Читать книгу America's Best Colleges for B Students - Tamra B. Orr - Страница 27

A number of colleges do some rearranging of your grades that you might not be aware of. They will look at the classes you took in high school, throw out the “fluff” classes and recalculate the “core” classes. Journalism, shop, drama, home economics—all gone. Only science, math and English might remain. For many students, this is an unpleasant surprise because the grades they got in their elective classes were the ones responsible for driving up their overall GPA. Knowing this, you might want to choose different classes for your junior and senior years. Throw out the easy classes and take advanced placement or college prep courses instead. Some suggestions include these classes: algebra, geometry, foreign language, laboratory science and English. The honest fact is that a B in a core class will benefit you more than an A in any fluff class.

Patrick O’Brien adds, “Junior year for many is like boot camp, or to say it another way, it’s more like college while the frosh and sophomore years are more like middle school. It is a breakthrough year with greater opportunities but also greater challenges. More self-direction is expected,” he adds. “You should expect it of yourself. Keep all things in balance.”

Mark Campbell, vice president for enrollment management at McKendree College, advises high school students, “Don’t be tempted to take the soft senior year. Continue to develop your writing!”

Here is a helpful chart for converting your grades over to the point system used for computing GPAs.