Welp, I got deferred from NC state today, and based on my first semester grades I won’t be getting admitted in March… It’s a solid school, granted, but clearly grades matter A LOT to admissions offices.
I had a 36 ACT score, 5s on the AP Calc, Physics, human geo, and environmental science tests, but because of some slacking soph and junior year I had a 3.4 unweighted and 4.3 weighted GPA… I’d say my essays were solid and my extracurriculars were as well (100+ volunteer hours with autistic children and running a website for a music festival on top of 2 clubs). I considered this my safety school and I got burned for underestimating the death sentence that are Bs. So don’t follow in my footsteps current high school kids, and get yourself some As 
It looks to me like your numbers are right in there near the middle. B’s aren’t a death sentence, particularly if you can address them in an adult way.
@JustOneDad
“B’s” are a death sentence. Here are my stats and results.
3.66 unweighted GPA, 4.29 fully weighted GPA, 4.00 capped UC GPA
2300 SAT score
800 on SAT Math II, 740 on SAT Physics
5 on AP Calculus AB exam, 5 on AP Calculus BC exam
IB courses (HLs were English, Math, and Biology)
Solid extracurriculars and essays
California resident
Rejected by UCB, UCLA, UCSD, and CPSLO for computer science
Waitlisted by UCD for civil engineering
Waitlisted by UCI for computer science
Accepted by UCSB, UCSC, and UCR for computer science
Attending UCSB
I deserved these rejections/waitlists because my GPA was awful.
If low GPAs can be explained by perhaps a family circumstance or something by a counselor, it would be taken more into perspective, but in general GPAs are definitely given much more weight since an applicant can sometimes tackle a test within a few days, but GPAs show consistency.
Low grades are a bane to applicants, high grades are almost expected by Admissions Officers and not impressive. If someone has a low grade, that’s an excuse for AO’s to reject them; if applicants have high grades, AO’s can still say that GPA is not a reliable stat for comparison because different schools grade differently and a “100” in School A is different from a “100” in School B. It’s BS, but it’s the sad truth: that high SATs, ACTs and GPAs aren’t special anymore, and are now expected for certain colleges.
High grades get you past the first round of application readings, but they’re so expected that they don’t really get you anything else.
Does 1 “B”=death sentence in an honors class? TBH, I just didn’t try in my Honors Bio class (my mistake), but if I can get through my next three years “B” free with ~12 classes does that still mean, to amend the words of a beloved Seinfeld guest, no Ivy League for you?
@codemachine No, one ‘B’ is not a death sentence, ivy-wise.