<p>I go to a competitive public school. I took all honors when there was the option, and took AP Chinese sophomore year, 3 APs (APUSH, Calc bc, bio) Junior year, and 4 APs currently. </p>
<p>My non A grades:
Freshman
1 B Alg 2/Trig (2nd sem)</p>
<p>Soph
All As</p>
<p>Junior
1 B English (1st semester)
1 B APUSH (2nd semester)
1 C Calc BC (2nd semester)</p>
<p>So obviously I am concerned about that C…now my UW GPA is 3.875. honestly I have no excuse besides the fact that my teacher is famous for being ridiculously difficult. However I got an A on a curve first semester and now it just looks like I was slacking. Is there somewhere on UC/common apps to explain this, and SHOULD I explain it? I also got a 5 on the AP test (much easier than the course), will that help me at all during admissions? </p>
<p>Schools I am (was?) looking at:
Cornell
Brown
UCLA, UCB
USC
Dartmouth
Pomona
UMich
UCLA
JHU
CMU
NYU
Upenn</p>
<p>I know these schools are selective schools, but did I basically erase the little chance I had with my junior year grades? Be brutal :(</p>
<p>Is that your entire list? I wouldn’t discourage you from applying to any of those schools…your stats are solid and you’ve taken challenging courses. But I don’t think any of the schools on this list have higher than a 20% admission rate and that’s a gamble for anyone. I’d cut that list in half at least and add at least as many safeties. And don’t explain the C…esp if your explaination is that your teacher was hard.</p>
<p>Just try your best to recover next time, to show that you have “woken up” from your past mistakes. Since many of the colleges mentioned have a holistic admissions process, put honest investment into your essays, focusing not primarily on your past, but focusing on the person that you will become. All this should substantiate your grade concerns. In my honest opinion, colleges will be only be worried if whether or not you will sustain an upward progression; which is what you want to persuade/prove in your essay.</p>
<p>2270 SAT, 2360 superscored
238 PSAT, NSMF at the moment</p>
<p>I don’t consider myself amazing in terms of extracurriculars at all, so the only thing that I could do to increase my chances was make my stats good…now I’m just sad.</p>
<p>@MisterForte, my grades have tended to be worse second semester. I don’t have anywhere else to show improvement now besides my senior year, and I have picked hard classes. I’m looking at 1 or 2 Bs :(</p>
<p>What is your class rank? It seems your school just have a tough grading system. I would not worry too much about your GPA as this would be shown on your school profile.</p>
<p>UCs do not superscore. With non-spectacular ECs and a downward trend…</p>
<p>Cornell - reach
Brown - reach
UCLA, UCB - high matches/ low reaches
USC - high match
Dartmouth - reach
Pomona - reach
UMich - high match
JHU - reach
CMU - low reach
NYU - match
Upenn - reach</p>
<p>In terms of your upcoming grades, are those expected B’s your senior year? How close are you in ending the semester? If no substantial( and I mean BIG) change is seen by the admissions of your posted choices, I will have to agree with bubbles that you will face alot of reaches from these establishments because of their wary assumption that your down trend will be a bad investment on their part. If you have time, I urge you to work critically to cover up your junior grades. The reason is because you really want to show colleges that you had a minor misfortune in the past and that you are back to speed. Other than that, utilize the opportunities that are presented you.</p>