I had three Bs my freshman year and 3 sophomore year. They were relatively high Bs and they were in honors and AP classes. I got straight 100s my junior year. My gpa is 4.06, by second semester of senior year it should be 4.1. Will those Bs when I was in 9th and 10th grade take away from my application when applying to Ivy League and second tier schools? (SAT= 2380 (btw))
The simple answer yes.
There are boatload of applicants that have a similar SAT with straight As, which puts them at an advantage. Ivys are an admissions lottery for the most “perfect” applicants. But Ivys are not the only quality education; and you have a great SAT score and As and Bs are nothing to scoff at.
Best of luck!
True that boatloads of kids with 2400s and straight As apply. Also true that many of them are rejected and some kids with grades and scores like yours are admitted. It is a holistic admissions process so the question is what else are you bringing to the table in terms of ECs, essays, etc. that make you a compelling candidate? With admit rates between 5 and 10%, the Ivy League schools are a long shot for everyone so important to put together a balanced list with schools that are reaches, matches and safe. I’ve seen too many kids with straight A/A+ averages and 2370+ SATs get rejected from 10 out of 12 schools to which they applied.
Credentials for college by senior year
Academic:
- IB
- GPA 4.06 (will be 4.10)
- top 5% of class
- 2380 SAT
- 760 SAT World history
- 790 SAT bio
- 800 SAT Literature
- 800 SAT US history
In school activities:
- debate team coach and captain (4 years)
- grade president (3 years)
- NHS secretary (2 years)
- science fair (prize winner) (3 years)
- tennis team manager (4 years)
- robotics (3 years)
Out of school activities:
- summer bio med internship
- upenn summer biomed program
- shadowed doctor in India - 2 neurologist (6 years) and 1 cardiologist (5 years), oncologist for (2 years)
- shadowed general practitioner (3 years) – Pediatrician (4 years)-- NP (1 year)
- Ran a medical boot camp in India for free for the poor
- recommendation from Indian doctor
- reccomendation from American doctor
- I also have my EMT license
- I started a program and raised money in my school and community to send to an organization that provides clean water to poverished locations in Africa.
- fluent in languages
- Spanish
- French
- Malayalam
- Afrikaans
- Danish
- sign language (US& British&Asian)
@uesmomof2 // my EC I believe is my strongest front. But when I saw my transcript the Bs were just blank in your face. There’s little to no avoiding them. I was worried I might not be given as much as a quick look.
I question why you have Bs when your ECs are so strong. Are you investing too much time in your ECs and not putting work into your classes? Honestly, for a student like you it shouldn’t be difficult to get all As, maybe one or two Bs would be understandable, but 3 each year?
When did you shadow so many doctors in India and America, for multiple years? You had summer internships, so I’m assuming it wasn’t in the summer. If I were you, I would consider narrowing your definition of “shadowing” or amend your resume point to “shadowing experience in multiple disciplines,” since the amount of doctors you claim to have shadowed honestly seems unreasonable and gives the impression that you may not have achieved much depth of experience with any one of the doctors, save the two that wrote your recommendations.
And lastly, as a native speaker, I’m genuinely curious, are you legitimately fluent in Afrikaans? If so, what opportunities did you have to learn the language? Is language-learning a genuine interest of yours? If it is, then you may want to consider integrating your interest in languages into your plan for higher education. But I have to admit, I’m always suspicious of anyone who claims to be fluent in 5+ languages, who claims to be fluent in any foreign language for that matter, because there is almost no way to have regular conversational experience in that many languages, especially if you live in a country where none of them are widely spoken.
@daniiiiis i shadowed after my internship- it ended early in the day so I take the train and go to the hospital until about 6-7 when my parents come back to pick me up. That’s how the American doctors worked. I also shadowed one through the school year. The internships lasted a month for the most part. I traveled after it was over and stayed in India for another month and shadowed daily there. I have multiple doctors since I could only shadow bi weekly for certain ones but I’ve been doing that since 7th grade. As far as languages. In Afrikaans I am fluent-. My sister has a friend from the country who introduced me to the language and tutored me. I also did a lot of self study and picked it up online. I learned Danish close after since its similar to Afrikaans. Malayalam I was raised speaking. My French is alittle broken honestly since that was my most recent language but i know enough to speak, and understand it. And yes I do think my EC took up a lot of my time. My junior year grades were perfect though. I’m not sure if that would cover up for my previous years. I was in pre Ib last year and I guess I didn’t quite grasp time management. I’m worried that with those Bs blankly on the paper, they won’t even look and see all the EC
Nobody can tell you anything beyond the obvious: your credentials are outstanding, and they will earn your application a serious, respectful review. Unfortunately, that still means that your chances aren’t much better than thousands of other students with impeccable qualifications. Most of the colleges you’ll apply to won’t necessarily hold those Bs against you, considering all your other attributes, but the competition is so brutal that they might. My impression is that they see a lot more perfect GPAs than they see fluency in Malay, Afrikaans, and Danish, and so that could tip the scales in your favor. I recommend that you relax, and realize that you will get into some terrific college, even if not the one of your dreams. You can pick and choose among attractive safety and match schools, and then aim high for your reaches.
And with those test scores and gpa and unique EC you would be a great candidate for major merit scholarships at a number of schools.