<p>I am a junior, and i just got three C's my first semester junior year. They were in AP Chemistry, AP U.S. History, and AP Stats. I got the flu during the last couple weeks of school so i did bad on my finals and my grades steadily dropped from B's to C's. During the rest of high school i have had A's and B's I was just wondering if this is going to greatly impact my chances at the following colleges.</p>
<p>Boston University
Boston College
Northwestern
Emory
Creighton
Vanderbilt
Carnegie Mellon
Baylor</p>
<p>What matters are the grades that appear on your transcript. My school only includes the final grades for the year. If your school is the same, then work very hard at catching up and doing well in those classes (and your other classes, of course) so you can get high grades at the end of the year. </p>
<p>Your junior year is your most important year, and having poor grades will certainly affect your chances. For now, work hard in raising your grades, being involved in things you love to do, and finding schools you love (reaches, matches, and safeties).</p>
<p>You need to include an explanation in your app when you apply to colleges. It would, of course, help a lot if your grades go back up for second semester. Ask your GC to say something about the drop in her rec.</p>
<p>Sorry, in all honesty, 3 C's will hurt a ton. I'll never get over the posts adviding you gasve your councselor explain or that you write n assay on the sujbect. Grow up! Bad grades will hit you hard and no one can help. The good news is that if you have a stellar record otherwisw, you could be OK.</p>
<p>A C in freshman year for a non-hooked candidate is enough to keep somebody out of Harvard. However, competition drops off quickly after you get out of the top 10-15 schools. Things do happen to people and adcoms will take that into account. The C's are definitely a problem. You have to address the problem. The more it looks like special circumstances, the better. Having a parent die would be a "better" excuse than the flu, but you will have to explain it. You have to do well second semester of junior year, and colleges may be very interested in your senior mid-year report because of this. You should also make sure you have a safety when you apply. I would not say that the C's would definitely keep you out of any of the colleges you mentioned provided you are in every other way stellar, but I would especially worry about NU, CMU and BC.</p>
<p>Work as hard as you can to raise them- consider what is shown on your transcript... I've had C's on a final and still pulled out a low a for a semester </p>
<p>also take the AP tests if you think you can score high on those it might help- show you were commited to fixing the situation then when you apply if the Cs are shown on the transcript explain they were due to an illness directly before test taking, yet you still managed to be successful in the courses and scored _ on the APs</p>