Stern, Northwestern, Stanford, Wharton, Vanderbilt, Williams, and Georgetown.

All of my major information is below:

Testing

SAT: 1560 composite (790 math, 770 reading)
US History subject test: 740
Math II subject test: 760

EC’s:

  1. founder of innovative startup company to make projectors that display basketball court regulation lines on outdoor basketball courts (have patent)
  2. Youth district leader for international charity, raised over $20,000 through personally raised events
  3. Intern at medical company where my regulatory work was so well received they funded a trip for me to a company meeting in Japan
  4. Wearable technology intern at local university, developed publication with program director and presented at the collegiate research symposium
  5. Junior class president
  6. Attended orthopaedic conference in India for underprivileged patients
  7. Regulatory intern for telenutrition company
  8. Leader of school diversity and inclusion group
  9. top 5 runner on varsity cross country, letter winner
  10. self-taught the French language

GRADES (this is the WEAK point):

4.26 weighted
3.7 unweighted

Sophomore Semester 1
A-
A-
A
A+
A
A

Sophomore Semester 2 (this is really bad)
A-
B
B
B+
A
B+

Junior Sem 1
A-
A-
A+
A-
B
B+

Junior Sem 2
A-
A-
A-
B
A

Senior Sem 1
A-
A-
A-
B
A
A+
A

Academic Honors:

Junior Marshal (top 20 GPA in class)
Science, Mandarin NHS
Regular NHS
(school doesn’t do class ranking)

Sorry if that was a lot to go through. As you can tell, my testing and ECs are good while my grades do include a lot of Bs in them. I just want to know if my grades will take me out of contention for many of my top reach schools, or if my ECs and testing will be able to somewhat make up for them. My parents are worried and really believe that I am out of the race to get into these top schools. I have only received one decision back already, early decision at Dartmouth College: I was deferred.

Thanks for the help!

2

Also–another piece of info–I took 8 AP classes during high school. I am taking 3 currently. On the others, I got three 5’s (APUSH, HUGE, and World history) and two 4’s (macro and bio).

3

Unless you are of special interest (e.g. ALDC), then you likely need all of grades, course rigor, test scores, extracurriculars, essays, and recommendations to be top-end as well as a good match for what the super-selective college is looking for. Any “defect” (such as your grade record) makes your chance of admission to a super-selective college worse than typical.

Do you have affordable safeties that you will be happy to attend?

4

Yes—I have multiple safeties, including one I am pretty positive I’ll get into that I would be happy to attend. That being said, I would Ofcourse rather to be admitted to one or more of the above reach schools, even if it just means opening up my options.

5
  1. Done is done, and as long as you have a genuine safety, you will be fine.
  2. Your school's Naviance will tell you more than anybody here will be able to tell you.
  3. Prepare yourself for a lot of rejections from that list- not because of your Bs but b/c they are hypercompetitive and 90+% of applicants are going to be rejectected.

Ask them straight out if they will be disappointed IN you if you get rejected by all of those schools, or disappointed FOR you. Every parent should be the latter, no parent should be the former.

6

According to Naviance, acceptances to these top schools are uncommon. That being said, my weighted GPA is right in the realm of the acceptances (although there are many denials with GPA’s like mine). The one top school that had admitted more applicants like me was Dartmouth, and I was deferred. Does the fact that I’m at least competitive according to Naviance but not too great change anything?

7

If students with your stats from your school are getting into these schools, you have a chance. If you go to a competitive high school that is known to the schools you’ve applied to, that can help.

As a parent, I’ll guess that your parents are more stressed about you missing out on your top choices more than your actual grades. At least that is how I’ve felt as a parent. Your AP scores indicate that you are learning and retaining what you’ve learned.

Good luck!