How much do Cs matter?

Hi I’m Drew and am a sophomore in HS. I got 3 Cs this semester but last year almost all As with a couple Bs. I was wondering, if I could do really well the rest of high school and get 4.0 most semesters, how much would the Cs hold me back? Does it ruin my chances at selective schools? If I had Gpa of 3.7 unweighted and a 4.1 weighted senior year, what kind of schools accept this? By the way the Cs were in all honors and ap classes.
Thanks

The C’s would probably ruin your chances at the top 20 most prestigious universities, but other than those, not much. Try hard to do better, and be happy with all you accomplish.

While getting Cs is a major setback to getting into the top of the top colleges, it really depends on where you got those Cs and how the school reports them. If it is a quarter grade then just keep the semester grade above a C and you’ll be fine. Cs for the semester are very damaging to chances of entering the top schools. It also depends on what the school is looking for. If they want a well rounded individual, then the chances go down. Some schools are looking for passion in the field you intend to study in. So an intended Math major with a C in a high level foreign language class may be penalized less than a bio major with a C in AP Bio. In any case, try your best to raise these classes to at least a B if you want any real chance at getting into top schools.

ya. I got one C in AP US History junior year (and that was only one semester of it) and I got into UIUC, Purdue, Virginia Tech, UC Davis, and schools of similar caliber. None of these are top tier schools… but they arent too bad either in my opinion. My SAT was 2130 and gpa was 3.79 UW. I however didn’t have great EC’s and my rec letters were meh. If you have good EC’s, then I think you can get into some pretty good schools.

Thanks for the advice guys. That helps a lot