Anonymous wrote:This is an honest question. My son's final junior year report card just came out. He has a final grade of a B- in an AP class. He also had two B+ in AP classes his sophomore year. Other grades are As in mostly AP and Honors classes. Do the B+s and the B- grades eliminate him from the top schools? Not thinking Ivies, but more like Notre Dame, Boston College, UVa, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dc got mostly Bs in freshman year, 3 Bs in total for sophomore and 2 Bs in junior year. He got Bs consistently in Spanish so he got a total of 6 Bs in Spanish. Senior year, he dropped Spanish. He applied ED to an Ivy and was deferred, and applied for STEM to many top schools. He got into Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, WL at Carnegie Mellon, Guaranteed transfer at Cornell and Georgia Tech. He refused to apply ED2. He is an extremely stubborn kid who refused to study Spanish in HS and did not listen to anyone and applied to STEM at the schools he wanted despite people telling him as an Asian in STEM he would be at a disadvantage. He was at a top private school and his GPA was around 3.7.

Is the 3.7 weighted or unweighted? It cannot possibly be Weighted with all those Bs
Also, what other hook, bc a transcript like that isn't getting into UC Berkeley or UCLA after they recalc the GPA....

*meant UNWEIGHTED

Anonymous wrote:
No if Asian.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dc got mostly Bs in freshman year, 3 Bs in total for sophomore and 2 Bs in junior year. He got Bs consistently in Spanish so he got a total of 6 Bs in Spanish. Senior year, he dropped Spanish. He applied ED to an Ivy and was deferred, and applied for STEM to many top schools. He got into Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, WL at Carnegie Mellon, Guaranteed transfer at Cornell and Georgia Tech. He refused to apply ED2. He is an extremely stubborn kid who refused to study Spanish in HS and did not listen to anyone and applied to STEM at the schools he wanted despite people telling him as an Asian in STEM he would be at a disadvantage. He was at a top private school and his GPA was around 3.7.

I don't see how this adds up to a 3.7. My daughter has had only As and A minuses at a top private and has a 3.8. It doesn't make any sense to me that the kid would end up with an unweighted 3.7 after having 7 or 8 or 9 Bs ??? The top privates only have 5 or 6 (max) periods per day. It's not like there are 8 periods in which to get As to dilute all those Bs.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My dc got mostly Bs in freshman year, 3 Bs in total for sophomore and 2 Bs in junior year. He got Bs consistently in Spanish so he got a total of 6 Bs in Spanish. Senior year, he dropped Spanish. He applied ED to an Ivy and was deferred, and applied for STEM to many top schools. He got into Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, WL at Carnegie Mellon, Guaranteed transfer at Cornell and Georgia Tech. He refused to apply ED2. He is an extremely stubborn kid who refused to study Spanish in HS and did not listen to anyone and applied to STEM at the schools he wanted despite people telling him as an Asian in STEM he would be at a disadvantage. He was at a top private school and his GPA was around 3.7.

Is the 3.7 weighted or unweighted? It cannot possibly be Weighted with all those Bs
Also, what other hook, bc a transcript like that isn't getting into UC Berkeley or UCLA after they recalc the GPA....

Anonymous wrote:My dc got mostly Bs in freshman year, 3 Bs in total for sophomore and 2 Bs in junior year. He got Bs consistently in Spanish so he got a total of 6 Bs in Spanish. Senior year, he dropped Spanish. He applied ED to an Ivy and was deferred, and applied for STEM to many top schools. He got into Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, WL at Carnegie Mellon, Guaranteed transfer at Cornell and Georgia Tech. He refused to apply ED2. He is an extremely stubborn kid who refused to study Spanish in HS and did not listen to anyone and applied to STEM at the schools he wanted despite people telling him as an Asian in STEM he would be at a disadvantage. He was at a top private school and his GPA was around 3.7.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does he have any “hooks”? I’m assuming you will be full-pay. Intended major? My NoVA son had an unusual intended major that got him into pretty much everywhere (2021, I know it’s way tougher just two years on). You can check some Common Data Sets to see who graduates with what major to infer what departments need students.

Heck, even Oxbridge publish their admissions data on studying Anglo—Saxon\Norse, for example, and you can see they admit a significant # of applicants. Some students play this game I which they major in something first year and then change their majors. Got to be sure this is allowed when you apply but to me it beats transferring!

Call me cynical but if you have some good certs on your resume with meaty internships, the major isn’t as important. It’s the paper itself.


If he’s interested in business, Indiana Kelley is very popular with privates. Strong program with excellent placement.
If engineering, maybe look at smaller schools with more intimate environments?
Echoing PP’s post about doing ED@ W&Mfor a male applicant. Very smart strategy.

Quite a few schools don't admit by major, so this strategy won't work for them.

Duh, they research the ones that do, silly wabbit

No, sorry it’s a stupid strategy.

Anonymous wrote:My dc got mostly Bs in freshman year, 3 Bs in total for sophomore and 2 Bs in junior year. He got Bs consistently in Spanish so he got a total of 6 Bs in Spanish. Senior year, he dropped Spanish. He applied ED to an Ivy and was deferred, and applied for STEM to many top schools. He got into Berkeley, UCLA, Michigan, WL at Carnegie Mellon, Guaranteed transfer at Cornell and Georgia Tech. He refused to apply ED2. He is an extremely stubborn kid who refused to study Spanish in HS and did not listen to anyone and applied to STEM at the schools he wanted despite people telling him as an Asian in STEM he would be at a disadvantage. He was at a top private school and his GPA was around 3.7.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does he have any “hooks”? I’m assuming you will be full-pay. Intended major? My NoVA son had an unusual intended major that got him into pretty much everywhere (2021, I know it’s way tougher just two years on). You can check some Common Data Sets to see who graduates with what major to infer what departments need students.

Heck, even Oxbridge publish their admissions data on studying Anglo—Saxon\Norse, for example, and you can see they admit a significant # of applicants. Some students play this game I which they major in something first year and then change their majors. Got to be sure this is allowed when you apply but to me it beats transferring!

Call me cynical but if you have some good certs on your resume with meaty internships, the major isn’t as important. It’s the paper itself.


If he’s interested in business, Indiana Kelley is very popular with privates. Strong program with excellent placement.
If engineering, maybe look at smaller schools with more intimate environments?
Echoing PP’s post about doing ED@ W&Mfor a male applicant. Very smart strategy.

Quite a few schools don't admit by major, so this strategy won't work for them.

Duh, they research the ones that do, silly wabbit

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does he have any “hooks”? I’m assuming you will be full-pay. Intended major? My NoVA son had an unusual intended major that got him into pretty much everywhere (2021, I know it’s way tougher just two years on). You can check some Common Data Sets to see who graduates with what major to infer what departments need students.

Heck, even Oxbridge publish their admissions data on studying Anglo—Saxon\Norse, for example, and you can see they admit a significant # of applicants. Some students play this game I which they major in something first year and then change their majors. Got to be sure this is allowed when you apply but to me it beats transferring!

Call me cynical but if you have some good certs on your resume with meaty internships, the major isn’t as important. It’s the paper itself.


If he’s interested in business, Indiana Kelley is very popular with privates. Strong program with excellent placement.
If engineering, maybe look at smaller schools with more intimate environments?
Echoing PP’s post about doing ED@ W&Mfor a male applicant. Very smart strategy.

Quite a few schools don't admit by major, so this strategy won't work for them.

Anonymous wrote:This is an honest question. My son's final junior year report card just came out. He has a final grade of a B- in an AP class. He also had two B+ in AP classes his sophomore year. Other grades are As in mostly AP and Honors classes. Do the B+s and the B- grades eliminate him from the top schools? Not thinking Ivies, but more like Notre Dame, Boston College, UVa, etc.