HORRIBLE GPA (not exaggerating)

polaris746
Tue, 31 May 2005 00:25:23 +0000

I’d like your opinion on my chances at WUSTL, Northwestern, and Emory.

Let me tell you straight up. My GPA is the weakest part of my application, as it is horrible. And I’m not talking CC-horrible (which is probably around something like a 3.7 uw). I mean like, horrible – and this is partly (if not fully) due to my horrendous freshman year. Note that I am not looking for sympathy here, because I know I will not get any. I haven’t read of anyone with a lower uw-GPA than me on this board.

My freshman year was abysmal – if you had looked up “asian failure”, “counter-strike addict”, or “procrastinator”, you would’ve seen my picture covering that entire page of the dictionary. I basically thought I could get away with the minimal work I had been doing in middle school – and learned that life was not so easy – the hard way.

Freshman year:

(Unleveled) Literature and Composition I: C+
(Unleveled) World History I: B-
(Honors) Algebra II: C
(Unleveled) Advanced Earth Systems Science: C
(Regular) French II: C
(Unleveled) Symphonic Band: A

Pretty funny, eh?

Then I realized that I’m in deep horse poo and started trying sophomore year:
Note that I couldn’t get into any hard classes my soph. year because I had such horrible grades frosh year

(Regular) Literature and Composition: A-
(Regular) World History II: A-
(Regular) Geometry: A+
(Regular) Biology: B+
(Regular) French III: B+
(Unleveled) Introduction to Debate: B
(Unleveled) Symphonic Band: A+

(I should probably take this time to note that I go to a fairly competitive public high school with a good reputation. It use to be one of the top 100, but it has been declining as of late – it is still a good school ranked about 300th in the nation. Grade deflation is rampant especially in English and Science courses.)

With my decent sophomore year grades, I was able to take more rigorous courses junior year:

Junior (Realistically projected):

(Regular) American Literature: A-
(Honors) AP US History: A-
(Honors) Advanced Math: A
(Honors) AP Chemistry: B
(Honors) AP Statistics: B
(Regular) French IV: A-
(Unleveled) Symphonic Band: A

Not exceptional, but clearly better than my last two years. I understand that I am not close to ivy-material, but I am confident about my positive trend. I just don’t know if this trend is TOO positive… or TOO MUCH of an improvement from frosh year (i.e. my frosh year grades are too terrible to even receive consideration).

Here are my next year’s courses:

(Unleveled) Contemporary Literature
(Honors) AP Biology
(Honors) AP Calculus AB
(Honors) AP European History
(Honors) AP Physics B
(Unleveled) Symphonic Band

Realistically speaking, my uw-GPA is not going to be above a 3.5. Heck, it probably won’t end up above a 3.4 if I take out Symphonic Band – and this is all assuming I absolutely rock my finals and 1st quarter of senior year – because my current uw-GPA is like a 3.2.



Realistic projections:

AP US History: 5
AP Statistics: 5

AP Chemistry: 3

Real scores:

SAT Reasoning Test: 2100 (cr-700, m-700, w-700 (8))

Retaking October, aiming for 2250.

SAT Subject Test: Biology -> 800
SAT Subject Test: Chemistry -> 750
SAT Subject Test: US History -> 800
SAT Subject Test: Japanese -> 790
SAT Subject Test: Math IIC -> 800

ACT Assessment: 32 composite

Oh, and I’m a Japanese citizen with a greencard (permanent resident - MA).



Extracurriculars:

I don’t want to bore you so I’m just going to put on my really major EC’s, ok? ok.

Symphonic Band (9, 10, 11 (section leader), 12 (some good leader position))
Baseball (9, 10, 11, 12) (NOT on school team!)
Yearbook (9, 10, 11, 12 (Editor))
Intramural Softball (10, 11 (manager), 12 (manager))
Japanese Language School (K-11 (alumni))
Student Government (12 - class council)
National Forensics League (10 - policy debater)

Some achievements:

-Massachusetts Instrumental & Choral Conductors Association (2-time silver, 1-time bronze medalist - Symphonic Band)
-Massachusetts Science Fair (9, 11) (Certificate of Achievement)
-National Youth Leadership Forum on Medical School Admissions nominee (11)
-Japanese Language School of Greater Boston Alumni
-PADI Advanced Open Water Diver Certified
-1st Place Division-A Tournament at Tennis Camp
-CPR Certified

Volunteer:

530 hours
-CIT at a Japanese-American Institute (10, 12 : combined 480 hours)
-Tutoring (combined 50 hours)
–ESL
–Middle school standardized testing
–Elementary school math
–English tutoring in Japan

Work experience:

Student-tutor at a Kumon Math & Reading Center (10, 11, 12)



My truest passion lies in the game of baseball. I wasn’t able to tryout freshman year due to a sprained calf, got cut sophomore year, and wasn’t able to tryout junior year because of elbow tendenitus. What luck, huh? I still managed to play in local leagues, etc. I also love to deal with/teach little kids, and my own native language – which explains my 480 hours of CIT community service at a Japanese-American camp, along with my numerous hours of volunteer tutoring and work experience at Kumon.

Will my above-average standardized test scores and my EC’s make up for my below-average GPA? How about the fact that I’m not your average science-olympiad, math-team-captain, piano-for-12-years, 2400-sat Asian? shrug

What are my chances at WUSTL, Northwestern, and Emory? I’m thinking of a WUSTL ED, but would that be pushing it? Because my friends and I sure think so. <slaps self=“” for=“” slacking=“” frosh=“” year=“”></slaps>