<p>Hello. As a sophomore, I feel like I’m not doing well in school. I had a 3.25 unweighted, 3.6 weighted GPA as a freshmen with four classes, and this year I’m not doing too well either. I believe I’ll be able to get a B in four in my classes and an A in two, though they may all be weighted to a 4.0. All of my classes are AP or honors. I’m in a service club where you go talk to elderly people and do stuff with them, and I should be getting Beta forms soon. I’m also finding the Young Libertarians Club in a week or so as well. One of my brothers went to Tech, too. </p>
<p>So, what should I do? My GPA really sucks so far so I have to do something.</p>
<p>I don’t know what sort of advice you want - but I’ll give it a shot.</p>
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<li><p>You need to get that GPA up, obviously. Luckily, you have time. That GPA needs to get to an unweighted 3.7 or so by your junior year, so you need roughly a 3.9 or better every semester from here on.</p></li>
<li><p>It’s good that you’re taking AP and honors courses. Keep taking them and make sure that you have at least AP Calc A/B and an AP science course on your transcript.</p></li>
<li><p>Founding a club is good, but you need a few more activities. A libertarian club and a service club isn’t enough. Try to add a sport. Even if you are not an athletic person, there should be a club sport that you can play competitively.</p></li>
<li><p>Make sure you have an SAT score over 700 Math / 670 CR. If your GPA isn’t going to be in the 3.7 UW range, you’ll want the SAT score higher to compensate.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>An unweighted 3.9 for every semester will be very difficult. Thankfully I’m not taking French 4 next year, so that should help. I also feel really shafted with my chemistry teacher. I have no idea why someone with a PhD would teach high school students chemistry, but yeah. The unfair part is that another teacher is teaching honors chemistry this year for the first time, and they’re about a month behind us, and all my friends have over a 100 in her class as their average while I have a C… I have no idea how I’m going to be able to salvage my GPA with this lady.</p>
<p>By the way, my core classes for my freshmen year were: Honors Biology, Honors Literature, Honors Math, and French 2. This year I have Honors Literature, AP Computer Science, AP World History, Honors Chemistry, Honors French 3, and Honors Math. I have the 5th hardest schedule in my class.</p>
<p>You’re not the first person to have similar issues; everyone deals with a problem or two (or ten) like that in high school. That’s why a high GPA is so impressive - students have to be able to confront, assess, react to, adapt to, and conquer these sort of difficulties. How you react to this professor says a lot about you.</p>
<p>Yes, a 3.9 from here on is a difficult thing to do, but Georgia Tech isn’t an easy college to get into. It’s a Top 5 school for a reason.</p>
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<p>Just so you take it the right way, this comment is supposed to motivate you. You might think that you’re doomed because of this professor, and if you give up and accept the C, you are doomed (as far as GaTech goes). But you’re not doomed because of the professor, rather because you gave up. On the other hand, if you assess the situation, work hard, and figure out a way to succeed, that says a lot about you as a person (and makes for a good start to an admissions essay).</p>
<p>I may be able to pull it to a B, since she drops our lowest test grade in the semester and I only have one lab grade right now, and it was pretty low. There are only really three classes I think I can pull and keep to an A this semester, which is math, AP World History, and AP Computer Science. I don’t have a chance with the others.</p>