My sophomore year was very rocky especially with dealing with a lot of mental health issues. I ended the year with a 3.1 and had a couple extra circulars like modeling jv track etc, do you think I still have time to get my gpa up to preferably a 3.6. In my upcoming junior year?? I’m taking 2 a.p classes and 2 ccps and 1 honor class?? Idk I’m kinda bummed out because I don’t know if I want to attend a prestigious school. please help??
As the other response explains, you will not be able to reach a 3.6 unweighted GPA, though your weighted GPA could get above that. In any case, you have the potential to get your GPA close to a 3.5 unweighted, which will still be good enough to get into T50 schools so long as all your other application components are competitive.
Submitting an SAT/ACT score within the top 25% range of accepted students will help you compensate for your GPA. Explaining the context behind it in the Additional Information section of the Common App will also benefit you. College admissions is holistic, so admissions readers do take extenuating circumstances and much more than academics into consideration.
Hope this helps!
Hi @Cowgirl , I'm sorry about your sophomore year. The good news is that you have 3 semesters of grades to show admissions officers you are on an upward trend. While that may not be enough to get you into a prestigious school, it will certainly show that you are resilient and up for the challenge if someone will give you a chance.
Mathematically, you will not get to a 3.6 UWGPA. If you have a 3.1 GPA after sophomore year that is the average of 4 semesters of grades. By the time you apply early or regular decision senior year you might have 2-3 more semesters, not 4 more. So the way to figure out your max UWGPA is the following.
((4X3.1)+(3X4.0) )/7 = (12.412.0)/7= 24.4/7 = 3.486 is the max UWGPA is you get all As in your classes for the next 3 semesters.
With your weighted GPA taking all those classes, you'll probably get a 3.6 or better.
When making your college list, it is very important to go visit the schools and see if you can see yourself enjoying being a student there. Prestige is very nice to have but lets be honest, even 3/4s of the Valedictorians that apply do not get into Harvard. So you really should be focusing on a college that will give you a strong foundation so that you will be more competitive for graduate school or a professional degree program later on.
Good luck in your college admissions process.
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@CameronBameron, I will definitely be using that equation to figure out my gpa, yeah and going to a prestigious school is really not my end goal honestly, and is all about what the school can bring to me and I can give to them. :) thank you so much