In freshman year, I got a C+ final grade in regular Spanish 2. Which is BAD. I’m a Virginian resident so I had some hope that I could get into UVA. But that C+ threw me off. Even if I do perfect in everything else after freshman year, would I still be enough? I feel as though this one C+ ruined my future.
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No one grade has ruined your future. And going to a UVA level school does not ensure a good future nor does going to a Radford or no college ensure failure, etc.
College admittance at many schools is about far more than grades. But even where it’s solely about grades, a C in 9th grade is not doom.
Be the best you - school and otherwise.
If you are taking Spanish again, your bigger concern should be working with your teacher to correct your shortfalls so that it doesn’t roll over into fall…as classes like Spanish build upon one another.
Control the comtrollables. Don’t focus on a specific college. You are a 9th grader.
There will be many a college for you, UVA or otherwise.
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You are fortunate to live in Virginia where there are a good number of great public universities in addition to UVA. Start looking at some of the others as well.
UVA can still be on your list, but check out the others too.
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It is way too early to think about specific colleges. You just have one full year’s GPA and you have no standardized testing. You also need to recognize that HS should be an experience in and of itself – a time of learning and growth and not just a 4 year college application prep experience.
It is good to take school seriously and know that college will be on your horizon, but it is too early to start planning for specific colleges. I would highly recommend that you get off of CC (other than the HS page) until your junior year.
I also don’t like the idea of having a dream college. The people I see who get most hurt by the college admission process are the ones who focus on one or two competitive schools and then don’t get in. You do not need to attend any specific college to be successful – what you do at a college is most important.
For now you should focus on:
–Working hard, learning, and doing as well as you can in the most challenging curriculum you can manage.
–When the time comes study for standardized tests.
–Continue your involvement in activities you care about and work towards making meaningful contributions to those activities.
–Enjoying spending time with your family and friends.
When the time comes asses your academic stats (including GPA, standardized tests, course rigor) as well as your financial needs and apply to a wide range of reach, match, and safety schools that appear affordable (you will have to run a net price calculator for each school you consider) and that you would be happy to attend. You will need to expand your horizons and recognize that there are many wonderful schools out there where you can have a great 4 year experience and get where you want to go in life.
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At this point I would not worry about university admissions. I would think about how to do better in Spanish, assuming that you are going to continue in Spanish.
To learn a language, you would be best to find opportunities to use it outside of class. You might want to watch movies or TV shows in Spanish. Watching the news in Spanish might have an advantage that you have probably already heard some of the news in English and therefore are likely to have some idea what they are talking about. You might want to get together with some other students from the same class and have a “Spanish lunch” at least once per week where you attempt to speak only Spanish for the entire lunch. You might want to try to watch sports in Spanish – you will have some idea what is going on from the video and this might help you to understand more of the talking.
This will not ruin your future. This is a small setback that is an opportunity for you to learn how to recover from small setbacks. I know quite a few very successful people, and at least as far as I know they have all at some point recovered from something worse.
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Just continue to do your best. Virginia has very good public universities and lots of instate students want to attend them. Heck, even many OOS students and their families seem interested. It’s tough with UVA, William and Mary, and Virginia Tech (particularly engineering) for instate students. Good luck and keep your options open. Lots of good schools out there.
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What would you do different for the next 2 years if the answer was either yes or no? Likely nothing.
Watch TV shows in Spanish (Casa de Papel for instance …) and learn as much grammar&vocabulary as you can so that you start Spanish 3 ready to hit the ground running in the Fall. Get an A and that C+ freshman year will be entirely “erased” because you’ll have shown you could learn from it, overcome the problems by catching up, and doing well subsequently. Those qualities are actually very much needed in college so it’ll turn out to be a blessing in disguise. 
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