2.8 GPA in high school, any chance for college?
Get up those grades for the last half of the year. Work your butt off for first term next fall and maybe you'll be able to bring it up. I don't know much about the ACT but I know it's out of 36 so to me, a 31 one is pretty good. And your SAT score is pretty decent as well. I think if you just get your grades up, you'll do fine. I would suggest looking into state universities if you are really so adverse to going to a community college. The state school will probably be cheaper and have lower standards. You could always go there for a semester or a year, and then once you get your GPA up you can transfer to a better school. A site I found help is the College Confidential College Search: http://www.collegeconfidential.com/colle... but I think the problem you should focus on now is getting your GPA up, and maybe looking into more extracurricular activities.
Anyone in the top 10% in High School?
Well, how big is you school/ what is the GPA out of in your school? It sounds like you either go to a really competitive school since your GPA is greater than 4.0, but if it's out of 5.0, then it would be a different case. Also, the number of kids in your school obviously makes a difference because being in the top 10% is based in your school, not in the state or country. It seems really ridiculous that a lot of public schools automatically accept anyone in the top 10 percent. Really. At my school, being in the top 10% means having a GPA of above 3.6, because I go to a prep school which is really competitive. But in order to go to school here, you have to be accepted, and the the acceptance rate last year was 19%. The average SAT score is a 2140 at my school, which is better than the scores of a lot of valedictorians at other schools in the rural countryside and what not. I mean, if the state schools accept only people in the top 10% of their class, that's absolutely ridiculous. I'd take a student who's done honor and AP and IB classes during their high school rather than someone who took regular classes and didn't have any competition during high school.
If I did bad in high school, can I still go to university after community college?
Of course. There is always room for improvement. Just because you did bad in high school doesn't mean that you will continue to do poorly on academics. It doesn't have to be even a community college that you have to apply to, there are more than 5000 universities in US. Just apply to the ones that you like, if you get admitted well congrats in advance. However, do keep in mind that going to a community college for 2 years to get your associates degree would definitely help you to get into your top choice schools such as Harvard maybe? Especially if you do very good in community college, no one can stop you. Just keep something in mind, don't let anything distract you, I am assuming there was at least one factor that caused you to write this question here. So whether it is bullying, low income, family, friend, boy/girlfriend, don't and don't ever let anything distract you. Not to brag, I went to one of the top universities and I am currently in the top #10 med school in US. I think I am in this position right now because I never ever had a girlfriend to distract me, never had a bad friend, always had good relationship with my high school teachers/ professors, involved myself into many activities and community service along with internships. So just to keep it short, just dedicate yourself to education until you are 24, then live and eat the fruits that you deserved in your professional life.I wish you the best of professional careers out there:)
In high school, for IB programs, what does HL and SL mean? what does it represent in terms of GPA? Is it possible to get a GPA of above 4.0?
1. HL is Higher Level and SL is Standard Level. You need to take six subjects for the International Baccalaureate Diploma; three or four at higher level and the rest at standard level. The IB Prgramme doesn't care which of the six subjects you take at Higher Level, but your high school might; high school often require English and History to be tken at HL, to comply with state requirements for high school graduation. 2. Some high schools "weight" students' GPAs if they are in honors, AP or IB classes. If an A in a regular college prep class is worth 4.0, for example, an A in an honors class might be calculated into your GPA as a 4.5, and an A in an AP or IB class might be worth 5. A B in an honors class would then be worth a 3.5 in honors or a 4.0 in AP or IP, and so on down the line. If this is the case, if you get As in honors and AP classes your weighted GPA could easily be over a 4.0. This is unfair for a couple of reasons: 1. each school system has its own method of weighting grades, and some schools don't weight grades at all; an A is worth 4.0 points whether it's in a college prep, honors or AP class. 2. Only academic classes tend to be weighted, so students can actually bring their weighted GPA DOWN by taking PE and elective classes. But no university wants to penalize students who take extra classes. For example, a person who takes Honors Algebra 2/Trig, AP Physics, AP US History, AP English Literature, Spanish 3, Orchestra and Gymnastics and gets all As (4.5+5+5+5+4+4+4/7 GPA=4.5), is more impressive than a person who just takes Honors Algebra 2/Trig, AP Physics, AP US History, AP English Literature,, and Spanish 3, and gets all As (4.5+5+5+5+4/5 GPA=4.7), but the second person's GPA would be higher at a high school that weights grades, since Orchestra and PE classes are not weighted so the highest grade would be a 4.0. Therefore, most univerisities look at the letter or percentage grades and recalculate each applicant's unweighted GPA.
Does your high school GPA actually matter? How will this affect my future?
I can answer this. I graduated high school with about a 3.5, and went to Dartmouth. I only got into Dartmouth because of my test scores and because I did a bunch of other crazy stuff in high school (state debate champion, wrote over 100 published newspaper articles) and had a sudden flash of inspiration when writing my essay (one of those creative, risky essays that happened to pay off).If I had had a higher GPA, I might have gotten into Harvard or Yale, I suppose. And that would have made my life different in some way.But more importantly, getting a B average in school when I could have gotten an A -- but using the energy to do a bunch of awesome crazy shit instead -- that's just who I am.In college, this became even more exaggerated. I graduated with a 2.71 GPA -- and a company that had 8 part-time employees. And I went from being 100% unathletic to being captain of the boxing team, and bodybuilding (random!) Basically, I didn't really care about competing for things that too many other people were competing for, especially when the rewards weren't that high.While my life today looks very different from my life as a teenager, you could kind of sum it all up with, "She skates through the requirements she doesn't care about and then BOOM she hits you with some giant audacious project she's done that came out of nowhere!"I always say: do things that don't have applications. Pitch employers on hiring you for a job that doesn't exist yet, so you're the only candidate. Don't submit your portfolio to a contest against thousands; instead, put on your own exhibition. Etc.I did later go to grad school, so this was the only time my undergrad grades really came up. Once I got into college, my high school grades never came up again at all. I have to say, though, getting into an Ivy did do a lot for me, so I wouldn't slack off unless you have a whole lot of other factors going for you (2200+ SAT, plus something else that shows dedication and work ethic, not just native intelligence).If you're anything like me, the decision you make now will be a lot like the decisions you make later on, so choose wisely.
Does my Elective Class count towards my college GPA?
At my son's private high school in So Cal, all classes except for PE count towards gpa and from what we're told, this is what the colleges consider. (The kids from his schools go to UCs and top colleges, Ivies.) I believe this is the way it is now at most colleges. I really think this policy sucks, because kids can't explore and take electives that they might like but be bad at, because getting a 4.0 gpa is necessary to apply to a great college. Be sure you take the Spanish class in summer because most good colleges want at least 3 years of one foreign language, but at the top colleges, 4 years is preferred (so basically required). Good luck!