<p>Wondering if I am on the right path for an ED Columbia application my senior year. Currently just wrapping up first semester of sophomore year. Here are stats this year…</p>
<p>ranked #1 out of 40. public high school in new hampshire</p>
<p>Ap US history: 92
Hon Alg II: 90
Chinese II: 96
Hon Eng 10: 93
Chemistry: 92</p>
<p>93 is an A-. Will colleges care as much with letter grade differences with other schools? grading pretty rigorous as well. This is just first semester, and its a brand new high school for me (left old school after freshman year)</p>
<p>looking to start crew team at this school as well. Any thoughts on what I will need for the rest of this year, and what type of schedule I should aim for when it comes to next year as well?</p>
<p>will my pilots license help at all? and if not accepted my first year of eligibility, i may go to china to work in business (as i know chinese) and re apply. Then what about my chances for applying to General Studies?</p>
<p>Your GPA won’t wow anyone. Your aim should be to boost it – it looks to be your achilles heel at this point. Your rank is solid, thus your SAT/ACT will factor heavily. Good luck.</p>
<p>Not many AP classes. Are you taking the most rigorous courses offered at your school. For example, you got a 92 in Chem, was it honors or AP?</p>
<p>I think there is a chance that you are a little off track as far as chances though you may be outstanding as a person. I never discourage anyone from trying and I always recommend a safety school or two that you can love just as much.</p>
<p>I’ve always found it disturbing that colleges seem to care so much about transcripts, because that’s possibly the least reliable metric of all. There’s so much cheating, class rigor differences, teacher preferences, etc. that make the grade the most subjective part of the application. Hell, even at my school, we had two APUSH teachers that graded very differently, one teacher’s class was essentially a sleeping class with a pre-packaged A while the other’s was very difficult to attain an A in even with genuine efforts.</p>
<p>I’m lazy and I have a pretty good GPA, but it seems like I’m a hard worker because everyone else is even lazier than me.</p>
<p>There is a school profile that adcoms use to judge your school. That’s why transcripts are more reliable than you think. Plus for the person saying he/she isn’t taking enough APs, he/she is a sophomore for pete’s sake. I took like two or three that year. Most schools for a very good reason don’t let underclassmen take more than what he has and what I had. </p>
<p>My problem with your courses is why do you only have 5 classes sophomore year? Most people take at least 6. Also, if you’re Chinese and you indicate that you speak Chinese, imo it looks no where near as impressive as taking another language. It’s just my pet peeve though. Most of the fluent Chinese speakers breeze through AP mando while I suffer through French. Being trilingual beats being bilingual though and colleges will notice it. Columbia’s philosophy of becoming Renaissance men of the modern era and stuff will also value it imo.</p>
<p>@Petersuu
I’m sorry to hear about the lack of drive at your school.</p>
<p>Universities evaluate GPA in the scope of your high school, so for example, you’re in a very competitive school, so you only get 3.5 unweighted GPA. That GPA seems low, but is actually deceitful, because you’re in a tough school and that GPA actually ranks you in the top decile. In the context of your school, you’re actually an outstanding student.</p>
<p>The reason why universities probably value GPA so much is because it shows your passion and willingness to challenge yourself. Taking AP classes will bump up your weighted GPA and colleges will see that you have taken rigorous classes and have challenged yourself possibly amongst peers as you have said, lack passion for learning. That said, I hope you keep working hard.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice thus far! Seems to make sense! Also, I am not chinese, I am a white male (which should hurt me admissions wise) but taking chinese more as a business asset in the future.</p>