<p>I've been worried about this for a while now. My freshman year of high school I did pretty well. All A's and like two B+ averages. However, this sophomore year, my grades took a horrible turn. I basically have all B's and B+'s in all of my classes! </p>
<p>I'm scared to death that this will hurt my chance of getting into a good college. I was planning to get into UVA, Virginia Tech, or James Madison University, but with these awful grades I feel as if I should start looking into other colleges. </p>
<p>What do you guys think? Do I still have a chance of getting into these colleges if I do really well my Junior year? I will be taking 4 AP classes and my course rigor isn't going down. </p>
<p>Virginia Tech and James Madison both seem to have relatively okay acceptance rates, unless they decide to plummet within the next few years. Having B’s isn’t that big of an issue especially if you’re coming straight from high school. Always have safety schools regardless of this though. You should have a decent list of schools just in case your first 3 or even 4 options don’t work out. </p>
<p>Just keep your grades up and do well with extra curricular activities over the next year and a half and you should be fine. Remember, it’s not 100% grades for schools!</p>
<p>Do colleges even look at senior year grades? When do you start applying for colleges? </p>
<p>Right now, I don’t do many EC’s. I recently started running outside of school. I have a half marathon in September and will probably do more races. Is that an EC that will look good? I was planning on doing triathlon too, if that even mattered. </p>
<p>My parents are divorced and I don’t have a ride after school so its difficult for me to do track in school. </p>
<p>Unless you are a recruited athlete or musician, I don’t think EC’s play a major role in admission to a state school.
Keep your grades up and do well on the SAT/ACT. VT and JMU are squarely in your wheelhouse. UVA is not out of reach yet, either.</p>
<p>Do you think i should take spanish 4 next year or will it not even matter. I know they only require 3 years, but considering my poor B average this year, would it help just to have the extra year and get an A in it? </p>
<p>I will do my absolute best to get all A’s next year, and study hard for both SAT and ACT tests (I plan on taking both). If I could get into virginia tech or even UVA, I would be so happy! </p>
<p>Depending on when you apply, some colleges may look at the first semester of your senior year. If you apply EA or ED however, they will not look at your senior year grades (they’re not ready in time), and depending on how your junior year goes, this may be something to keep in mind for you. </p>
<p>The running sounds pretty interesting (at least to me, that may be because I hate running and admire people who do it lol), and while pardullet is right in that ECs don’t have as big of an impact at state schools, colleges generally like to see that you do something other than watch TV all day. </p>
<p>As for Spanish, you are only a sophomore right? You will need to take Spanish next year in order to have a third year. If you are referring to taking Spanish senior year, I would say to wait and see how you fare in Spanish junior year. Some people just really don’t have an aptitude for foreign language, and there’s no point in taking a class you think you will do poorly in. 4 years is generally seen as a plus by colleges though. </p>
<p>Thanks for the replies guys. I really appreciate the advice. </p>
<p>I took my third year of Spanish this year. I was wondering if it was worth it to take my fourth spanish next year. I can’t decide between that or advanced computer math. I am interested in a career in computers right now. Something like computer science, programming, computer engineering etc. Advanced computer math sounds more fit for my career path, and I can take AP computer science senior year, but I don’t want it to be one of those fluff classes that colleges don’t care about.</p>
<p>I did bad in Spanish 3 (B average) and I don’t want my sophomore year to hurt my chance of getting into Virginia Tech. What do you guys think? </p>
<p>My friend is an avid triathlete and wanted to get me into doing triathlons. I would do my first triathlon junior year and then an ironman distance senior year summer. Don’t know if I’ll be doing triathlons, but I’m still doing my half marathon this summer. Its difficult for me to do in school sports without a ride home, so I guess running is all I can do. </p>