How will a 'C' affect college app's?

Applying to College
1

<p>I'm a pretty average student, with A's and B's sophmore and junior year. The thing is, I got a C my junior year , which probably looks really bad. How will this affect my colleges that I'm thinking about applying to?</p>

<p>Asian American
California Resident
Intended Major: maybe Journalism or IR?</p>

<p><9th>
H. English B/B+
Span II B+/B+
Geometry B/B
PE A/A
Bio A/B+
H. Global Studies A/A
Journalism A/A</p>

<p><10th>
H. English B/B
Span III B+/A-
Int Algebra B/B
PE A/A
Chem B-/B-
AP World Hist B/B
Journalism A/A
Health Academy A+/A+</p>

<p><11th>
AP English B/B
AP Statistics C+/B
Pre-cal B-/B-
Health Academy A+/A+
Journalism A+/A+
AP Psych B/A</p>

<p><12th> does this schedule seem to easy?
Lit & Social Justice
AP Calc AB
Health Academy
Journalism
Physics</p>

<p><college courses="" at="" community="" college="">
Drawing A
Astronomy A
U.S. History A
Sociology A
American Government A</college></p>

<p><sat i="" sat="" ii="">
2110 World History 670 Math IIC 650 Literature 650
(taking these 2 again)</sat></p>

<p><ec>
-Journalism 4 yrs: Entertainment Editor 10th grade, Features Editor 11th grade, Editor-in-Chief 12th grade
-Laws of Life Essay Contest 1st place winner
-Lions Club Speech Finalist
-Volunteer @ hospital 200+ hours
-Level 9 piano
-Gold Award Girl Scouts
-Student newswriter for local city newspaper
-Life Member in NHS, CSF, National Society of High School Scholars</ec></p>

<p>I'm beginning to research what colleges to apply to. I was thinking about UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCD, UCI, USC, U of Chicago, Boston U, U of Rochester, Northwestern, American U, Emory. Are these choices reasonable/ any other recommendations? </p>

<p>Thanks in advance!!! ^.^</p>

2

<p>Since the C happened in your Junior year, and those are the last grades colleges will see when you apply, you're going to have to have something on your app that shows why you should be admitted. I'm afraid that the C may affect admissions quite a bit as I don't see any trend in improvement from your Freshman year to your Junior year. Though you seem to have done well in your extracurricular pursuits, I don't see anything extraordinary, which at this point, would really be your only ticket into these top schools. </p>

<p>I guess I'd need to know your rank to give you a more accurate assessment. But if your grades put you in the middle of your class, then I'm afraid my estimates are going to be grim.</p>

<p>Though you should NOT perceive this as the supreme college chance-ing, I think that UCB, UCLA, U of Chicago, Northwestern, and even Emory are out of your range. UCB and Northwestern accepted 25 percent of their applicants this year, Emory accepted 26 percent, and U Chicago, being a school with more self-selecting applicants, will be very competitive for you. I don't mean to discourage you, but I hope to give you a good idea of where to put your energy so you can find a school that you are happy with attending. And of course, this doesn't mean you * won't * get in, it just seems, from what I can see here, that you will have a near impossible time getting into the above schools. </p>

<p>Most all colleges consider your high school record as their most important document, as it indicates how you'd do at their institution. I don't see any consistency in academic excellence. You do have some bright spots, like some A+s and your job writing for the local newspaper, but I don't think they're great enough to get yo uinto those top institutions.</p>

<p>I think American University, U Rochester, BU, and the other UCs are more likely to respond kindly to your academic record. Also, have you considered GWU? </p>

<p>I hope this was at least semi-helpful.</p>

3

<p>
[quote]
I'm beginning to research what colleges to apply to. I was thinking about UCB, UCLA, UCSD, UCD, UCI, USC, U of Chicago, Boston U, U of Rochester, Northwestern, American U, Emory. Are these choices reasonable/ any other recommendations?

[/quote]

you won't get into anyone... why would colleges choose someone with Cs over someone who has consistently mantained all As?</p>

4

<p>its one thing if everyone in your class got a C then. at my high school everyone who takes physics sends a little note along with their app saying how a C+ was the best grade in the class or whatever. because you got a B also that's probably not the case.<br>
it probably will hurt your chances, mostly because it's junior year. for next years classes, you should take the most challenging classes your school offers.
good luck!</p>

5

<p>Light senior year as well.</p>

6

<p>The bottom line is your GPA. Although most of the schools on your list seem to be reaches. One C won't matter when compared to your overall GPA. Colleges don't have time to look over every grade from each year. If all of these classes are honors/AP you would still have a very good shot at schools like U. Roch;U Chic and Northwestern are extremely high reaches.</p>

7

<p>whats your g.p.a than i can chance u</p>

8

<p>You have mostly a B average with a few As here and there especially most of them are in PE(non-academic). So it's not the C in Junior year that is the problem, your GPA is not competitive for the top UCs even. Just make sure you apply for more schools.</p>

9

<p>Wow, your stats are how mine might end up!</p>

10

<p>As a rough rule of thumb, given your GPA, is that you need to be in top 25% based on SATs to have a decent shot. Assuming you did over 1400 on CR & M that would mean Amer. U and Boston U. are plausible. I don't know about the UC's.</p>

11

<p>For our school, its only the semester grades that count so even if you did bad on one quarter, as long as ur semester grades are what you want, then it's okay.</p>

12

<p>You've taken a challenging courseload and done well. That's a lot of community college courses! Unfortunately, UCB, UCLA and UCSD are very much driven by GPA, so even your excellent SAT score probably won't be enough to put you over the top there. You'll be a strong candidate at any of the other UC's however.</p>

13

<p>Haha people are drinking too much Hater-ade.</p>

<p>My stats were similar to yours (UC GPA 3.5-3.8; ECs; a C on the transcript) and I'm starting to think we're twins. I got into all the UCs I applied to with at least Chancellor offers at most of the schools. Berkeley was an exception, but I believe that had to do with applying for a difficult/impacted major. As long as you don't mind blank like I did (UCB doesn't have an IR major, so I randomly put economics), you should at least do reasonably well. As a newspaper person, I know you can just rock your essays especially with the new prompts focusing on talent and background.</p>

<p>I can't say what will happen for you, but I was really stressed out that my stats were too low and that I apparently had no chance. The fear is good, but the situation is not THAT much doom. Have safeties and work harder knowing that you don't have the ideal numbers.</p>

14

<p>yeah so i think northwestern, ucb, uchicago are reaches for sure. ucb especially cares about numbers and i think the people who apply there have an average uc gpa of 4.0 but a bunch of them have 4.2, 4.3. ucla is also becoming as competitive as ucb. and honestly it really isn't even the c that's bringing your chances down, it really is ur whole gpa. but my advice for you is if u really wanted to boost your chances to ucla and ucb, you should raise your satI score to 2200-2300 because uc's are very number oriented and they do some weird thing where they give you a score based on ur gpa+sat and if your sats are amazing, it'll help you. oh and id say ur in at all the other ucs.</p>

15

<p>why are you worried about one C when you have about 10 B's</p>

16

<p>er 22 B's ouch. what is your class rank?</p>

17

<p>i got into UVA with 3 c's my freshman year and mostly A's the rest of the time...</p>

<p>GET OFF ME!</p>

18

<p>One C is not a big deal, especially if it is not in the field you are planning to go into</p>

19

<p>Actually, I think you've got a shot. I really do. I had three C's on my transcript and I got into all my reaches (NYU, BU, and Northwestern). Character is more important than numbers. Start writing your essay now and polish, polish, polish.</p>

20

<p>happyandyappy, what were your SAT and EC's like?</p>