Bad grades 1st semester senior year - how bad will this look?

Applying to College
1

<p>1st semester just ended for me, and unfortunately, with horrible marks.</p>

<p>I had 8 classes, most of which were rigorous.
I got 2 A's, 5 B's and a C. The C was in multivariable calculus. It is the first C I've ever gotten. I always get A's and B's in math.. it's just that I struggle a lot in this particular class because I can't learn from this teacher. I had him in 10th grade and almost got a C one semester (but didn't). He's just very difficult (for me) to learn from.</p>

<p>My overall UW GPA, NOT including this first semester, was 3.72. I usually got 2-3 B's and 5-6 A's (8 classes) in freshman - junior year.
I imagine it'll probably be at 3.6 or so after this semester is included...</p>

<p>I'm very concerned that when I send out my mid-year report, colleges won't even bother looking at the rest of my application when they see the horrific drop in grades.
Will they do that?
I applied to UChicago, Duke, Rice, and my state flagship (not worried about that last one).</p>

<p>So.. just <em>how</em> bad will this look? How much of an influence will the midyear report have?
I really want to get into Duke. My interview is this weekend.</p>

2

<p>My SAT scores aren’t all that fantastic… so they won’t really help my situation.
770 math + 740 writing + 670 cr = 2180 superscore</p>

<p>720 on Biology(M)
790 on Math II</p>

3

<p>It certainly won’t help but there is no way to tell. Here is the CDS for Duke. <a href=“http://ir.provost.duke.edu/facts/cds/Duke%20CDS_2011-2012.pdf[/url]”>http://ir.provost.duke.edu/facts/cds/Duke%20CDS_2011-2012.pdf&lt;/a&gt; If you look at section C7 you can see that scores and GPA are both rated very important (along with a bunch of other items). The interview is only considered. Obviously you are taking a challenging curriculum.</p>

4

<p>Won’t help.</p>