3 B's Senior Year?

<p>A friend of mine is really stressing out over the fact that she will probably end up with 3 B's at the end of semester. Normally, she is your typical overachiever type -- literally all A's since middle school, full IB diploma, bunch of EC's and clubs and community service, 2100+ SAT, etc. -- but this year is much more difficult for her, and she will probably end up with B's in IB Phyisics, Spanish, and HL Math. I try to make her feel better by telling her that B's are good grades for these classes (which they are) and that since she's not majoring in anything that would involve these classes (she wants to get into politics) that colleges wouldn't look at them as hard; an engineer major with a B in physics wouldn't look so great, but nobody cares about a senator that can't do physics. But does having three B's your senior year when you've been nothing short of perfect for the last three years look like slacking? She's applying to all the top-tier Ivies, Stanford, etc., and she's really worried those B's are going to kill her chances. Is she right?</p>

<p>By the way, this really is my friend, not me -- I'm not crazy enough to go for an IB diploma! And I like physics :)</p>

<p>you know the answer to this. this question has been answered millions of times. i suppose i could reiterate that colleges look at the whole package and she seems great. 3 Bs in hard classes will not kill her at all. this is nothing to stress over.</p>

<p>Colleges know senioritis, too. Normally they get suspicious when the applicant has dropped a full letter grade (from a 4.0 to a 3.0, for example). But if she wants to worry, let her worry. Or better yet, if she's really worried beyond psychiatric help, she should eat some ice cream because many people would gouge their eyes out for what she's accomplished.</p>

<p>i doubt that they get suspicious when an applicant drops just one full letter grade (i mean come on...generally a 90 is like a 4.0 and an 80 is a 3.0). maybe when one starts dropping 2 or more letter grades one has something to worry about...</p>

<p>Well, if someone getting all A's suddenly gets all B's there had better be a good reason for it. Right, it doesn't seem as extreme as going from A to C, but it still warrants suspicion.</p>

<p>I expected that was the answer. I just wanted to make sure there was some substance behind my comments to make her feel better and that I wasn't essentially lying to her to cheer her up. I think she's more distraught over losing perfection than she is over possible rejections because of a couple of B's. Thanks for the input.</p>

<p>Just tell her to Shut Up. Or else tell her that she is never going to amout to anything and really drill that in to her brain. Hopefully she will cry and then you can laugh at her for being so stupid about he Grades.</p>

<p>Hey, I have a better idea: stop being a jackass. </p>

<p>You know it's really annoying when I come here for help, advice, and input and then people like you make fun of me, or in this case my friend. I really don't appreciate it.</p>

<p>Honestly, if I had maintained straight A's throughout high school, I would be pretty annoyed if I got 1 B in one semester of my senior year, let alone three all at once. I personally think it's somewhat reasonable she is upset. It's not like she's comitting suicide or heading off to community college, she is just a little thrown off by being handed her first couple of B's, and worried to a reasonable extent that it may affect her college admissions. She has basically acknowledged that it's good she got them now in high school or she would go through it for the first time in college. I suppose it's something almost every high-achiever has to get over at some point.</p>

<p>The point is: I don't appreciate your sarcasm. I come here for help and that's mostly what I expect to receive. So please lay off the lame comments.</p>

<p>^ Better to find out she's imperfect now than when she gets to college.</p>

<p>Yep, I agree. It's actually a good thing. I'm glad she's realized that on her own.</p>

<p>my bad, I just don't think it's that big of a deal. I was being stupid. BUT maybe if you act like you think it is a big deal and tell her she is never getting into good colleges she will become annoyed with YOUR sarcasm and then realize that it isn't that end of the world and that she really is a very smart and dedicated person. </p>

<p>Just tell her something like "OH Nooo your gonna fall down two spots in the class rank" maybe she will laugh and realize to relax. If not, then I stand by my point that that is a way to obsessive academic freak.</p>

<p>I personally Have had All A's in History throughout High School. However this year I have a very tough Honors History class. I probably will wind up getting a B somehow, but I will do everything in my power to stop that. but if I do get a B. I'm still gonna look on the bright side and still say I only got 1 B throughout High School in History. You can't take everything too serious.</p>

<p>I've got like 3 or 4 D's and I still am going to a top 50 School ( PSU).</p>

<p>Penn State--------Yale</p>

<p>What's the difference???? I mean really.</p>

<p>Sorry JoeySweets, I see where you were trying to come from. Sorry I sort of snapped at you. It's just a lot of people on here really make some rude comments! I get kind of tired of just seeing all of them...sometimes they are warranted, other times they are not. But honestly when people are coming here for help there shouldn't be any negative comments, so it gets kind of frustrating sometimes. No hard feelings.</p>

<p>Yeah, that Sarcasm was kind of unwarranted. I guess I've just never had the Pressure or the desire to Get like all A's or be top of the class. I usually do most of my homework in 1st period Study Hall. and I still manage a 3.5. LOL.</p>

<p>And I hope your friend does get into whatever colleges she wants. I can't even imagine how cool it would be to go to some place like Harvard. I don't think they will care about a difference between a 4.55 and a 4.35. They probably look at the intangables after they see your like the validictorian. and have awsome SAT's. That's why when I was reading the Harvard message boards they say they reject like a hundred people with perfect SAT's.</p>

<p>Nice...first period is always fair game for doing hw. So is 2nd...and 3rd...</p>

<p>I personally never have understood people who wanted to go to Harvard...I mean obviously it's an awesome school, but it takes so much to get there and then once you can be considered worthy of admission it comes down to luck. Doesn't sound like much of a deal to me. I'm just shooting for UC Berkeley or LA...probably won't get either one and will stick with UCSD, which is still a good school.</p>

<p>well, i had straight A's for my frosh, sophomore and junior years, and in my senior year, i increased my courseload by taking 6 classes each term (which is considered A LOT at my competitive prep school) than the normally recommended 5 classes per term schedule. I have straight A's in five of them in the fall term, including multivariable and ap physics, but i got a C+ in Ap chemistry! i messed up big time on the final besides many other reasons. however, i have confidence to get a much more respectable grade in winter-midterm which is mid-janurary at my school and i will send it to my RD schools as update.
So, how bad does this c+ look in my application to top competitive schools (like, the ivies), did i basically ruin my chance in those places?</p>

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<p>hahaha You're too funny. Go on. Go on.</p>

<p>You Americans have it easy. You obsess about whether your applications will be perfect and whether you'll get enough A's, but never stop to think about how students have to study in other countries. </p>

<p>In a mediocre, public Russian school, for example, a 4 (or B) is considered a very competitive score and getting a perfect 5 (A) is hell of a lot harder than it is at some private, magnet American schools. Although I've never been to the best schools in the states, I know quite a few international schools where I live that have the same standard, i.e. AP/IB/Honors courses, college prep program, the works. I have many Russian friends that go (went) to these schools and always bragged about how easy the classes were compared to the Russian schools they went to before. The only thing that got in the way was the language barrier. In Math, however, kids would go in with middle school knowledge of calculus/algebra/geometry and be way ahead of everyone else, solving problems that the American standard considered an advanced high school program.</p>

<p>I could go on and on about this, but I don't want you guys to feel worse than you already do. Just try to relax, let go of your perfectionist nature and consider how hard students are working outside of your own class/ highschool/city/state/country.</p>

<p>In Soviet Russia, school learns you!</p>

<p>Another Smirnoff joke, how original.</p>