<p>I am almost half way through high school and recieved my 3rd "C". I got two of them last semester in my honors classes and had one freshmen year in a non-honors class. I have a 3.5/4 cumulative gpa. I guess what I am asking is do they look at grades more or your overall gpa? I am worried I won't get in at this point.</p>
<p>They look at both gpa, and grades, but the most important grades are those you get in classes most aplicable to your program of interest. So, Math and Science grades are very important if you’re looking at engineering, for example. But equally important is rigor of classes compared to the most rigorous classes offered at your school. Also critically important are your scores on either the ACT or SAT, and they only consider your highest set of scores. They do not superscore.</p>
<p>Would you say I still have a shot of getting in Balthezar? I didn’t get C’s in the courses I would consider majoring in.</p>
<p>You’re doing fine. It’s too early in your high school career to make any predictions about whether you’ll get in, or not. As long as you realize, and it seems you do, that high school is a relatively short period of time, only 6 semesters, to assemble a transcript that college admissions sees. They want to see that you’ve challenged yourself by taking tough, yet interesting classes. They don’t want to see an A in Home Economics, when AP US History was available for you to take, for example.</p>
<p>Also, get to know your college counselor. It’s not too early to sit down with him/her to talk about college, and how your record stacks up. The counselor will be writing a recommendation for you. Admissions Officers can tell whether the recommendation is just a boilerplate rec, or whether the counselor really knows you, and has known you for a while. You’ll need a teacher recommendation too, so, if you have the opportunity, take multiple courses taught by a particular teacher, so the teacher gets to know you, and can write a personalized, good recommendation, do so.</p>
<p>Lastly, in your Junior year, get some ACT, or SAT prep books, and/or consider taking, if possible, an ACT/SAT preparation course. Preparing to take the ACT/SAT is involved. The best way to prepare, of course, is to do well in your classes. That having been said, however, taking practice tests to assess where your weak, and to get you prepared for the time management that is so important when taking the tests is very important.</p>
<p>Finally, because I already used “lastly” above, make sure your extra-curriculars are decent. Get involved in your community somehow, and give back. They want to see what you do in your free time, and it better be something more than just watching TV, and playing “Call of Duty” on your PS3.</p>
<p>Thank you for all the advice!</p>
<p>With decisions having been out for almost a week now, I want to know what applicants (admitted or denied) think of my stats above. I recently chose classes for my junior year and will be taking 3 aps and 1 honors class. Will my course rigor, and hopefully an upward trend, help? By the way, I am caucasian.</p>
<p>I got denied with a the same GPA as you and a respectable ACT score (29), 11 AP’s, dual enrollment at a university, really broad EC’s and well crafted essays PLUS a 3 generation legacy. You’ll need to raise that GPA a lot.</p>
<p>But maybe I’m just special. (or not, apparently)</p>
<p>But C’s aren’t going to kill you if you only have a few.</p>
<p>yea just try to do better i actually had 1 or 2 c’s and a low standardized test grade that was about a c, but everything else was fine and i got in admit alternate decision</p>
<p>Thank you both for your input! I am sorry to hear about your rejection Cody2010. Did you try to appeal? Would you ever think of transferring there? I wish you luck with other colleges.</p>