NYU CAS with lots of APs but 3.5 GPA?

Colleges & Universities New York University
1

<p>So freshman year I was a good student. 4.0. But then in sophomore and junior year I became lazy (well, I had a lot of problems at home, but I’m not explaining them to colleges) and got TERRIBLE grades. In order to salvage my GPA, which fell to 3.15, I took tons and tons of university courses through BYU independent study last summer. In a few months I completed them and my school gave me credit, so I raised my GPA to 3.5. I’m sure NYU is not going to be happy about this, but perhaps they will hold university classes, even if they were online, to a similar standard as an honors HS class?</p>

<p>But anyway, so, bad GPA. Hopefully that’s not going to be the end of the world… Here are the rest of my stats:</p>

<p>APs:
1.) Human Geography (self-study): 4
2.) Comparative Government (self-study): 4
3.) World History (self-study): 4
4.) US History (self-study): 4
5.) European History (self-study): 5</p>

<p>I have taken all honors classes in high school (my school only has three APs), but I didn’t do any work Sophomore and Junior year and consequently had quite a few bad grades. </p>

<p>SAT IIs:
Literature: 780
US History: 760
Italian: 760
French: 750
World History: 800</p>

<p>SAT:
CR: 760
W: 740
M: 700</p>

<p>My letters of recommendation will be decent I think (one is excellent, the other I’m hoping will be pretty good). </p>

<p>Currently, I’m taking AP Biology, AP Physics, AP Spanish, AP German, AP US Government, and AP English Language. </p>

<p>As for ECs…
–250 hours of volunteer work at local humane society
–President of debate club
–MUN
–Humane Rights Club
–National Honor Society
–Editor of school newspaper </p>

<p>Also, according to my school counselor, my CommonApp essays are rather original and will definitely be a plus to my application. </p>

<p>What do you guys think? Thanks in advance!</p>

2

<p>If you explain why your grades fell and they see how you tried to bring it up, that would be a huge plus. why wouldn’t you do that…</p>

3

<p>if you’re looking to do international relations or something like that, I’d say you’re in. French, German, Italian, and Spanish? Human Geo, World History, Euro, Comparative?
you’ve clearly had IR in mind throughout high school, and Model UN certainly doesn’t hurt. this is what colleges look for. passion. you’re passionate about global studies (I’m assuming), and that’s what makes you a better candidate than the 4.0 student who joined every club and took every AP known to man</p>

4

<p>@EmmaOakley: thanks for the feedback, I just don’t really know how to makes excuses for myself in this sense. I mean in all honesty, it’s a really, really convoluted situation to explain. I guess I could chalk it up to my parents being entirely unsupportive of my education? And they fought constantly, so I didn’t have a very healthy life at home. My mother is also certainly bipolar. She got angry at me once for the most ridiculous thing, went to my school spontaneously, and told the principal that I bragged about cheating in AP classes… The situation ended up being resolved because none of my teachers had evidence to support the accusation (and hopefully they didn’t believe it), but I was humiliated by this, and out of fear of what they thought of me I couldn’t bring myself to go to a lot of classes Junior year. </p>

<p>Should I just explain that I did not have a healthy support system at home?</p>

<p>@saman42: I am looking to do international relations. I’m hoping that I will be able to convey that passion effectively in my essays, but I’m just worried that my GPA will kill my chances. My transcript literally looks like I slacked off sophomore and junior year, then realized that I was not going to get into college and took a ton of classes online over the summer to raise my GPA. In all fairness, I got a job just to pay to take those classes, and they were all in political science subjects, but it just looks strange. </p>

<p>I was thinking about trying to raise my GPA a little more by taking even more university classes online, but it’s too expensive and might just look worse. </p>

<p>Applying to Columbia is out of the question, right?</p>

5

<p>I wouldn’t say it’s out of the question, but it’s definitely a reach. If I were you, though, I wouldn’t even apply. at Columbia, you’re going to be getting the kind of education tailored toward academia. if you actually want to do something with your degree and actually go into the international politics/diplomacy field, Georgetown is your best option. At Columbia, you’ll learn all this stuff with the expectation that you’ll be teaching it some day, not practicing it. Of course, these are generalizations, but that’s the general consensus.</p>

6

<p>Ohhh, yes, I had read that before about Columbia and UChicago. Thanks for the reminder! </p>

<p>As for Georgetown… I would have just as low of chances, right? Do you think it’s worth it to apply?</p>

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<p>Just a heads up, IR is a honors major. Which means that you apply to NYU (typically via politics) and you have to take certain prerequisite courses. After you complete these prereqs in your sophomore year (by oct. 15th to be exact) you have to apply to the program. Usually only students who demonstrate strong interest in the field (summer internships in relevant IR areas, research papers, etc.) are accepted. Only 25 to 30 students are accepted each year. It’s required that you have a 3.65 GPA to apply (both in the prereq courses and as an overall GPA) and you must maintain that 3.65 GPA. You must also complete a senior thesis and must study abroad. The major is 14 classes, which is a lot. Usually majors at NYU are only 10. So be warned it’s a very difficult program that’s very difficult to get into. So even if you get into NYU, you aren’t guaranteed to get into the IR program.</p>

8

<p>you have a much better chance at Georgetown than at Columbia. Georgetown will fall head over heels for your languages (I’m applying for IR with 5 languages fluent too - English, Portuguese, Farsi, German, and Spanish - and I just had my interview on Sunday. The guy interviewing me said Georgetown has a soft spot for extreme polyglots so good for us!) and Georgetown loves to see a clear focus toward your intended major in high school. human geo, comparative, euro, econ, world, and all the languages make up for your GPA for Walsh. I have a higher GPA than you but I would definitely say you have a better chance than me. But hopefully we’ll both be accepted and we’ll have classes together next year! hahah</p>

9

<p>Saman42, you give me hope!! I am definitely applying to Georgetown :slight_smile: I just hope you’re right about the languages making up for my terrible GPA! Hopefully we will both get in! </p>

<p>Btw, what was your interview like? Was it very academic, or more personal?</p>

10

<p>God damn. I looked into this BYU independant study thing. So god damn useful. Wish I knew about such a thing.</p>