Straight A's

How much do colleges care about the perfect grade? The answer: a significant amount... depending on your situation. I know, not the answer you want.

Now, this isn’t to discourage anyone who doesn’t have straight A’s or even a balanced mixed of A‘s and B’s. The truth is that there isn’t a perfect answer or a puzzle piece answer where you need a specific number of A’s to get into top-tier colleges, especially ivy leagues.

I’ll get to the point. Basically, yes you do need good grades. But what are good grades?

Generally colleges are looking to accept applicants with the best grades, but that doesn’t make or break an application as many other things factor into the decision for them as well. Things like extracurriculars, SAT and ACT scores, and awards & achievements all strengthen an application and is another important aspect that colleges like to see from an applicant. ”Good grades” show colleges 2 things; the applicant can handle classes proficiently and depending on the rigor of the classes that you take (regular, honors, & AP), they will determine how best you would fit into their college and the classes offered there. The second thing they show colleges is the potential at which an applicant can contribute to the college.

All schools want the best students just because it helps strengthen their own image and reputation (such as ivy leagues), but it is best to keep in mind the best students with the most to offer are not always the kids who get all A’s. It’s the students that go above and beyond to do more outside of school and show colleges and Universities that they can excel in something, which we’ll talk about in another article.

Regardless of how accomplished you are or the rigor of the conviction that you will not have an academic career, it is always better to be actively participating in your academic life. The quality of your notes in your class can often make or break a grade, often because it is those notes that you go back and study. Thus it is important to have a good note-taking system and in this digital era, these are some tablets that we recommend you should get to have clean, organized notes... and also to save the trees :)

1. I personally have this tablet, it is the Samsung Galaxy Tab S6 Lite 10.4". It comes with a stylus of its own and is incredibly smooth to write with. It is very lightweight, making it a breeze to take anywhere. You can also watch videos, movies, and read on it. I have been using it for a couple of months and experienced no lagging, it runs very smoothly.

2. Another great product that works just as well is the Microsoft Surface Go. You may have likely heard about Microsoft's surface series and its' convertibility to go from a tablet to a laptop. For this reason, it highly recommended by several high school and college students due to its' smooth writing ability, great storage, and portability.

So yes, do the best you can and aim to get the best grades in your classes, but there is no reason to stress about having straight A's (although this article isn't going to stop those of you who are determined to do so anyways) and to focus more on building yourself as a unique applicant with a variety of strengths, rather than just focusing on school. We know you will do great :)

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