<p>I always ask these sort of questions here as all of you know so much lol. A lot of you really helped me last time so I decided to post this thread here. </p>
<p>So I screwed up my freshmen year and I’m trying to fix it by getting As in all my regular classes currently. I had a 1.0 freshmen year at first with 3 Fs and 3 Cs (my parents were cheap with materials and it was an online school). With grade recovery, it’ll only be 2.375 (I had a 3.5 before high school). This year, I’m getting As in all my regular classes but they’re not high As (last quarter, I had a 92, 94, 94, 90, 93 (Art), 91 (Theatre), and 98). I could handle the material and I found everything really easy but I made some small mistakes every now and then. I really want to get into a good college so I wanted to take 5 APs next year (which my counselor allowed me to do) but now I don’t think I can afford to get Bs even if they are in AP classes. My biggest reaches right now are U Michigian and Boston University. Would it be possible to get into those colleges if I take mostly regular classes? I’ll definitely self-study some APs and try get good scores on the SAT and SAT subjects too.</p>
<p>The reason I need at least a 3.5 is a result of me living in Florida. I’d really like to get a Bright Futures scholarship or at least get some money. My parents make a lot of money (around 80,000$ annually) so we won’t get much from FAFSA. I also have a not-that-great home life so I don’t want to end up co-signing a loan with my parents. Not being able to get into certain colleges isn’t the only thing that matters for me. I also want to afford going to them too.</p>
<p>I don’t know the details of Bright Futures but if it is guaranteed based on unweighted GPA I would focus on getting the 4.0 if possible and sacrifice some strength of schedule. OOS Michigan seems like a pipe dream and would be VERY expensive.</p>
<p>It’s based on a weighted GPA but an unweighted 3.5 still looks nice. It definitely is one. I do want to get into Florida State University too which is probably a more realistic reach.</p>
<p>I think i would not take 5 APs and would think hard about 3. You say “regular” classes…I assume this means not Honors classes? Do you have regular, honors, and AP? if so, i would be careful of jumping to APs from regular classes.</p>
<p>Yeah, I do. I don’t want to have trouble adapting. The As I have now are low As too. Do you think I should do mostly regular classes and 1 or 2 APs instead? I can’t really afford to get a B in any class so yeah maybe I’d have to reconsider it. Would English IV Honors be better than AP Lang for me? </p>
<p>80,000 isn’t as much money as you’d think. If you were a resident of California, you wouldn’t be out of the running for free tuition at the CSU or UC schools, for example. Owning property or a business can screw things but otherwise, that income wouldn’t disqualify you from aid and schools that have good aid to offer. Absolutely look to improve your GPA and go for scholarships but also run net-price calculators at all the schools you are interested in to get an idea what it would cost you to attend… and apply for financial aid.</p>
<p>As for taking 5 AP classes after a rough 9th grade, and all college prep classes 10th grade… not something I would advise. If there are honors options, I’d go with those and just 2 or 3 AP’s. Then again in Boston U’s Common data set it ranks “Rigor” over “GPA” so maybe I’m totally wrong.</p>
<p>Bright Futures is only good in Florida, public or private, so if you are planning on an OOS, it won’t help you. You also need a 26 ACT for the lower award or 29 for the higher, or similar SAT (1290?) scores. There are some other requirements too, like 2 years of the same foreign language, community service, and certain math, English and other core classes. You can use a few of the electives to up the GPA, but most of the GPA is from the core courses.</p>
<p>I’d drop the AP Psych. It’s not going to get you into college and a B is very possible.</p>
<p>Do not take too many ap classes I had a terrible gpa 9th grade and since then I’ve taken every advanced class/ap class in all subjects except science but I still struggle because of my poor foundation especially in math and I live in Michigan and getting into u of m is VERY hard even for the best kids at my school you need over a 3.8 at least with over a 30 on act and that’s the minimum I mean unless you get crazy out of this world EC’s and essays and blah blah and unless you have the financial stuff ready for it it is a dream but maybe not a reality </p>
<p>What about this schedule?
Honors Pre-calculus
Regular US History
Regular Chemistry
AP English Language
AP Studio Art
AP Statistics (it seems fun)
French I</p>
<p>Yeah UMichigan is one of those out of reach reaches. I’d still apply but I probably won’t get accepted. I got a 1900-2000 last time I took the SAT so I won’t have trouble with that. I’ll mostly have trouble with my gpa and class requirements (I could try taking core classes as electives?).</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice bopper, twoinanddone, T26E4, and reb1rr!</p>
<p>What was your GPA in 9th grade and what is it now, if you don’t mind me asking? Thank you for telling me this! I feel you. I wish I had a much more solid foundation during my first two years of high school. While I did learn a lot this year, I feel like I could have learned much and done much better overall. I wouldn’t have to worry as much about all of this. </p>
<p>This year bright futures you need a ACT of 29 and SAT of 1290, next year might be higher
But also make sure you have the classes, GPA and community service hours for bright futures</p>
<p>FSU might take you but make you go to the community college for a semester </p>
<p>Yes go for your grades first to give you some backlog if you decide to go for some more difficult classes later. Right now focus on getting your eligibility for BF.</p>
<p>I recommend that you sit down and figure out which grades will be counting towards the florida futures GPA and then calculate it (double check with your guidance counselor because math and science may be worth more credits and have more GPA impact.) Then, figure out if a 4.0 this next year will get you where you need to be for the bright futures. Last, make sure to get the gpa you need. Florida schools may be your only affordable option so don’t waste your chance trying to get into OOS schools until you have sealed the deal with the bright futures money. It sounds like you already have fulfilled the bright futures GPA requirements, so double check the foreign languange requirements, community service and other must do’s! Don’t throw this free money away.</p>
<p>Requirements for the class of 2015-2016 are:</p>
<p>1290 SAT/ 29 ACT
100 hours of community service
3.5 GPA using these credits:
4 English (3 with substantial writing)
4 Mathematics (Algebra I level and above)
3 Natural Science (2 with substantial lab)
3 Social Science
2 World Language (sequential, in the same language)
Would it be better to take English Honors instead of AP English? I need the As. With English III Honors, English IV Honors, Algebra II Honors, and As in the rest of my classes, I’ll have a weighted 3.5ish GPA.</p>
<p>Really? That’s a bit odd. I don’t think they do from what I’ve researched. I think my weighted GPA (considering the classes Bright Futures considers) would still be around 2.5-2.9 around the end of this year so I really need to focus on getting a 4.0 next year too. I haven’t met the GPA requirements yet.</p>
<p>Yeah, that’s probably true. Florida schools are more realistic options too. Definitely! </p>
<p>Okay, so I’m not sure if I should take any more than 1 or 2 APs next year. Should I take AP Art and AP Psychology as electives? Or should I try Honors electives? </p>
<p>AP Art is pretty time consuming. At our school the AP Stats teacher finishes the AP curriculum in November and then teaches the kids real stats after that. That’s always led me to think it must be easy, but he’s an unusually gifted math teacher. My non-math kid adored him. In our school AP English is hugely time consuming and not much fun. Both my kids opted to take regular English as seniors. It may have cost them some, but the oldest got into Harvard (but not MIT, Stanford, Caltech). Selective private colleges care about the rigor of your schedule, but it seems like BF only cares about the GPA. Your best bet IMO is to talk to seniors who are taking APs and find out what they are like at your school.</p>