I’m in 9th grade, and my trimester is about to end. I have all A’s with one B as an exception. My unweighted GPA will be around 3.8, but I’m taking 1 AP and 3 honor classes this trimester, so my weighted will be higher. The B is in Honors English, will it affect my chances to get accepted into a selective college? I might get a few more B’s in the next two trimesters, but I’m just curious about this one.
You’ll be fine. Just make sure you keep an upward trend for sophomore, junior and senior year. If English is an area of difficulty for you, either drop down a level (to non-honors), or do whatever you have to do to excel in future years. But one B will not kill your transcript. If you’re really concerned, when the time comes, look for schools that don’t consider freshman year grades, or who value upward trends over “perfect” GPA.
It will have no impact at all. Lots of kids with GPAs around 3.8 get into the highly selective schools - and many with 4.0s don’t. You have to have a strong - but not perfect - academic record and the the most rigorous coursework available to you at your school for those colleges.
But the other thing to keep in mind is that there are many, many excellent colleges for students who have less than perfect grades and test scores, who have a tremendous college experience and go on to do very well in life. So attending a selective school can be a good choice for certain students, but not for all students. Some people do better as a big fish in a smaller pond, for example. Get Frank Bruni’s book, Where You Go Is Not Who You Will Be. It will keep you from hyper-ventilating in 9th grade.