How bad is it to mess up 9th and 10th grade?

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

<p>By bad, I'm talking relatively. Like C's, B's bad. What would your chances be of getting into a prestigious university then?</p>

2

<p>well depends how many B’s or
C’s… most of the top colleges/universities will require a 4.5 or above gpa (my counselor told me this)
just make sure to get most A’s in junior/senior year because colleges like to see improvement. What i mean is: they would rather take a student who got a few B’s as an underclassman but received straight A’s as an upperclassman, as opposed to someone who got straight A’s as an underclassman but got B’s as an upperclassman</p>

3

<p>Reeree, the 4.5 means weighted, right? I still don’t get how this whole gpa thing works…
And I messed up freshman year too! But try to show a huge upward trend, and schools like UCs will forgive freshman year at least. (They don’t count it in gpa)</p>

4

<p>Colleges look at unweighted and strength of schedule. They would rather see an upward trend, rather than a downward trend. Do good on junior year, so that you will have more options.</p>

5

<p>I am going on my third year at Yale and I gained admission to a number of other Ivies back in 2011. Get as many A’s as possible from here on out and try to figure out a way to explain away those low grades in your college application. Don’t allow whatever was preventing you from doing well in those first two years of high school to spill over into your junior year. It is going to be very difficult to gain admission to any top university if you continue on the path that you’re on.</p>

6

<p>It really depends. Yes, some people get in with less then perfect grades, but you have to realize that most don’t. These super selective schools reject tons of 4.0s and unless you have a valid excuse for the grades it will be very hard to get in…</p>

7

<p>You could always try the failed simulation effect:</p>

<p>[Study</a> Hacks » Blog Archive » How to Get Into Stanford with B?s on Your Transcript: Failed Simulations & the Surprising Psychology of Impressiveness](<a href=“http://calnewport.com/blog/2010/03/26/how-to-get-into-stanford-with-bs-on-your-transcript-failed-simulations-the-surprising-psychology-of-impressiveness/]Study”>How to Get Into Stanford with B's on Your Transcript: Failed Simulations & the Surprising Psychology of Impressiveness - Cal Newport)</p>