<p>hey i was just wondering if your senior year first semester grades really do play that big of a role in college admissions as many people say. like if i'm not taking that many 'rigorous' classes senior year, is that going to reflect poorly on the rest of my high school years? do i still have a chance at my early admissions school?</p>
<p>There are a ton of posts already answering this question, but since I have the time...</p>
<p>College admissions factors are not standard at every school, epsecially when pertaining to senior year grades. For example, the University of Michigan claims they only look at 10/11 grades. Many other schools, however, also take into consideration first semester grades when you send in your mid year reports in January. If you should apply ED, it is possible that you can be accepted before any college sees your official senior year grades. That is a lucky situation. If you are deffered, senior year grades become VERY important when comparing applicants that weren't strong enough for ED with the rest of the RD crowd. It is to your advantage then, to have the best senior grades possible. As for the question of difficulty of schedule. When applying ED, this is very important. Selective schools wish to see you taking the most rigerous course offerings that you are able to take on. The worst thing for you to do would to work hard for 3 years and take off senior year because it makes a bad impression on adcoms (I am sure someone will post a statement refuting this so take it with a grain of salt). My point is, senior year is not a blow off period if you are serious about getting into a selective college. If you can, you should try adding/switching/changing your schedule to better reflect the student you have been throughout high school. It would be terrible to compromise your admissions chances because of something like senior schedule. I hope this helps and good luck.</p>