My dream school is UC Berkeley. I’m generally a straight A student except when it comes to Spanish classes; I’ve earned a B in my second semester of Spanish II, a B in my first semester of Spanish III, and now am expecting a C in the second semester of Spanish III. I plan to remedy this by taking a Spanish course at a community college this summer. If I get an A in both semesters of that course, it’ll replace both semester of Spanish II with weighted A’s giving me a very significant GPA boost.
The problem is, I’ve recently gained the opportunity to intern in a genetics lab at CSUN this summer. Because of scheduling conflicts, I can’t do both. I really want to do the latter, but I can’t help but feel I’d be risking lowering admissions chances in the process. What do you guys think?
Eat Cake.
What makes you think you can get A’s at the CC this summer, based on your history in Spanish? Maybe you can, I’m not trying to belittle you, but you don’t have a dilemma if there’s a good chance of a B. What is your current unweighted and weighted GPA? How much of a gain with the A’s do you figure?
“I really want to do the latter”
Then that is what you should be doing. You will get a lot more out of that experience.
Agree with happymom. Don’t get tangled up in hands-on lab experience versus worrying about B’s in a language. (Though it’s good you were thinking of taking on summer school.) Adcoms will see your gpa was affected by Spanish grades but be more interested in your STEM intentions and experience. And don’t get hung up on a dream school.
Do the internship.
And retake Spanish 2 or 3 online through an accredited virtual school (like Florida Virtual School).
Agree that you should do the internship. It’s more important to explore the things you love and may want to spend your life doing than fixing a C in Spanish.