So I got a few Bs junior year, and I know this’ll potentially hurt me a bit. My school is rigorous, and some kids here get into ivies w/Bs. The only thing is that, in core classes, I got As is my 3 AP classes, but Bs in my honors ones. Would this be a significant discrepancy to top schools? People usually say Bs are often ok in a high level class, but this is kind of the other way around. Any thoughts?
It would depend on the courses you got the B’s in. Of course AP’s are widely regarded as the harder class, but to be honest I’ve never had a class as tough as Pre-AP World History in sophomore year, my only B. It also depends on WHY you got the B’s. Were the classes tough? Or were you just lazy? Maybe your schedule was too tough for all A’s and you chose to mainly focus on AP classes?
If you feel like you need to explain yourself then there’s always “Additional Info” in the applications.
There are a lot of questions to be asked before its impact can be evaluated.
How many is a few? Are you still in the top 10% of your high school class? Also, does this make you on a downward trend GPA-wise (did you do better sophomore year)? Do you have any repeat B’s (two semesters/three trimesters in a row)? Do you have any good reasons for getting these B’s? Do you have any extremely significant achievements outside of academics?
I think your concern is valid, but we have no context of you, your school, etc… Remember, many kids with straight A’s don’t get into all of their college choices either, while others do. Just don’t freak out, and try to learn what you can do to improve. If you work hard and care about learning from life experiences, you will be fine in the end.