<p>I got a C during my freshman year. How much damage does a C does to one's MIT application?</p>
<p>Does it pretty much preclude one from admission or is there still hope?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>In what class?
What were your grades since then?</p>
<p>Don't worry, it won't hurt you at all, even if it is a science class. If you get a C as a Freshman, and then your grades steadily improve over time, it will be viewed as a positive thing, not a negative thing at all.</p>
<p>Colleges are looking for an upward trend. It is better to have the C as a freshman than going from A's and B's freshman year to B's and C's as time progresses. This information has been relayed to me from numerous institutions of higher learning. Schools understand that the transition from middle / junior high to high school can take some time.</p>
<p>hsmom is right on target. Colleges love to see improvement.</p>
<p>Besides, do you really think one C is going to ruin your chances? If you haven't improved since then, or if you can play connect the dots with the Cs, Ds and Fs on your transcript, then, yeah, that does a whole lot of damage. But one C?</p>
<p>If you can explain it away legitimately, there's a place to do so on the application. (By legitimately, I mean that "My grandma died right before the final" is a legit explanation, "My teacher sucked," not so much.) But even if you just screwed up and had one bad subject, it's not the end of the world.</p>