Grades and how to improve

Answered

Hello!

As @Melokenzie stated, you need to know what type of college you want to get into. At a less selective college (acceptance rates of 50% or higher), your grades would be absolutely fine! However, if you want to get into a highly selective college such as the Ivy League, their common criteria includes practically a flawless transcript, with straight A's and rigorous classes (this can vary based on other aspects of the application).

So, as I do not know what type of college you want to get into, I will split my recommendations into two sections: Highly selective and less selective, with selective schools being somewhere in the middle. If you are confused how to achieve some of these recommendations, comment your question below this answer and I would be happy to help! 😊

HIGHLY SELECTIVE COLLEGES

Examples: Harvard, Princeton, UCLA, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, Boston University, Northwestern, etc.

These colleges want the best of the best, which, at some times, is almost unrealistic (but possible). For colleges like these, the stats (on average) that you would need to hopefully get accepted vary.

✨SAT/ACT Scores + GPA: At Harvard or Princeton, you need an SAT of around 1520 (or 1470-1570) to be in the "average" potential student percentile. GPA wise, you should have anywhere from around a 3.85-4.0 unweighted GPA, or around 4.2 weighted GPA. HOWEVER! If you want to get into a school like UCLA which has a very low acceptance rate, you would need an SAT score of around a 1350-1450.

✨Extracurriculars: For these schools, they would prefer to see extracurriculars that focus on a spike (your area of interest) or desired major. Of course, you can still be accepted without this spike, but you may have a much higher chance of getting into these kind of schools with one. For example, if you want to go into business or entrepreneurship, your extracurriculars could be: winning a nationwide business contest, starting a profitable business, holding a leadership position in your school's DECA chapter, etc. If you want to go into medicine, you could have: published research experience, be an understudy for a medical professional, volunteer at your local hospital (not during COVID), etc. You want to be an artist? Try: Winning a national art competition (for example, Scholastic Art & Writing Awards), hosting an art gallery, selling a painting for $$, etc.

These extracurriculars are considered incredible, and you don't need to do all of them. However, for schools like these, having two or three incredible extracurriculars would make your application really stand out.

✨Rigorous Classes (AP or IB): If you want to get into these schools, they really look at whether you challenged yourself academically in your high school career. This could mean getting the IB diploma (I am not too familiar with this) or taking AP (advanced placement) classes. If you are on the AP rout, I would take anywhere between 7-12 AP classes to get into these prestigious colleges. Just know that, colleges also want to see evidence that you took the AP tests for these classes with scores of 4 or preferably 5. ALSO! I am only a freshman and just realized this only a month ago, but these selective colleges want to see about four years of language classes! (Spanish, French, ASL, etc.) Just keep that in mind.

✨Awards: This kind of ties into extracurriculars, but having awards would definitely look good on your application. These could be national awards or merit awards, which you can get by scoring a very high PSAT score in your Sophomore or Junior year. The PSAT is normally taken in the October of your Junior year and is scored out of 1520 (compared to 1600 on the real SAT). This is sometimes required for you to take by your high school but will not be factored into your application, so you don't have to worry about it too much. it can only help you. You can gage the score you may get when you take the real SAT or possibly get a National Merit scholarship if you score high enough, which colleges love to see.

✨Letters of Recommendation: These are mostly written by teachers and are required at most of these prestigious universities. Teachers will often be open to writing about you and sending the written statements to the college of your choice. These aren't super important, but will play a role in your application.

✨Essays: These apply to both categories, so see information below.

Middle ground: the average of these opposites.

LESS SELECTIVE COLLEGES:

Examples: University of Washington (Seattle campus), Virginia Tech, Clemson University, Ohio State, etc.

The following information will be quite brief, so please reach out to me via comments if you have any follow up questions...

These colleges want great students, however, do not have nearly the same standards as highly selective schools do.

✨SAT/ACT Scores + GPA: If you want to get into these colleges, you would be in a good standing with an SAT score of around a 1200 (25 ACT). GPA wise, try to get between a 3.0-3.5.

✨Extracurriculars: These don't have to be insane extracurriculars. For example, you could be a part of a club your school offers, have a small out of school job, babysit, volunteer anywhere, be on your school's news team, etc.

✨Rigorous Classes (AP or IB): Since I am not too familiar with IB classes, I will only write this in terms of AP. For these schools, you can sometimes (in schools with around an 80% acceptance rate) get in without taking any AP classes. However, I highly suggest taking a couple. Maybe 2-5?

✨Awards: Some of the time, you don't really need awards, but it helps. For example, an award at your school district's dance competition, science fair, or business competition. Maybe even a regional award?

✨Letters of Recommendation: Sometimes, these will not be required, but if they are, follow the same advice I listed in the selective school section.

✨Essays: This advice applies to both the highly selective and less selective schools sections:

- Start these essays as soon as you can as they can be very stressful to applicants.

- Don't be a poet in these essays. What I mean by this is, sure, colleges want perfect spelling, grammar, and word choice, but you don't have to be incredibly precise with your words. Be simple and show the real you.

- ADD PERSONALITY! Admission officers are going through thousands of essays. Your single goal is to make admission officers remember YOUR essay above all the rest. Don't make it boring, add some fun to it!

- Thoroughly study the prompts you are given. Give some thought to each one.

(This is just my advice, there are many other tips you can research)

I really hope this helped. Sorry if it is a bit long, I just wanted you to have a complete answer. One last thing I do want to stress is that you are not defined by what college you go to, so don't worry if you don't get into an Ivy League. You are much more than that!

Good luck!!! 😊