<p>How bad does it look for someone to have all A's all four (well, three) years except for 3 B's freshman year? Note, said person only has six classes each year, and that those classes he was taking were definitely the hardest out of his entire class, as no one else had the same course load. </p>
<p>Please answer! I'm asking for a friend that's stricken with anxiety. >.< </p>
<p>(He applied to Harvard by the way.)</p>
<p>I took a lot of challenging courses myself, not sure if the toughest. But I can count 3 or 4 Bs on my transcript too I think. I’m not nearly as worried, and neither should he be. I called asking about gpas and such and they said they don’t really even look at gpas but more at just if you got more As and Bs and your level of rigor- your friend should be fine on that level. Recommendation Letters and the Essay could be the real game changer though for him. In the end, tell him not to fret, for regardless the decision he’ll receive, it is highly unlikely, if at all likely, that it was due to 3 Bs out of 18 courses taken, not to mention the most challenging offered.</p>
<p>^ How do you think they treat an A-?</p>
<p>I have an A- myself. I’m not sure how exactly they would treat it. No doubt, I’m on the low end, so it doesn’t help. But the rigor of my classes might compensate for some, but not all, of the slack. A lot of people have weighted GPAs, mine isn’t weighted and I’ve taken all honors. It could really come down to just what school you obtained that A- from and the program and rigor they provided and what you ended up taking. That would be what I call a truly holistic approach to the GPA, which overlooks the quantity for the quality. Heck, I’m just too much a nervous wreck to know or guess anything.</p>
<p>jilynne: your friend seems to fail the common sense test. If his current reaction is exemplified in the rest of his file, then his chances are less than the already tiny 6% average, IMHO.</p>
<p>You aren’t passing with flying colors either “horrible grades” yeah, right.</p>
<p>@NewYork94 I have a few A-s but then I got an A the next semester…that should be ok, don’t you think?</p>
<p>I think you should be fine- it would depend on the class and level of difficulty. But I will reiterate, your Letter of Recommendations and Essays are what can hit home in the end. I doubt they would use the little time they have to scrutinize every grade you ever receive. They’ll look to see of course what you got, but past that, there’ll be little more to analyze. The Adcomm can spend up to an hour discussing your app, and they project LORs and Essays for everyone to read and refer to while discussing, which is why I keep saying those two are the best for selling yourself after you qualify academically.</p>
<p>Mocoh: You’re not going to be accepted/rejected because of a few decimals in your GPA. You are seriously focused on the wrong thing.</p>
<p>Ain’t no need to create personas to deflect your inadequacies–we all have them. </p>
<p>What would normally be a self-deprecating title is now a comically inappropriate insult to “your friend.”</p>
<p>Don’t worry about the B’s. They wouldn’t matter that much in any scenario, but considering they are all from freshman year they say even less about the kind of student you are now.</p>