<p>HartinGA - I PMed you as my detailed response was pretty lengthy.</p>
<p>Abbreviated, my D’s story is a little different that WUt’s. She went to a very mediocre, rural h.s. (2 APs offered), had a 4.0 (was the val), but her SAT and ACT scores were in the 99th%tile and she was the only NMF at her h.s. Her chem and bio prep in h.s. were atrocious.</p>
<p>First semester she took chem & lab, required writing, foreign language, and Calc II. Had no trouble with any class except chem. She studied more for chem than all the other classes combined along with going to every PLTL session, help session, review session, tutor session, professor office hours, and had a study group. She studied hours and hours and hours and ended up with a B (first of her life!). 2nd semester she took chem & lab, bio, lang (the top undergrad level class) and psych. Same senario, chem took more study time than everything else and she ended up with a B and a 3.7 gpa over all. Also remember than an A- is a 3.7 at WashU. She plays in two music groups and takes private lessons for no credit (which requires group and individual practice), volunteers some on campus, and played a club sport on a limited basis. Most of her socializing had to do with studying, although she did occassionally just do something for the sheer fun of it. We would tell her, “Go out! Have fun!” She would say, “I’m trying very hard to do well here!” </p>
<p>Next year should be fun orgo, bio, grad level lang classes, and finally start to get into the “real” P-N-P classes.</p>