<p>Okay, so I'm a junior in high school and am currently enrolled in 6 ap classes. I had some trouble adjusting to the new workload (I only took AP chem last year) so I received three B's. I am confident that I will do much better next semester but I'd like to know how that would hurt my chances at Harvard or any top university. Thanks for the help.</p>
<p>Well, there’s always community college!</p>
<p>not helping…</p>
<p>I heard an upward trend is better than having all-around stable grades, so I think doing better next semester will definitely help.</p>
<p>The B’s hurt your application, but I doubt they kill it. Not everyone at Harvard had a 4.0 in high school.</p>
<p>I mean, it’s Harvard. You have to keep in mind that you’re competing against people that are getting A’s all throughout high school. So, those B’s may not exactly be helping your application. However, I’m sure they’ll take your course rigor into consideration-you seem like a strong applicant, and those B’s won’t make it or break it in the end. Make sure everything else is excellent, and you stand just as good a chance as the rest. Good luck!</p>
<p>The B’s will hurt an application, depending on the extent to which class rank and GPA decrease, but the rigor of your schedule will definitely be recognized.</p>
<p>I disagree with all of the encouraging posts. You’re dead. I got two B+'s junior year and it slaughtered my GPA. Start looking into easier schools to get into.</p>
<p>but people with 3.7s still get in. my friends brother had 8 B-level grades and was admitted to yale and princeton, waitlisted at harvard and rejected at standford.</p>
<p>“but people with 3.7s still get in. my friends brother had 8 B-level grades and was admitted to yale and princeton, waitlisted at harvard and rejected at standford.” </p>
<p>-Of course there are always exceptions. I’m sure there were students that got into Ivy League Universities with less than 3.0. But the percentage of students who do get in with mediocre/terrible grades is low.</p>
<p>Harvard could probably fill its class ten times over with perfect 4.0 valedictorians if it wanted to.</p>
<p>But that’s the thing - It COULD, but it chooses not to. Other traits are important, too. People who recover from a few “bad” grades show resilience and strength of character. Sure, there are people who never got Bs, but is there really any difference between a 3.9 and a 4.0? The bottomline is, both students are very strong academically, and if you challenged yourself more than the 4.0 student or had better ECs, I’d take you any day of the week.</p>
<p>You challenged yourself, but came up short in the end. It’ll definitely hurt you, but not to an extreme extent. How’s your class rank?</p>
<p>Relax. Do better next semester.</p>
<p>Wow… just, wow. I have a few friends who go to Harvard, and nearly ALL of them had at least two Bs/B+s on their high school transcripts. The important thing was that all of them took crazy hard classes (full AP/IB schedules, etc). Your high school transcript and the rigor of your classes is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT THING on your college application. 6 APs definitely puts you in the ballpark of “rigorous.”</p>
<p>Additionally, I think colleges see students who have perfect 4.0s as being uninteresting, mechanical robots in general (of course there are exceptions…) But having good, but imperfect grades with a hard classload is always preferable to having perfect grades with easy classes.</p>
<p>The end.</p>
<p>Moreover, the people with GPA’s that are a lot less than 4.0 probably went to some real rigorous school (Exeter?). I can’t imagine someone getting in Harvard with a 3.7 from a crappy public school with no hard courses in an average neighborhood.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>pretty sure this isn’t possible for ANY college. at least, not ten times. maybe a couple times over</p>
<p>Handlebar - you need a slash in the last quote.</p>
<p>[ / quote]</p>
<p>haha i know that; i’ve done quotes before.
i would’ve noticed it later, thanks for making me look dumb by pointing it out!!</p>
<p>Sorry about that, now I can’t edit my post. :(</p>
<p>Sorry, off topic. Back on topic. Try not to get B’s, period.</p>