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Can't seem to post on "Chances" thread...
What would be the estimated effect of a bad junior year?
I was dumb enough to flood myself with APs and activities, and the result ended up being 3 B's for each semester. Ouch.
Would my chances for admission to top 20 colleges be seriously hindered by that year?
More importantly, I'm seriously thinking about applying ED/EA to some competitive schools (ie. Dartmouth/UChicago or Wash. U (MO)), but is that wise? Should I just apply RD so I can boost that GPA up a little and more importantly, not end my transcript with my weakest year? Other stats listed below. Help!!

Go to a competitive public school in underrepresented state (AZ)
Asian descent
Planning to double-major in political science and biology
Rank: 10% - school only ranks in deciles
GPA UW: 3.83
GPA W: 4.1
Taking the hardest schedule of anyone in class (5 APs so far, 5's in all, except for a 3 in Chem)
SAT: 1600
SAT II:
Writing - 780
Math IIC - 800
Biology, Literature and German taking in Oct.

EC's:
Model UN Prez
Model Congress Prez
Speech captain for forensics team
Karate for four years, red belt (almost to a brown belt...ehhh), junior instructor and national member of US shotokan association
Level 12 piano - planning to send in a recording
Proficient in sitar (Indian instrument)
Science Olympiad secretary
Cultural Exchange club - organized e-mail penpal exchange between club members and students from three other countries
Philharmonia Orchestra (piano)
NHS
Science Olympiad

Comm. Service:
School tutor - 100+ hours
250 hrs comm. service at healthcare center
60 hrs at hospital summer volunteer program

Work experience:
Intern at university psychology lab 9-12 hrs/week
Part time job at bookstore (sen. year)

Random awards:
Presidential awards for academic excellence
school awards for academic excellence
nat'l merit semifinalist
AP Scholar with distinction
random state debate awards
random state science olympiad awards
school awards in fiction/personal essay writing
Who's Who/National Honor roll

Essays will be conservatively projected at above average ( will work hard on them)
Recs - great rec from counselor, great humanities rec, maybe an average rec from the science teacher

I think I'm in the ball park as far as test scores and ec's go, but that junor year..eh.
All of my B's were in science/math classes. Took four of those classes, three of them were B's. Somewhat redeemed myself for math by getting a 5. But would I still have a shot at some very competitive colleges, such as Dartmouth/WUSTL/UChicago/Duke? Referring back to beginning of post, ED advised or RD?

Thanks!

By Sophster (Sophster) on Wednesday, October 06, 2004 - 02:11 am: Edit

Junior year is an important year when admission officer reads your apps. However, you do not need to panick. If your classes are somewhat more difficult than what you expected, perhaps, you can tell ur recommenders to make a note of that in the app: something like the student was the only student in the class who was able to understand and solve problems. (alright, that was a bad example, but i hope u get my point). You should have phenomenon essays and hopefully that will help make up for the junior grades. And also, your sat scores will also tell the AO that you are in fact intelligent. Hope this helps and good luck!

By Monochromal09 (Monochromal09) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 06:32 pm: Edit

Bump

Anyone else? I have no idea which application path to take. ><

By Jm2006 (Jm2006) on Thursday, October 07, 2004 - 06:47 pm: Edit

Okay a couple of things.

First of all, if you were applying somewhere like Penn, where they unabashedly admit ED kids they might not admit RD, I'd say go for it. But Dartmouth, WUSTL, and the others are pretty tough either way. Go RD so you have senior fall grades (which, of course, will be OUTSDANDING)to boost the GPA and tell them you're not a smart, but lazy kid.

Secondly, do not report the 3 in Chem. Yeah, colleges may end up seeing it if you report the other scores, but you don't want to draw any attention to it. Also, some schools only record the ones that you report, with confirmation from the College Board.

And why is your science rec only "average"?? This is one of the only things that you have control over at this point! Pick a teacher who absolutely ADORES you that you got perfect grades in. None of the schools above require a science rec- ask a teacher of a different subject to write your recommendation. Don't forget to include stamped, addressed envelopes, a sheet of activities you've been doing (maybe mentioning what you want them to talk about) and a thank you note.

One last thing. Your EC's are not bad- but they're generic and all over the place. Pick a few that mean the most to you and emphasize them like crazy. It's all about image. Be the kickass debater/sitar-player. Or the gung-ho politician/scientist (I think that's your best bet). List your EC's in order from importance to least important. Oh, and Who's Who isn't all that impressive.

Good luck.