<p>I certainly agree with shoot4ivy. Colleges look at a student’s holistic profile. One miserable grade does mean murder on your college application. Sometimes, colleges don’t always want the perfect student–if it did, everyone on campus would have perfect SATs and have been valedictorians, but not that many people actually are. They’ll laud you for taking the course as a challenge, but won’t dock points on your app because you did not do as well as you had hoped. </p>
<p>Your concern does not show you are too stressed to belong at Harvard–it simply reflects your conscientious approach to school. </p>
<p>Final thing: your ultimate goal should not be a single school. There are many other schools beside Harvard and regardless of the elitist ideology, there is virtually little difference between an undergraduate education at Harvard versus at undergraduate education at Penn or Cornell or Tufts. </p>
<p>Certainly, shoot for the stars. Harvard might in reality indeed want you, but you yourself don’t need Harvard to make something out of yourself and passions.</p>