<p>I know everyone says, "They turn down straight A students", but the reason they do is because they didn't have passions or extra-curriculars.</p>
<p>My first semester of ninth grade, I earned a C in Honors Algebra 2 so I switched into regular for second semester. Next year, I will be going back into honors.</p>
<p>I am the founder and president of two clubs, I have won viola competitions, and I am on two sports teams, etc etc.</p>
<p>If I got straight As in all honors classes for the rest of my high school career, do you think I would still have a chance?</p>
<p>If you post your complete stats (all ECs, scores, rank, etc.), we could get a more complete picture of the rectifiable weaknesses of your application.</p>
<p>Wait, are you just completing your freshman year? In that case, just focus on doing well in your classes (preferably the most rigorous curriculum possible) and actively participating in ECs that you enjoy.</p>
<p>Well, I’m only in ninth grade, so I don’t really have an idea of where I stand.
I am very ambitious and I am in contact with professors that are doing research that interests me. I did very well on the PSAT.</p>
<p>In senior year, I am debating between doing the Academic Decathlon or a Jewish Leadership program at a summer camp. Do you know which one would look better? I want to do them both equally :/</p>
<p>As silverturtle says, JUDYizm, don’t think about college admissions at this stage in high school, you’ll just start pulling your hair out no matter what you do! Focus on achieving well in your classes, getting involved in extracurriculars you love, and most importantly, having fun! (High school is, of course, a lot more than an audition for college!)</p>
<p>My daughter, who just graduated from Harvard on Thursday, had a C in Calculus I in HS. It may have been mitigated by the fact that it was taken at a local college and that she followed it up with an A in Calculus II.</p>
<p>What did you get on the PSAT? Getting a C is not good for schools like Harvard. Can you explain to yourself why you got a C? Sometimes the teachers just plainly suck and the class is unfair. Most top students learn how to deal with that though.</p>
<p>I got a B+ in Physical Education 5-6 and I was rejected from Harvard, Yale, MIT, Caltech, Princeton, Oxford, Tokoyo University, Stanford, and UC Irvine… I was marked as a social outcast for the remaining of my high school life… Even my 2370 SAT score and astounding scientific research papers could not make up for this one catastrophic mistake…</p>
<p>It seems that the rudiments of all college admissions could not be any clearer: achieve all A’s and produce a 4.0 unweighted grade point average within your high school career, or be prepared to live a life of rejection and walk and path of maudlin solitude. </p>
<p>And since you’ve received a C, you’re probably going to end up worse than me! Have fun in community college`<3</p>
<p>Is this C going to wreck your chances of getting into a good college? No, it isn’t, by itself. While it won’t help you, it will be only one fact among many that will make up your overall qualifications. Your other grades, your standardized test scores, your extracurriculars, your service work, your recommendations, and more. What you can do is do your best at academics and other activities going forward. Try not to worry about the specifics for the time being. Don’t make Harvard, or any other college, your “dream” school. When the time comes–and it’s not for a couple of years–you will make a list of colleges to apply to, based on what your qualifications are at that time. That list may or may not include Harvard, but it will be good list of colleges you will be happy to attend.</p>
<p>While I’ve certainly seen the same (hi, Saugus!), I think that since he’s speaking in the past tense (that he <em>was</em> rejected from particular schools because of a single B+), it’s easy to draw a conclusion.</p>