Am I screwed because of the rigor of my classes?

Applying to College
1

<p>I was thinking about a school like Northwestern but I wonder if a past decision I made will affect my chances at being admitted.</p>

<p>Freshman and Sophomore years I took all of the honors classes available to me.</p>

<p>First semester of Junior Year I was taking 7 IB courses. IB English, Biology, History, Psychology, Math, Spanish and French. I only had 1 regular elective class which was Newspaper. I received a 3.88/4.0 for the semester (88.4% in IB History). I managed A's in the rest of my courses. However, I was warn out because I was staying up late and as a result getting sick every 2 or 3 weeks or so. So I made the decision to cut out IB History and IB Biology for semester 2, which left me with IB English, Psych, Math, Spanish, French. I didn't take a science class but I'm not worried because I plan on majoring in Journalism. And I took a regular history class. I still took 5 IB classes though. Because I left those 2 IB classes I wasn't an IB Diploma Candidate anymore. I did however get a 4.0 for 2nd semester. I also found more time to do volunteering and pursue other interests. Will colleges look at this change I made in a negative light? More specifically Northwestern? I appreciate answers</p>

<p>Also if this is going to hurt my chances should I go back to a more rigorous load for senior year?</p>

2

<p>I am not too familiar with IB, but I know schools like to see increasing level of difficulty each year for courses. Your junior year change in class shouldn’t be too big of a deal, but you should definitely try for a more difficult schedule senior year since the rigor of those courses is a factor in admissions.</p>

3

<p>Make sure you explain this in your essay, especially with how you found it better to balance yourself out with community service in light of your (still) difficult course load. You took all the courses, but just fell short of the diploma by a couple courses. Actually completing the diploma is an indicator that you’re willing to go thru a lot of B.S. to achieve a final goal. However, that’s not necessarily that important.</p>

<p>Other than that, I think your GPA and stats are still very competitive.</p>

4

<p>Don’t write your essay about it. The top colleges just want to see a rigorous curriculum. There can be many good reasons for not pursuing an IB diploma. You don’t have to explain why you didn’t. Instead, use your essay to focus on something good/interesting about yourself.</p>

5

<p>So you think what I did was okay? It won’t effect admissions negatively?</p>