<p>I'm at a freshman at a prep school and my grades for the first quarter are:</p>
<p>French II - 88
Art Photography - 92
History - 87
Geometry - 68
Spanish I - 85
Biology - 87
English I - 88</p>
<p>How much will this hurt me when applying to top universities in a few years? I plan to get my second marking period geometry grade to around an 88, so my semester grade will be around a C+/B-.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot!</p>
<p>bump .</p>
<p>Your counselor at your particular school will know a LOT more about what that grade profile looks like to colleges than we do. But thanks for mentioning the specific courses, which a lot of people forget to do when asking about grade averages. </p>
<p>In general, colleges look at what COURSES you take at least as carefully as at what G.P.A. you have. They try to get to know the high schools from which students are applying to their college. Nothing is equatable from one school to another about grades.</p>
<p>Tokenadult, I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope that the statement about colleges caring as much about what courses you take as what grades you get is true. My 9th grader has an unfortunate combination of pre-AP Geometry, pre-AP English and AP Human goegraphy teachers that are VERY into showing them how hard they can make their classes. They are PROUD of giving students 74s who have never received below a 91 in their lives! </p>
<p>It's so difficult knowing that if she was in "regular" classes, she'd be getting high 90s and in these classes she's getting mid-70s to mid-80s. The extra weight given to these courses certainly doesn't make up for the huge drop in grades.</p>
<p>Some of us freshman parents were wondering aloud if they'd be better off GPA-wise just taking all regular courses.</p>