Hi everybody. I just received my grade today from Calculus BC and the finals dropped my B to a C+, but my school doesn’t use +/- so it’s just a C. I was wondering if this would affect my admissions chances and if so, by how much? I applied to UCLA, UCB, Johns Hopkins, WashU, NYU, USC, Swarthmore, and UCSD. Do UCs look at your 1st Semester Senior grades? Do private schools use your 1st Semester grades when considering your application? Or do colleges look at your 1st semester after you are admitted?
Overall, I’m worried about the one C on my 1st Semester transcript and how it’ll affected my admission chances. If anyone could help explain and describe the process and my situation, that would be great. Thank you!
At my understanding (because I applied last year and got into every UC), I believe they do look at your 1st semester grades, mainly because decisions don’t come out until late March for most colleges.
And, yes, it MIGHT affect your chances of getting in, but because it is Calculus, admission officers might let that slip by.
Don’t worry about that C, if you can make a good personal statement, you’ll be all set.
Good luck!
UCs don’t look at your 12th grade grades unless you’ve been accepted. Assuming you are accepted for UCLA or UCB, you do need to maintain a 3.0 weighted GPA minimum, and not have more than 1 C. If you applied RD for the other schools, they probably want to look at your 12th grade 1st semester grades, so your admissions might be affected in these other instances.
A few of those non-UC schools are holistic, so it is difficult to say whether you’d be affected. RD admissions will consider those grades, but since it is a difficult class, you don’t know for sure if it will be a deal breaker. Are you hoping to major in a STEM field? Just do your best going forward. You’ll likely need to keep a C or above for when whatever college you decide to attend wants to see your end of year transcript. Plus, a strong understanding of the material in HS will give you a better foundation for college math.
Oops I said it wrong, you need a 3.0 unweighted for 12th grade for UCLA and UCB. Might be weighted for UCSD but I’m not sure.