To keep a long story short, my life fell apart Sophomore year and I spent Junior year piecing it all back together. This resulted in a 3.11 UW GPA both semesters of my Sophomore year. As a Junior I received a 3.83 and a 3.67. The drop is due to track and needing about 30hrs of volunteer service for NHS and NSSHS.
All told, I have a 3.5 GPA, leaving me just above the top third of my class.
This does not portray my capabilities, but I’m afraid it will bottleneck my achievements. I have a 34 ACT and two 5’s on AP Exams (the only 2 I was offered). I played 2 sports (each for 2 years), and have entered 2 honors societies. I paid for trying to juggle academics and athletics at a school top-notch in both, while my life was in shambles.
For a little background, I love learning in general (that sounds nerdy; it is.). I have used this summer so far to read nearly 1000 pages of classics, mostly satires. I never struggled with material and have done best when challenged, my highest grades of the last 2 years being AP histories.
With that background, I finally have landed in a stable place in my life and have launched the most ambitious (re: foolhardy) schedule my counselor has ever seen. XDWith one AP science, one AP language, one AP social science, and another AP history, I have what equates to a first-year’s college “overload” schedule.
It is common knowledge, or a great myth, here that colleges accept more of their ED pool than their RD pool because it shows a vested interest. With the mediocrity of my class rank, is it worth applying ED at a stretch school rather than waiting to apply RD and having all of these AP classes weigh in? Should I get B+'s and higher in all these, I would raise my weighted GPA at the very least, and possibly my UW GPA significantly, while proving beyond doubt that I can handle a college schedule.
In short, the question is, do you think that the “bonus” chance of ED admission is worth submitting a subpar application (most of the schools average GPA is 3.7-3.9, top 10%, ACT at 30-32) or will my first semester senior grades truly be taken into account?