Applying to a biology program at grad school

Hi - I’m currently a freshman but will be a sophomore this upcoming fall. I’m planning on applying to several graduate schools, not as pre-med (so far most of the threads I’ve seen have regarded pre-med) but I’ve been struggling in a few of my classes so far. To be more specific, I took too many difficult classes the second quarter of my freshman year and ended up with a C in Honors Chemistry and subsequently another C in an introductory chemistry class spring quarter. I got a C in introductory biology winter quarter as well, but I’m retaking the class right now and so far am set up to get an A in the class.

I’m just wondering, for graduate programs such as the University of Washington, Caltech, or Cornell (which I understand is more far-fetched), just how bad would it be if I had two Cs on my transcript freshman year but was capable of maintaining a higher GPA the following three years along with research and leadership in several clubs. And how frowned up would it be if I made up for a C by retaking the class later and obtaining a higher grade? So far I have a 3.1 gpa but I’m trying to make it go up more.

Thanks!

The big thing with this field is research, if you’re serious you need to get a couple publications under your belt before senior year. A couple of Cs early on is not a dealbreaker if your grades show an upward trend and the rest of your application is solid.