Apply the concepts from the video to your own academic and career plan. Which subject areas are most important to your career goals? What trends have you noticed in your grades over time? What steps can you take to maintain or improve your grades?
transcript
I think that the perception sometimes is that there are quotas, or there are equations or formulas or thresholds and if a student doesn't exceed the GPA threshold
or the SAT threshold then they would not be considered
or perhaps not even read and that's not true at all. But knowing they were in academic institution, knowing that your preparation for that academic space is key to you being able to graduate. We do pay a lot of attention to the courses that you take and the grades that you received in those courses. We will ask the guidance counselor "What's the highest GPA in this graduating class?" and when they give us that highest GPA in that particular graduating class, that helps us to set the bar in terms of how we evaluate your grades. So your high school may have minimum requirements. You have to take four years of English, two years of History, maybe two years of a lab science and so forth. That's great, but the more selective college you wanna look at, the more they want you to push beyond the minimum and really push yourself and take challenging courses. So taking four years of English,
great probably everybody has to do that but maybe four years of a language, four years of Science, four years of History, and so forth. So you know, going beyond the minimum for those more selective schools that's what's really gonna show them you're preparing yourself and it's gonna help you be really prepared to handle the work at a competitive college.
So for example at Virginia, students would need to take
four years of English, four years of Math,
three years of Science, two years of foreign language and on and on.
Yet when we review applications often they have
three if not four of everything.
Now I will say that it's not necessarily
an individual discipline or course that we're fixated on.
If a student is going into engineering
then yes we're looking closely at Physics,
we're looking closely at Calculus, these sorts of things.
But if a student is a linguist
1:54I'm not necessarily as concerned that he or she
1:57did not have Calculus.
1:59Likewise if a student is a hardcore engineer
2:02the fact that he or she has two years of Latin,
2:04that's it for foreign language, isn't as concerning to us.
2:08So it's all relative and dependent upon the school
2:10or program that they're entering at the university.
2:12- I really wanna reassure students that if your high school
2:15doesn't offer a certain set of courses
2:17we would never expect that you have taken them.
2:19So if your high school doesn't offer AP Calculus,
2:23obviously you're not gonna be disadvantaged
2:25if we don't see that on your transcript.
2:27- The question we're asking ourselves is
2:31"Have you taken advantage of the best
2:33"that your high school can offer?"
2:36And if you have done that,
2:38then you're competitive in the process.
2:40- Now we're not saying take every advanced course available
2:43at your high school, you need to find that balance
2:46for yourself.
2:47But we do wanna make sure that you are comfortable
2:50with challenging yourself every step of the way,
2:54so beyond just GPA, beyond just rank in class.
2:57What we really are more concerned with is
2:59your journey overtime,
3:01how you got there.
3:02So when we look at that transcript
3:04what we really do is take it apart
3:07year by year and course by course.
3:09We focus on the academic core primarily,
3:12Math, Science, English, History, world languages
3:15and really try and get a sense of
3:18how well you preformed in those classes.
3:20The level of rigor that you took among those classes,
3:24and again trends over time.
3:26Upward trends are really great!
3:28If you were even keel,
3:30given that you were possibly strong to begin with
3:33is usually a pretty good
3:36starting period as well.
3:38So we really again, looking for that academic
3:42trajectory, over a period of time.
•Current transcript segment:3:44And that's where we tend to focus most of our energy.
As I apply the concepts from the video to my own academic and career plan, I can see the importance of taking challenging courses and pushing beyond the minimum requirements at my high school. The subject areas that are most important to my career goals are Math and Science, as I am interested in pursuing a career in engineering.
I have noticed a trend in my grades over time where I have maintained a steady GPA with some fluctuations in certain subjects. To maintain or improve my grades, I can take steps such as seeking extra help or tutoring in subjects where I struggle, setting aside dedicated study time each day, and prioritizing my time management skills to make sure I am staying on top of my assignments and studying effectively.
Additionally, I can make an effort to take advantage of the best courses available at my high school and challenge myself every step of the way. By showing a commitment to academic excellence and continually improving my performance in core subject areas, I can demonstrate to colleges and universities that I am prepared for the rigor of their programs. Ultimately, I will focus on building a strong academic trajectory over time to align with my career goals and aspirations.