The Sophomore Slump

Applying to College
1

<p>Well, I finished my sophomore year this June and I can say that I’m thoroughly disappointed with my grades. I can probably attribute it to a lack of care and too much time spent on my winter addiction to skiing. Anyway, my freshmen year grades were just average with about a 3.4 gpa and my sophomore grades have brought my gpa down to a 3.1 … I talked with a neighbor who is an adcom at a local university (not to be named) and she said that if I can perform well enough my junior year, an admissions committee may scratch it off as a sophomore slump. My goals are quite high, as I do plan on applying to Cornell. However, my dad did graduate there with a bachelors in econ. so I’m hoping the legacy will help a little… So basically, I took relatively hard schedule junior year-
AP English Language AP US Gov AP French Language Honors Chem Honors American Law Studies and Honors Calculus (I doubled up in math sophomore year which probably was a bad choice looking back). My SAT scores are about average for a Cornell hopeful at 2080. However, I took them only as a sophomore so I’m hoping that I can improve significantly. I guess at this point I’m pretty much just asking for my chances even though that wasn’t my original intentions of this post, but I may as well continue this way. My EC’s I feel are my strongest part of the app- I’m Class President, my most recognizable one, Pep Club president, I play basketball for the HS team, I’m a Nationally certified Professional Ski Instructor and regional champion in ski cross. Aside from those, I also play the violin and recently taught myself to play piano. Lastly, my work experience is lifeguarding, swim instructing, and of course the ski instructing which I have done since 8th grade… Oh and one another thing, I’ll be studying abroad next summer in France if that helps at all.</p>

<p>I kinda went off topic a little, but hopefully you get the general idea…Thanks!</p>

2

<p>I doubt any school has a sophomore slump policy. If I were you, I’d try to leverage my skiing skills into admission at a great school. Dartmouth, Harvard, Williams, and Bowdoin all have varsity skiing teams. Get your grades up, do well on the SAT, and keep skiing. If you get within those schools score averages and you’re a stud on the snow, you could make it in.</p>

3

<p>Yeah I agree, I doubt as well that a school would have a sophomore slump policy. But i’m hoping possible if I do incredibly well enough junior year a large sign of improvement would be a positive factor in admissions… While I would be totally honored to ski for Dartmouth or Harvard, I do have a strong desire to follow in my dad’s path and go to Cornell. Unfortunately, they obviously don’t have a ski team… I know everyone says that anyone has a chance anywhere, but in reality, do I have a legitimate chance at Cornell if I make big changes this year?</p>