Senior Year - too late to save GPA?

rissanicole14
Sun, 29 May 2016 00:44:07 +0000

Hello everyone,

So I wanted to know if it would be too late to use senior year (first semester) to basically save my GPA.
Some background:

2nd semester of junior year is coming to a close and I burned out towards the end… I’m pretty sure I’m going to have a crappy unweighted GPA. First semester I got 4 A’s and 2 B’s (2 B’s in AP Chem and AP Physics since I discovered I didn’t really enjoy either one at all, 4 A’s in APUSH, AP Lang, AP Calc AB and Swim), which isn’t too bad - then second semester I switched it around and I now have 4 B’s (chem, physics, calc, HEALTH [yes I’m screaming and hoping I can get this up]) and 2 A’s (APUSH and Lang).

I’ve taken AP’s since freshman year and I highly overestimated the extent to which I could handle a rigorous courseload as a sophomore and made the mistake of loading up on too many AP’s junior year. especially when I have other important EC commitments and sports. I’ve thus lowered my courseload for senior year to 3/4 AP’s (lit, bio, calc bc, and gov [one semester]) and I was wondering if I could manage to get all A’s in these classes, if it would still boost my GPA in time for college apps, and lessen the detriment my 2nd semester junior year grades would have on my transcript.

I’m also planning on taking a 3 credit class at my local community college on a subject I’m passionate about this summer.

Overall, I currently have a 3.78 uw gpa and a 4.5 w gpa, which will probably lower to a 3.6-3.7 uw after this semester. I know school background also matters - I go to a competitive suburban public school, but I still have managed to be in the top 2% for gpa (if rank matters anyway).

Thoughts? I know there is MUCH more to an application than GPA but has anyone been in a situation like this and still gotten into a good school? (i.e UC’s, like UCSD and maybe UCLA?)