Junior Year crash-and-burn: Am I screwed?

Chance Me / Match Me
1

<p>Well… I (think) I am in an altogether decent spot in terms of chances, except for my little crash-and-burn this past year. I ended up with a D+ second semester average in my pre-ap chem class (eek!) and a C+ for both semesters in honors pre-calc. This happened because of some family issues that really affected my grades; my counselor will be mentioning that in her letters to colleges, so I hope it won’t look like I just randomly crapped out. All my other academics remained at A-level, it’s just in my weak spots (math and science) where the issues my family was going through manifested themselves. Before this episode my grades had been stellar.</p>

<p>My question is: Will these grades completely screw over my chances?</p>

<p>Other stats for context:</p>

<p>White Female, Suburban Public in MA
Rising Senior
Cumulative Weighted GPA: 4.2 (after the crappy grades)
SATs: 2190 (800 CR, 590 M, 800 W)
SAT II: 750 Spanish, 730 US History, 790 Lit
APs: 4 Biology, 5 US History, 5 English Language (taking AP Gov, Psych, Spanish Language, and Lit next year)</p>

<p>ECs-
Model UN: Elected Secretary for 10, 11, 12; Won Best Delegate award for Security Council and Honorable Delegate award for Joint Crisis Simulation at large university conference
Philosophy Club (10, 11, 12)
Track (10… I had to skip the season jr. year after an injury)
Varsity Swimming (11)
Extracurricular Spanish: Travelled to Ecuador in 2006</p>

<p>Awards-
Spanish Departmental Award (9)
English Departmental Award (9, 10, 11)
Art Departmental Award (11)
President’s Award for Educational Excellence (11… most generic award ever haha)
Spanish National Honor Society (10, 11, 12)
National Spanish Exam: Top scorer in class on 2005 exam; top scorer in school and 9th in state on 2006 exam; top scorer in school and national silver medalist on 2007 exam
2007 Boston Globe State Scholastic Art Awards Gold Key, Photography (11)
Won “Best in Show” as well as 2nd place color category in school photography contest and have had work featured in small magazines… not sure how important this is but I’ll put it here anyway
Student Photographer for documentary photography project about the Boston Marathon (it’s part of a MA economic stimulus bill to encourage tourism… the exhibition will be travelling to the starting point of the Athens Marathon in Greece)
Recipient of the Stanley Z. Koplik Scholarship (AP and MCAS scores)
National Merit Commended Student
AP Scholar</p>

<p>Service-
I mentor freshmen as part of our school’s transition program for incoming students. I have been selected to do this in both my junior and senior years.</p>

<p>Work Experience-
I work at a tutoring center where I specialize in English and reading instruction. I also work at a plant nursery. Combined I work about 20 hours/week during the school year and 35 hours/week during summer.</p>

<p>Whew! If you’ve gotten this far, thanks for reading… I would be interested in your impressions of my chances as the flies swarm about my academic carcass.</p>

<p>Looking to major in Studio Art (Photography):
American
Brown
UC Santa Cruz
Columbia
George Washington
Hampshire
MassArt
UMass Amherst
Parsons
NYU
Northeastern</p>

<p>Some of these don’t have the best art programs but I’m applying in case I have a change of heart.</p>

<p>Thanks for your honest opinion!</p>

2

<p>Hey, okay, I’ll chance you. Your poor grades are undoubtedly going to hurt you. I’m sorry, but thats life. Also, the fact that you are from MA doesn’t help. Ivy Leagues analyze admissions from the perspective of regions. New England typically has amazing students with absolutely phenomenal SATs, Grades, etc. Also, the Math SAT score will really hurt you at the Ivies. I’d say American (Yes), Brown (No chance), UC Santa Cruz (Yes), Columbia (No chance at all), George Washington (Yes), Hampshire (Yes), MassArt (Yes, UMass Amherst (Slight Reach), Parsons (Yes), NYU (Good Fit), Northeastern (Yes). </p>

<p>Since you want to do Photography, NYU is definitely the place to go. I’d be surprised if you didn’t get into everywhere but Brown and Columbia. I’m being honest, but Brown and Columbia are REALLY hard to get into.</p>

3

<p>Your math SAT score would be in line with not having top grades in math and science. It’s kind of hard to make excuses when the supporting data doesn’t dd up.</p>

4

<p>You might want to look at more LACs. It is pretty apparent that you excel at english and history while you, to put it plainly, “suck” at math and science (at least for the top caliber schools). Frankly, if I were you, I would try to take CP math and science classes to keep the GPA up. In addition, those grades will hurt you quite a bit, however I do know some kids who got 600 in critical reading or got C’s in cores that got into Ivies. Personally, I’d advise you to ED it at Brown and write really good essays…which is probably right up your alley.</p>

<p>Chances:</p>

<p>American-In
Brown-Reach
UC Santa Cruz-Match
Columbia-Reach
George Washington-Safety
Hampshire-Safety
MassArt-In
UMass Amherst-In
Parsons-In
NYU-Match
Northeastern-In</p>

5

<p>Math, math, math… get those SAT math scores up… then you have a good shot at any of those schools…</p>