Senior Year / Mid-Year Grades

Applying to College
1

Could my senior year/mid-year grades (already sent to colleges) meaningfully help my applications? Previously I was somewhere in between the top 10-15% of my class. My senior year grades put me in the top 5% according to my school’s published profile for my grade, which I wrote in the updates I sent. I’m going for a creative writing/government/polisci major in most cases, with a PPE/minor econ component in some colleges. Thank you :slight_smile:

AP English Lit: A (AP Lit is notoriously difficult in my school; maybe ~3-5 kids in my class of 430 students have an A average so hopefully this will help)
AP Stats: A
AP Euro History: A
AP French: A+
AP Econ: A-
AP Calc AB: B+
Enjoyment of Music (required for art credits): A+
Senior year gpa (weighted): 4.8
Overall (weighted): 4.5 - this is the top 5%.

Also, for some schools that required the first marking period grades in addition to overall first semester grades, I emphasized that my grades improved across most classes even compared to the first marking period of senior year:

AP Lit: A- MP1, A MP2 (overall A avg.)
AP Stats: A- MP1, A MP2 (overall A avg.)
AP Euro History: A MP1, A MP2 (overall A avg.)
AP French: A+ MP1, A+ MP2 (overall A+ avg.)
AP Econ: B+ MP1, A- MP2 (overall A- avg.)
AP Calc AB: B MP1, B+ MP2 (overall B+ avg.)
Enjoyment of Music: A+ MP1, A+ MP2 (overall A+ avg.)

I got deferred by Richmond (which required first marking period grades) in the early action round, so do you think my improved semester grades will help? Thank you!

2

Can’t hurt!! And it’s likely the kind of thing they seek - extra validation.

Good luck

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3

thanks!!

4

Definitely can’t hurt. And a lot of schools that like to tout their high stats really like having kids in the top 10 percent. So…if your transcript previously said top 15% and now says top 5% I would definitely point that out in any update you send in. Good luck!

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5

Yes, my transcript shows my overall GPA. My school’s published profile says our grade’s top 5% benchmark was 4.5 weighted. My senior year GPA averaged with my cumulative GPA puts me at that spot (but this is not officially shown on the transcript, so I explicitly said it in the update - I checked the calculations many times using the system also included in our school profile).

6

If a school did not rank, I would not include it. I’d have the counselor send a note.

That’s just me.

Unless you have proof, you don’t include - you have conjecture.

Going from top 15% to top 5% in one semester seems almost mathematically impossible.

Good luck though.

7

Sorry, I should have mentioned this earlier - our school publishes percentile ranks. It says a GPA of 4.5-5.0 is the top 5% for our grade, with 4.0-4.4 constituting the next 33% (!). Previously I talked to my counselor and she estimated that I was at the top 10-15% (near the very top of that 4.0-4.4 region). Now in senior year, my overall GPA is a 4.5, making it the top 5% (all this is on our school profile).

8

And I’m saying don’t say it. They can infer it or a counselor can note it.

But it is not shown on your transcript. So therefore it’s conjecture. You don’t know the rounding and exact figures.

If you did you did but I would not have.

9

My counselor did include it as an update if that helps!

She also told me the schools will often calculate the GPA based on the scale/system provided in the school profile, which is what I used, and said assuming they calculate it correctly it should line up.

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