Will my grades severely hurt me?

billyjones
Thu, 10 Aug 2017 02:34:39 +0000

Hi guys. I am going to be a senior next year, so I wanted to ask you guys for your opinions about my situation for my high school because I would like to know how much my grades will impact my college admissions. In short, Hopkins is my dream school and top choice because of all of the opportunities for research and medicine. I plan to study biology or chemistry in college. I know that Hopkins is a very selective school, so I am worried about how they will view my poor GPA.

So here are some stats:

GPA: 3.5 UW, 4.05W This is way below their average
SAT: 1540
SAT II: 770 Chem, and I am taking the biology one soon (expecting greater than 700)
ACT: 33 (retaking next month, I think I will be able to get a 34 because this 33 was close to exams week so I didn’t have time to study that much)

Honors/Achievements: I don’t have too many, but I have won a state award for foreign language, and a few regional ones (which probably don’t really matter to Hopkins)

EC’s: Biology Club (Founder/President, 1 year), Business Club (member, 2 years), Quiz Bowl (expecting leader of A team next year, currently B team, 3 years), SmarterStudents (2 years, I will be the president next year),

Spanish Club (member, 3 years), Math Club (secretary, 4 years), Chemistry Club (member, 2 years), and lastly, I am the founder/president of a fundraiser for a hospital that my school hosts every year.

Other: I have 200+hrs of community service. I did tennis during my sophomore year, but I decided not to continue after a season because I didn’t enjoy it, and it didn’t allow me to do much other stuff.

Teacher Recs: Both of my teachers loved me as a person and a student, and I think I can get great recommendations from them. One of them knows how good of a coach I am in SmarterStudents (where I tutor classmates for free). He choose me to become a the leader for that next year as a result. I helped multiple students improve their grades from C’s to A’s, and I talked about this in my essay.

Anyway, this is the situation:
I had good grades (a B in English, but the rest are A’s for both semesters) during my freshman year. But during my sophomore year, my grades plummeted. I got 6 B’s and 1 A in first semester, and in second semester, I got 3 C’s, 2 B’s and 2 A’s.
Because I did so bad in sophomore year, I formed different study habits and ways to focus. I had a completely different game plan for next year because my original one wasn’t working.
In Junior year first semester, I got 4 B’s, and 2 A’s. Then in second semester, I got 2 B’s and 4 A’s. I studied hard again over summer, and I believe that I will be able to get all A’s during senior year.
So my sophomore year pulled my GPA down a lot. But I tried hard and am on an improving path I guess? I have written a college essay about this challenge (of my GPA, and how I took action to learn and improve), and my teacher and other peers say it really good. And my teacher recs can also vouch for that (one is from a teacher who taught the class I struggled in, but improved).

Do you think that Hopkins would be more forgiving of my grades, and see it in a less negative manner since I am on an upward trend (if I reach my straight A goal next year)?
Also, do you think that the other parts of my application (since they look at the student holistically) might help cover for those?
Lastly, do you guys have any recommendations (for anything at all)? Sorry for the long post guys. Thanks for taking the time to read. Any insight will be appreciated.