<p>Getting one B will not affect you that much. Suck it up and take the AP Spanish (I took as many APs as you did senior year, and I did fairly well). And most top 20s don’t need you to have a 4.0 out HS. They consider rigor. They know that Human Geo is less rigorous than most other courses (not to mention, there is no equivalent. I suppose it would resemble some anthropology course), and none of them really accept credit (we don’t here at Emory) whereas Spanish is at least useful for placement purposes (you’ll get to take the more interesting foreign language classes at your university. </p>
<p>I really find it amazing the amount of HS students worried about getting a B in a course. I’m guessing most HSs even w/APs are grade inflated (or simply weight APs too much), because I don’t go to some famous/top school, but not even the valedictorian gets a 4.0 (or near it) because of the AP classes being hard. Let’s say it like this, in Georga, a 70 is passing, and there are many APs where the highest grades will be in the 80s and most will get an F or 70 something at least one quarter/semester. Even many of the honors classes at my school were like this. The teachers push you hard, will not grade lightly at all, and I thank them for it b/c while my GPA was not a 4.0 or too close to it, Emory is not as hard as it could be if my grades were inflated. I can’t imagine coming into here with an inflated ego created by my “never getting a B”. Let’s say it like this, my AP Comparative Gov., Lang, Euro, US Gov., and Chem teachers were willing to give everyone an F in the class if they did not perform (and it happened in the past. The whole class used to always fail the first quarter of Chem. II prior to my year and my awesome, but tough lang. teacher always gave Fs to several on papers. None of these people curved. In fact some were grading tougher than people up in these top 20 schools (all private, and all grade inflate to some extent. I see it in the courses I’ve taken, and I know it happens at the other top 20s). The difference is that the content is a bit tougher). It was the same way for honors courses, which were also brutal. It’s amazing how these “top/good schools” grade. After meeting some people from these type of schools, I know for sure a great deal of my classes were tougher b/c I would end up explaining/reviewing basic gen. chem concepts w/those who had a 5 on AP (from these schools) when taking freshmen orgo (very hard here, unlike most schools where it is easier than sophomore sections). I just had to rant b/c I find it strange that you worry about another B knocking you out of the top of your class. That’s just such a foreign concept to me. By the way, my Valedictorian and the 4th place person at my school who had like 3.65-3.75s (one white and one Japanese) because they had there share of B/B+s are at Yale (I got a little over 3.6 and the better grades were in APs). They took challenging courses and it paid off.</p>
<p>At first I thought that the people w/like “4.3”(my school only goes up to 4.0) GPAs were overachievers, but I’ve talked to/are friends with many of them, and they admit that many classes (especially AP) would hardly result in something below a B/B+. Not to mention, I take harder classes and make about the same grades or better than these people at Emory. </p>
<p>Basically, don’t try to self-inflate/maintain your grades at the last minute to impress the top schools. They may notice how you suddenly stopped taking languages for something that you can’t even get credit for. Plus I don’t think they say: “Oh look, this person got 2 Bs, too bad, can’t let them in” especially if they were in APs. You course schedule is rigorous and well-rounded, I know they’ll understand. Besides for someone, even at your GPA, it will still be a crapshoot at many Ivies, even if you had a 4.0. And also, do what will serve your interests best. Finishing off Spanish seems like an awesome idea. And don’t assume that since it is difficult, and that since most people make Bs, that you will make one. Had I thought that in my APs/Honors, I’m pretty sure it would have adversely affected my motivation, but I didn’t care about the grade. I cared about the teaching quality and content of the course. However, in almost all of the cases, I went in with confidence and the idea that I wanted to enjoy the material, and I finished strong (and sometimes at the very top of the class). On top of that I did well on the AP exams (including classes where I got a B grade. In fact many people w/C grades would get 4-5s).</p>