<p>Hello. I’m a junior in high school and I was wondering what my chances of getting into UCLA, USC, UCSD, and Pepperdine are. My freshman year grades are straight As(health/contemporary world affairs, algebra 2 honors, chemistry, advanced english, and spanish 1). i did really well. however, my sophomore/1st semester junior year grades dropped significantly:
sophomore:
english honors: C, B
ap european history: B, B
ap biology: B, B
spanish 2: A, A
Math analysis honors: A, A
junior 1st semester:
ap english: B
ap us history: A
ap chemistry: B
ap calculus: B
spanish 3: A
I am hoping to do a lot better second semester. Now, I will tell everyone the reason for doing really bad this past year and a half. it may sound extremely stupid and even now, i feel really dumb explaining this, but i had germophobia for the last year and a half. i dont know how i suddenly got it and i dont know how it suddenly disappeared these last few weeks during christmas break. while most of you think how germophobia affected my grades, it did a lot. i would come home from school, wash my hands for 30 minutes, do all my homework, and take a shower for 2 hours. after showering, i would feel grossed out to touch my books because they were “dirty” because other students used them before, and would sleep, barely studying and only managing to finish homework. i would always make dumb excuses too for why i did bad on tests. my parents would shout at me for using up so much water and tell me that i had to stop using up so much water, but i couldnt control myself. to sum it up, i learned how im really weak compared to my “strong self” that i had thought about before and i learned a lot from that. should i write about this experience in my college application essay next year? do you think they will understand the reason why my grades dropped? im hoping to do really well this new semester and hopefully get straight As! also, my sat score is 2140 (math: 740, writing: 720, critical reading: 680). im sure that i cant get higher than this, for those of you who are telling me to reach higher. also, my report card came home last week and it said my class rank is 50/700. do colleges look at my rank? also, my gpa by the end of this year is going to be weighted 4.2 and unweighted 3.6-3.65 (around there). i know that it is a bit low to get accepted into these schools but will my essay boost me up? also, by the end of junior year, i will have 1000 hours of community service and in school, i will play in the volleyball team for all four years. also, my ap scores last year were horrible (3 on ap history and 1 on ap bio) but i know that this year, i can get 4s on all my ap tests (i have talked to teachers about it). so my final question is, will i have the chance for each of these schools? also, i looked on the graph of the accepted gpas and sat scores for the colleges, but why do some people with average gpa/sat scores not get in but some people with lower sat scores/gpa get in? thank you! lastly, do you know if fine arts credit is included in the gpa that i have to send to colleges? thank you!</p>
<p>You have a shot at those schools. You can even get into Berkeley if you’ll be applying to the College of Letters and Science.</p>
<p>I would call that OCD (for it to be more medical), unless you were medically diagnosed with “germaphobia” exactly. While that is a legitimate excuse for poor grades, you need to prove to these schools that it is the ONLY reason for these bad grades… start getting A’s again! And write your college essay on your struggles.</p>
<p>UCLA: high reach
USC: reach
UCSD: possible
Pepperdine: reach/possible</p>