<p>I had some personal issues at the exclusive prep school I went to during my first three years of high school and finished my Junior year last in my class with a 1.4 GPA with a D in Algebra II and Fs in French and Chemistry. I took the SATs in the spring of my Junior year and got a 520 in math and a 610 in the verbal. However, something suddenly clicked over the summer and I started my Senior year with a determination to turn my life around. I had a 3.4 GPA for the Fall semester of my senior year and a 3.5 for the Spring semester. Unfortunately all the colleges I applied to in the Fall of my senior year only saw my grades through my Junior year. As you can imagine I received numerous rejection letters including one that had a hand written note on the standard rejection form saying “extremely poor high school record”, as if I didn’t know that. I had no safety schools with my record and by Spring had received nothing but rejections. Finally, in April one college took a look at my senior year grades and offered me an interview and I took advantage of that chance to convince them I was a much better prospect than my record through my Junior year would indicate.</p>
<p>I got accepted there and went on to earn a BS in Astronomy which required 3 semesters of Calculus, one semester of Differential Equations and one semester of Linear Algebra in addition to a large number of very challenging Physics and Astronomy courses. I eventually decided to pursue a career in medicine, was admitted to a leading medical school and am a practicing physician today.</p>
<p>It is possible to be a woeful underachiever through your Junior year, get a stack of rejection letters from colleges, all of which stung, and still achieve a modicum of success.</p>