Colleges
I'm getting a lot of college anxiety lately, and I have been wondering
1. Do colleges look at mostly the freshman / sophomore years, or the junior years
2. If your GPA for the first 2 years suck, but you're getting an A / A- average now, do they take that into account more ?
1. Do colleges look at mostly the freshman / sophomore years, or the junior years
2. If your GPA for the first 2 years suck, but you're getting an A / A- average now, do they take that into account more ?
Comments
1. Do colleges look at mostly the freshman / sophomore years, or the junior years
2. If your GPA for the first 2 years suck, but you're getting an A / A- average now, do they take that into account more ? <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Hmm let me try to recall the stress i went through to get into college...
Colleges look at your sophomore and junior year closely. But what they really want to see is that you took AP classes during your junior year. Not so many that your grades drop, but enough to prove that you are competent enough to take college courses (i'd say around 1-2 AP's is good + honors classes if you have any). Oh and colleges don't care whether you get an A- or A+ in highschool...it's the same thing as getting an A.
Regarding the question about the GPA for your first 2 years sucking...mm take your overall GPA from your sophomore year and Junior year and average it together. That's what your GPA is and what colleges are looking at. AP and honors classes get an addition one point meaning that if you get a B in those classes, it actually counts as an A. And DO take the AP exam, otherwise you don't get credit for the class you took (its about $80 and you need to score a 3 or better based on a scale of 1-5).
Freshman and Senior year are generally disregarded because well, freshman year everyone is new so there could be a chance that you might get low grades b/c of adjustment problems, and Senior year is after the applications are in, so no more stress <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->. BTW don't get any D's of F's b/c then you might get some evil mail in your mailbox telling you that you need to appeal to the college (which works 5% of the time) to get accepted again.
I'm assuming that you know colleges also look closely at your SAT I's and somewhat at your SAT II's. SAT I's more heavily i think, but with the new SAT I in place i don't know what the new policy is. SAT II's...they might look at the choice of your third subject and the major you chose for college and do a comparison (Not sure though). Based on the individual scores for those 3 though (either SAT II: Math 1C, which is like SAT I math but a little harder, SAT II: Math 2C, which is
pre-calculus stuff, or SAT II: Writing, which is HARD), they'll use it to differentiate between you and other applicants who scored roughly the same as you on the SAT I's.
Erm that's all i'm going to say for now. If you have any questions just post them up here.
also, I had another question. Do most colleges count with weighted or unweighted GPA ? with weighted, I'm getting a 3.9 GPA as of now
But i think its ok to do that too. You can get rid of your GE's that way at a cheaper cost AND i believe you get priority in transfering to other non-JC's. However, your GPA needs to be high b/c nowadays, theres so many people competing to get into certain colleges.
Junior colleges and/or Tech schools can be a great way and cheaper to get rid of the G.E.s :-)
Tech schools not as much though.
also, I had another question. Do most colleges count with weighted or unweighted GPA ? with weighted, I'm getting a 3.9 GPA as of now <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
yea they look at weighted. 3.9 is pretty damn good but you need more than just grades. If you think about it, how many other people out there have 3.9's just like you? So you gotta show them that you participated in sports or clubs. Show them that YOU are well-rounded and more talented than other applicants that they will compare you to.
Yea, I'm doing a few extracirricular (sp?) activites like intrumental music, tennis, literary arts magazine, but not much else otherwise...
Her SAT 1: 1550
SAT 2: math 2c: 770
SAT 2: writing: 750
SAT 2: physics 780
Accepted to all UC's except Berkley and LA. Pretty good but she really wanted to get into those top 2 schools in California. The funny thing was that some people with lower grades and SAT scores got into better schools but they participated in TONs of clubs and stuff. I'm guessing the colleges saw how unwell-rounded she was so they pulled them in instead.
also, how do you people not get distracted by video games ? (my one enemy <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> )
as of right now, I want to get into places like:
(in order)
RIT
Virginia Tech
RPI
Purdue (West Lafayette)
UMBC / University of Maryland (I live in MD)
And even though it's a reach, Carnegie-Mellon
My major I want to go for is Computer Engineering
lets see video games...i have that problem too. I just walk to the library and do work. It's like an antidote for an addiction.
Simple, don't do anything that puts a worthwhile game within easy reach.
For example, some people may or may not remember how much I talked about burnout 3 when I went to E3. I loved the game with my very soul. I vowed to buy it the day it came out.
The day that it was going to be released slowly came. Then it passed, and another 3 weeks went by before I purchased the game.
The reason? Simple. I knew that if I bought it, that I would play it. And I was currently uberbusy at school. This is the same reason I let my Planetside account expire. And didn't participate in any more WoW after school started.
You just have to find a weakpoint to set up your mental defenses and that is where you make your stand.
i don't think so. Here's what i know based on what my counselor told me:
Electrical Engineering - pretty hard (i think i heard it was the hardest) major. You need extensive knowledge of math and physics (that's including quantum and modern). More math though.
Computer Engineering - Kind of like Electrical but less physics and math (second hardest). I think a lot of stuff is more hardware based and some knowledge of programming is needed
Computer Science Engineering- You don't need much (or any, in fact) math. However, that doesn't mean its easy. Its basically a foreign language and as it gets deeper, it becomes more and more complex. You learn algorithms that shorten the number of lines of code but increase the speed of your software.
Mechanical Engineering - lotsa physics. heavy emphasis on fluid dynamics, statics, and compressible flow.
Aerospace Engineering - like mechanical almost
Civil - Knowledge of statics i think. NOt really sure b/c i don't know many ppl in this major.
You basically learn all these things in college that are in the descriptions. So don't hurry yourself into taking crazy classes in HS unless you want to graduate in 3 years or something.
Well, you should probably up the grades, but it depends on how "good" a college you want to get into. Better grades do help getting int
I got B's and C's in my high school mostly. I did, what would be for those grades, exceptionally well on the SAT, ACT, and SATII's. I got into a few schools, but certainly not the hardest that I wanted to get into. The way that I broke it down in my head was that decent schools (Big Universities like UWisconsin, etc) want to know that you are smart enough to do well. It's not so much that you've discovered the dedication that you'll need to do well in college. That'll happen when you finally get into what you enjoy. Really good schools like Stanford want to know that you're both smart and have the work ethic to hit the ground running HARD. So, you want good grades and great SAT scores for good schools or decent grades and good SAT scores for decent schools.
Don't get too stressed out about college before you're in it. Applications suck, but as long as you're going to a school that you will enjoy and learn from, it doesn't really matter. Hell, I wanted to go to Stanford but I'm at the University of Wisconsin and I love it. I'd much rather be here than be there. Stress isn't going to help anything.
[It should be noted that I went to a really good and competitive High School and in some of the formulas that schools use we got a .4 added onto our GPAs. So, my experience probably isn't exactly what will happen to most people, but take it as you will.]
[Oh, and I'll say one thing about Community Colleges, which I think is what people call junior colleges around me, correct me if I'm wrong. It's that some of the people there are REALLY REALLY stupid. I did a year back home to try and work on my monetary situation (out of state tuition sucks), and I took several classes at the local CC. Oh man, I almost walked out of my Human Biology class so many times it's crazy. If you're going to take classes there, defiantly go CC->College, not the other way around, the shock of general intelligence or interest in school is <i>amazing</i>.]
[Whoa, mega post. Just don't worry about it too much, college is supposed to be fun.]
wth...when did you apply?
Listen, even the slower-on-the-uptake people can make it into a relatively okay college. I managed TCU and that is pretty good I say. Just do what you can, when you can, where you can, and let the cards fall where they may after that. One of the hardest things in to do in life is to be satisfied with living as you are. This can be good or bad, but try to reduce the amount when it's bad.
taking 5 honor class in freshmen year and get all A is nothing...?
You want to major in Computer Engineering and you want to go to Virginia Tech?
drop that thought right now and replace Virginia Tech with UVA. That was my choice, that was my major and I'm much better off for it now (I also completed the requirements for CS)
taking 5 honor class in freshmen year and get all A is nothing...? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
well...not really. Just consider yourself to be smart <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> ITs for your own good man. If you continue to take lots of honors classes, college should be a breeze for you.
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1390 is really high imo.
I think a lot of people here in America are hella fricken lazy and don't study so they dont' do well in school, whereas in Asia, INdia, and some European countries, they have class till 5:00 PM and sometimes school on Saturdays. Overall they accumulate more school hours than we do and that is why we suX. <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
You want to major in Computer Engineering and you want to go to Virginia Tech?
drop that thought right now and replace Virginia Tech with UVA. That was my choice, that was my major and I'm much better off for it now (I also completed the requirements for CS) <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
according the PrincetonReview.com, UVA has a 4.00 GPA average which is <b>WAY</b> too high for me ://