How much will an upward grade trend matter in admissions? A mixture of A’s and B’s and a C or two in fresh/soph year and almost all A’s in junior/senior year how does that look? My current high school is academically strong, competive in the state, I don’t know about in the nation. Combined with SAT scores in the 1500s, strong essays, ECs, and recs? My current favorite is one of the Ivies, not HYP. Do I have a chance at all? If I apply ED? Or should I wait for further grade improvement/class rank and apply RD?
Also how best to explain “smart slacker syndrome”? Should I get my GC to mention how my last school wasn’t that strong academics-wise or just leave it? Also should my moving from another country during high school be a plus or a minus concerning my grades, although I already possessed decent English skills?
Thank you.
<p>Think of it this way. C C A A is better than B B B B</p>
<p>but A A A A is better than both by a whole lot</p>
<p>Anyone? Bump…</p>
<p>A binding Early Decision program may help your chances, but you may want to wait until your senior year grades come out (hopefully mostly As). </p>
<p>Two Cs would be very difficult to overcome with Harvard or Yale, although it is believed that Princeton doesn’t look at the Freshman year grades (recalculate the GPA), and therefore you may be able to get rid of some of those grades. Look for other schools that do that as well.</p>
<p>For other schools, if you have other positive strengths, the other Ivies are not as competative. Cornell is much easier to get in to, Brown is seen as being very lenient (they don’t have any required classes and have the option to take classes pass/fail), and the others generally fall in this category. Top LACs and other national universities will be the same (With the exception of MIT, Stanford, and CalTech). At all other second tier schools, you should be fine.</p>
<p>My ranking of grades:</p>
<ol>
<li>Straight As</li>
<li>100% Upward Trend</li>
<li>Upward Trend with a few slips</li>
<li>B average</li>
</ol>
<p>I admit it is a bit general since the impression of the upward trend depends on the freshmen grades. Mine were:</p>
<p>9: A A B B B C
10: A A A A B B
11: A A A A A A</p>
<p>That is the perfect example of what they mean by an upward trend, vitamin1, good job with your grades.</p>
<p>For Princeton and others that use the same system, the 9th grade grades would be thrown out, leaving just 2 Bs in the sophmore year, a good example of how their system can be useful to situations that may discourage other schools from accepting a C grade (really, is 1 or 2 Cs out of 20 really that bad).</p>
<p>One other point: It is important in how it affects your GPA. Unless you go to a really competative school, Mist, you are still in the top 10% by ranking. The higher the better, so your midyear report may be useful.</p>