Grade decline

[Anonymous]

OK, so my daughter had excellent grades freshmen and sophomore years. I think freshman was 3.89 and sophomore was 3.95. She had a mix of honors, AP and regular classes.

Now, she's a junior and has several more difficult classes like AP Bio/Euro/English and precalc. It looks like she may end up with a 3.5 or 3.6 on the year.

What does this mean for college admissions? Is the drop typical or something to be alarmed about? Thanks a bunch!

[Anonymous]

let her be a high school kid, serioulsy it is ok if she is an a- student vs an a+ let her be happy and let her be who she is not who you want her to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:let her be a high school kid, serioulsy it is ok if she is an a- student vs an a+ let her be happy and let her be who she is not who you want her to be.

Well, at least we have confirmation here that bored middle schoolers are trolling in the College Forum. Some posts over the last few days had really made me wonder.

[Anonymous]

if that is a middle schooler then maybe the parent should listen to them

[Anonymous]

Not a huge deal, seeing that she's taking harder classes. A 3.5/6 is not bad, and not THAT much less than a 3.9.

[Anonymous]

Know some of her likely target colleges ~ and adjust accordingly. Schedule, I'm guessing can't be changed this year, but remember for next.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OK, so my daughter had excellent grades freshmen and sophomore years. I think freshman was 3.89 and sophomore was 3.95. She had a mix of honors, AP and regular classes.

Now, she's a junior and has several more difficult classes like AP Bio/Euro/English and precalc. It looks like she may end up with a 3.5 or 3.6 on the year.

What does this mean for college admissions? Is the drop typical or something to be alarmed about? Thanks a bunch!

It is still early in the year.

[Anonymous]

it depends on how well she does on standardized tests

[Anonymous]

so what's her passion? With those marks she's going to need one.

[Anonymous]

It's fine, OP. James Madison and Towson State are fine schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's fine, OP. James Madison and Towson State are fine schools.

Univerisity of Mary Washington is quite good I'm told.

[Anonymous]

It means she won't be a candidate for the Ivy League or some of the equally selective schools. But she will still have plenty of good options. I'd encourage her to try to bring her grades up a bit this year if she can. And spend some time prepping for SATs as that can balance weaker grades ( it did for my DD).

[Anonymous]

I'd rule HYP but, Dartmouth and Brown have been known to go to the 3.6 range IF other pluses exist. Definitely consdier the SLACs. Many of those definitely look at the whole package. That GPA is the range of most if not all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'd rule HYP but, Dartmouth and Brown have been known to go to the 3.6 range IF other pluses exist. Definitely consdier the SLACs. Many of those definitely look at the whole package. That GPA is the range of most if not all.

Depends on OPs school. At our MCPS you need over a 3.9 and SATs in the 2300s to be viable for an Ivy, including at Dartmouth. Brown has a little more variation, presumably related to some hook. Private school kids can have somewhat lower GPAs.

Mine is in the top range of grades and just below on scores and is only applying to one Ivy and it's a long shot. The top SLACs are well within reach though.

[Anonymous]

Is that her weighted GPA?
And is she struggling in one AP class in particular? If so, she might want to consider dropping it for a regular course before it's too late. That's a big drop, from a 3.9 to a 3.5, and I'm not sure the heavy load of AP courses makes up for it.