The "look" of grades on a transcript?

robinhood17

USMA Cadet
5-Year Member
Joined
Nov 12, 2010
Messages
210
Hello. I have a question.. my transcript is somewhat disconcerning. it is as follows for freshman and sophmore year.
Freshman
gpa unweighted- 2.8,weighted-3.3
Sophmore
gpa unweighted-2.4 weighted- 3.0
Junior
expected first semester
unweighted 4.0 weighted 4.667

My grades dropped dramatically during the 9-10th grade year, although i took less honors classes (this year,4 out of 6 classes are either AP or IB,the other two being music related) The drop in grades was directly related to my father deploying to iraq for a 12 month term (december to december.) and my mother having a major surgery. how do i explain this to admissions? my gpa this year definitely shows my capability to acheive outstanding grades, and my eca's are great (gold award, music, varsity sports, community service, etc.)
i have the ability to score very well on the SAT,and ACT. and i have taken the PSAT. im also very sure i can max nearly everything on the CFA. this is the only flaw in my resume, and i realize that that could potentially make me not competitive academically for the academies. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance.
Stephanie
 
I would discuss this with my ALO. Grades took quite a dip there - though that upward trend, if it holds, is a good sign.
 
will that help to admissions? obviously my cumulative gpa would rise, and with outstanding sat and act scores, could a bad 2 years be offset? thanks.
 
Seems like there is a lot of "what if's" still to be had.

rising gpa is good, but it will really depend on what your overall gpa is at the end when you apply and your standardized test scores as well as many other things.

If your gpa is within the "range" and your test scores are good, you will have a chance like everyone else.

Just keep doing the best you can. You really can't do more than that. Everything else will take care of itself. There is no use worrying about it too much because you can't change what is in the past. You can only do your best in what is ahead of you.
 
"dealing with a parents surgury and a deployment at the same time" might also be the perfect response to an essay about a setback on your usafa application assuming your grades hold for the rest of junior year and your extracurriculars, leadership positions and SAT/ACT are strong. keep up the hard work!
 
The admissions people are looking for resiliency. Can you get up if your knocked down? If you show you are improving, then you have a chance. Show that you are serious about doing well here and have your stuff together. Use your situation in an essay and show how you became stronger and more determined to be here. And like everyone else says, you can't change your past, but you can influence your future. If you don't get accepted, they may send you to a prep school. Even if you don't get any of the prep schools, keep trying hard, reapply, and show you are determined to be here.
 
The admissions people are looking for resiliency. Can you get up if your knocked down? If you show you are improving, then you have a chance. Show that you are serious about doing well here and have your stuff together. Use your situation in an essay and show how you became stronger and more determined to be here. And like everyone else says, you can't change your past, but you can influence your future. If you don't get accepted, they may send you to a prep school. Even if you don't get any of the prep schools, keep trying hard, reapply, and show you are determined to be here.

DK...who are you? :thumb:

If you're a candidate, or a cadet/mid'n...WOW! :w00t:

If you're not...you're still dead on! :rockon:

This is about a perfect answer to this situation as can be written, short and concise! It highlights precisely what we want to know: what happened, why, what did/are you doing about it, what will you do, and how are you doing?

Excellent answer! :thumb:

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83
 
I hope thats true, it gives me some peace of mind on my situation. I had nothing bad really happen, although I still bounced back from a rough start of freshman year.
Freshman 1 semester ~2.7
Freshman 2 semester ~3.5
Sophomore 1 quarter ~3.5
Rest of sophomore estimate ~ 3.8+

None of this is weighted, because the academy does it their own way anyway. I basically had a hard time adjusting to the atmosphere of high school the first semester of freshman year, but bounced back pretty darn well I think. I have two math classes this year, one being honors the other is meant for seniors (only sophomore in the class:thumbdown:). But hey, I’m proud of my improvement, and intend to get better each quarter!

But I have a question about how they weight GPA there. Do they weight math and science classes more than a class such as english? Or do they just personally look more highly upon math/science classes?
 
But I have a question about how they weight GPA there. Do they weight math and science classes more than a class such as english? Or do they just personally look more highly upon math/science classes?

I'm under the impression that USAFA's weighting not only looks at classes, but also the high school you're coming from. During the application process your high school will send the Academy a profile of the school, that will show what classes they offer, how many students go on to 4-year and 2-year schools, how the school calculates their GPA, etc... Only USAFA admissions knows exactly how the GPA is recalculated, but it is intended to help serve as an equalizer between all the different schools.

You are right though, math and science courses are generally considered more important. Having AP Physics C on the transcript will help more than an art history course.
 
DK...who are you? :thumb:

If you're a candidate, or a cadet/mid'n...WOW! :w00t:

If you're not...you're still dead on! :rockon:

This is about a perfect answer to this situation as can be written, short and concise! It highlights precisely what we want to know: what happened, why, what did/are you doing about it, what will you do, and how are you doing?

Excellent answer! :thumb:

Steve
USAFA ALO
USAFA '83

I'm a cadet remember? Loosehawgs!!!

And thank you.
 
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