How badly will messing up freshman year in highschool hurt me?

Applying to College
1

Hey CC!
I live in India and here’s my scores at high school,

80% (in 9th grade)
87% (in 10th grade)
94.33% (in 11th grade)
94.5% (In 12th grade)

In 9th I lost my grandad ( I literally grew up with him and spent more time with him than my actual parents) a few months before the exams ( I don’t know if I should include this as I don’t wanna sound like I’m not taking the responsibility for my marks).
and I also especially messed up Sanskrit (my secondary language) by scoring a whopping 45/100 as I had no teacher for 3 years and I as it’s a scarce language I had no help from anyone/ the internet either. (again in 9th)

I’ll be applying to HYPM, Stanford, Rice, Vanderbilt and such as I need high financial aid. My safeties are here in India. Can anyone tell me how adversely my scores will affect me?

2

Well, you’ll be competing with students who had top grades through all four years, but you have a strong upward trend, which is what matters. Here’s some advice, IMO, you should look exclusively to the schools that are need blind for international students. High need students who aren’t in the upper echelon of test scores and GPA stand no chance at these schools. Good luck!

3

You applied and were rejected to Cornell ED. Now you’re throwing your app into schools with much better fin aid for internationals and thus, are astronomically more difficult to obtain admission for internationals. I think none of the seven colleges you listed are realistic for you IMHO. They’re turning down almost perfect international applicants by the 100s

4

@T26E4 I really don’t have much of a choice, my parents can only support me so much and I need quite a bit of aid and only reaches such as HYP, Stanford and the likes can provide.

Also they don’t want to finance the education if it isn’t marginally better than what is available here at India.

I’m re-writing/working on my essays and I’ve also made my EC’s and such more clearer as I kinda rushed during ED.

How much do you think my grades will affect me?

5

Like I said, given the generous nature of your target schools, they reject TONS of Indian applicants with near perfect applications (4.0 GPA, +2300SAT, etc.). Surely, you’ve discovered that in the Indian students’ forum, right?

6

@T26E4 I do understand that but I also realize that I don’t have anything holding me back atm – except maybe for my grades? – I rewrote the ACT this december and I’m expecting around a 33-35 and I don’t think my SAT Subjects were very bad either. I know in the end I might get rejected by all of the schools I apply to and It might just be a waste of money but I think I’d be more disappointed if I let the opportunity slip and let figures and numbers get the better of me.

P.S I’m just hoping that flooding my app with my passion/personality will get me noticed and help me out a bit. Though I know that isn’t much. Also I do think they’re pretty tired will all those perfect scores right?

7

At least you have good options in India.

8

I think you’ll be studying in India.

9

@“Erin’s Dad” Yeah they are quite a few good colleges here in India but I find they lack the entire education part of education(if that makes sense). Most of the lecturer’s here don’t actively do research due to limited funds and just teach. I find the atmosphere here very robotic and rusty. It’s quite demotivating tbh.

Also how badly do you think my grades will affect me? Is it so bad that I stand no chance because of it?

10

Grades are a huge deal – often the first thing colleges look at. I don’t think schools get tired of people with perfect scores because many applicants with those scores have also have done interesting things, have passion/personality as well. I think the schools you applied to are unrealistic for a US citizen who needs no aid, never mind as an international who needs aid. But of course feel free to apply if you want. However, I am glad that you do have options in your home country.

11

@4kidsdad Hey! Can you please tell me where I’m lacking? I know I stand a very small chance against the highly competitive applicant pool but I do think all my EC’s and essays are pretty solid tbh. My scores other than my GPA aren’t too bad either. Where am I going wrong?

12

@happy1 How badly do you think my grades are going to affect me? Are they really that bad?

13

They are not bad, but they are certainly below average for the hyper-competitive schools you are considering.

14

@CaliCash I will be applying to all the need-blind schools but also schools that are need aware and offer high financial need based scholarships for internationals. I know the odds are against me but I can’t do much to change that can I? So just look forward and keep moving I guess.

15

Even ignoring the 9th grade scores, you will have a hard time competing with all the other smart internationals who also may have great personalities. But you should apply to a few reaches, because it seems really important to you.

16

Your grades are low, comparing to other HYPM applicants.

17

I know Penn and some other colleges will drop freshman grades in their calculations. Perhaps you should be on the lookout for such colleges.

10th grade is much more of a worry than 9th grade as 9th grade is seen as a transition year.

And needing high financial aid won’t help you.

One of my friends went to university in India, and grad school at one of the schools you mention. Have you considered that?

18

@rhandco If I have no other option I will end up doing just that, I’ll finish my undergrad here and look to do my grad in the US. Also my 10th grade breakdown is something like this :

English : 78/100
Sanskrit: 78/100
Math:90/100
Social Studies : 88/100
Sciences(Phy/Chem/Bio Average): 88/100
Computer Science: 100/100

I honestly don’t know how I lost marks in my english paper as I have a pretty good command over the language but oh well.