grades

<p>I got a C in an honors class my freshmen year. Every other grade was fine, but I received a C in English. In my defense though, the teacher was a weirdo who didn't cover grammar or writing; all she did was explain the books in excrutiating detail (one question on a test was, what color was Jean Valjean's shirt after escaping prison; had nothing to do with the story). Do you think it would damage or even kill my chances?</p>

<p>OH MY GOD AUTO REJECTION!!!!!11oneone</p>

<p>fyi</p>

<p>stop posting these stupid "omg*** i got a B/C AM I GOING TO DIE?" questions. it makes you look like a paranoid tool, especially since you all probably already know the answer to that question to begin with.</p>

<p>Yes, it will hurt your chances. No, it will not kill your answers.</p>

<p>Were you anticipating something different?</p>

<p>I've just heard stories of people who got one C and got rejected with good SAT scores and A-B all the way. They didn't go to Yale or anything, but they applied to some big schools and got rejected. I just wanted to know if this stuff is actually true.</p>

<p>People with a GPA of 4.0 sometimes get rejected too. It happens.
There's not really a lot you can do about that C anymore. Jus try to do well in all your other classes, write an excellent essay, be active in ecs, get great rec and so on. And after that you'll just need to have some luck.</p>

<p>You won't get in.</p>

<p>lol yisroel youre screwed.. hah, youll be fine, dont worry... i dont know if they even look at your frosh grades... if you dont get in, go to the honors program at your state school or something...</p>

<p>but they wont turn you down for one C</p>

<p>It's the overall picture they consider, not just grades. Your leadership abilities are much more important. Yale is a laboratory for leadership. There is one major, well-funded student organization for every 15 or 20 students. The alumni of Yale run a massively disproportionate number of organizations in every field: nonprofit, arts, education, government, business, science, you name it. Academic ability is also key, but hopefully you are an outstanding student and your teachers will attest to that in the recommendations. If you don't have both leadership qualities and outstanding academic ability, that's when you shouldn't apply.</p>

<p>Harvard and Yale both accept 3.6 and 3.7 GPA's all the time, provided the student challenged herself and is outstanding in other areas on the application. And by all the time I mean less than 10% of their admitted students. My point is that it happens.</p>

<p>10% is considered excellent in the context of Yale admissions.</p>

<p>(How sad...)</p>

<p>glad to be in a magnet center for leadership then. I'll just keep my average, much better this year (doing better in honors than regular, who'd a thunk it) and I'll try more clubs</p>

<p>don't "try more clubs", do what you love. getting into the most selective colleges is not really a formula--if you like certainty and formulas apply to Berkeley, but if you want to have a shot at HYPS do what makes you happy and it will make the admissions committee happy. and even if it doesn't, which it still may very well not, at least YOU'RE happy (which isn't a particularly bad goal to have, right?).</p>

<p>just my two cents.</p>

<p>I'm not saying a forumula, I'm just going to try out clubs that interest me, but was too out of it at the time to try them. I agree and am happy to have your two cents, it's a great philosophy.</p>