<p>I'm a junior in highschool and I really like challenging myself. I usually take all the hardest classes available at my school because I feel like I'm doing myself a disservice if I don't. I've never taken a regular class before and up till now I thought this was a good idea. The problem is I'm feeling like challenging myself wasn't such a good idea. My Gpa has suffered greatly as it's a 3.6 unweighted and around a 4.1 weighted. Since all schools weigh gpa's differently colleges will most likely look at my unweighted gpa and reject me for a person whose taken all regular classes with a 4.0. I have taken 6 Ap's and 12 honors classes but I didn't do as well as I'd have liked to in some of them. My question is were my efforts in vain? Should I have been smart and only taken AP's and Honors classes I felt confident about?</p>
<p>My dream school is is UVA and even though I am in-state I feel pretty bad about my chances of getting in...</p>
<p>You can be assured that colleges are aware of course rigor and would not necessarily take a student with a high gpa taking regular classes over a student with a lower gpa who challenges themselves. Better planning may have helped but that’s all in the past. Looking ahead, I would still plan on taking some APs senior year to indicate that you are taking the year seriously (senior year grades are not as important). Be productive this summer and kill those essays when it gets to application time.</p>
<p>It’s probably good that you took the most rigorous curriculum at your high school. But to be fair you probably could have gotten away with skimping on an honors/AP class or two.</p>
<p>Yes, they care whether you took the most rigorous course options available to you.</p>
<p>They want to see that you took the most rigorous course options available to you and got A grades in them.</p>
<p>The desire for knowledge / challenges is a very attractive trait to have for your college application…</p>