Hi! Okay, so I just finished my junior year of high school and got my first C. It was in an extra-curricular course, however it was offsite and mostly attendance based. I had a lot of extenuating circumstances and couldn’t always make it to my work site and my teacher was not understanding so I received my first C ever. Other than this blip, my record is stellar (4.5 weighted GPA, 3.9 unweighted, over 1000 hours of volunteer work around my community, I’m president of a club, I’ve been recognized nationally on many occasions for my performance in Latin, sports medicine, and medical terminology, I’ve been a part of music programs for 7 years, held 2 internships, have stellar recommendations, 1410 on the SAT [planning to retake and raise this to at least a 1500] etc, etc.) My question is, how much will this hurt my chances of getting in to an ivy league school as a first generation college student?
I don’t see how that’s remotely even related to being a first generation student, but that one C is not going to be the thing that will keep you out as you appear to be a strong student.
I’m not sure what extenuating circumstances means, but unless it was something like “I had to decide whether to go to my work site or drive my little sister to chemotherspy because my mom had to be at her job to keep the health insurance,” I would be very wary of making excuses for that C on your application. If your teacher didn’t think it was a good enough reason to give you a break, don’t expect an adcom to.
All you can do is accept it and move on. If you don’t get in, it may or may not be because of that C. It’s impossible to ever know. But nobody’s application is absolutely perfect. The point is to show a mature attitude about it. Your app should focus on all the great things you’ve done. A convoluted excuse for one grade in one class will not serve your cause.
If the rest of your application is as strong as you say and you get your test score up, apply, but have backup plans, too. (As anyone who is shooting for the stars should.)
Maybe add UC Merced and UC Riverside to your list?
Extra curricular courses are usually not considered by admissions. That does not mean you should blow them off, but move admissions offices focuses entirely on core academic courses.
I don’t think that C prevented you from an Ivy, however, I think that 3.9 plus SAT 1410 really prevented you from Ivy. Ivy applicants mostly have a closed to perfect SAT and lots of them are being turned down. Your combined gpa and sat certainly is not what they are looking for. It means that you did not take the most rigorous courses provide by your school or you don’t have the aptitude to become a successful student in their school.
Worst thing you can do is trying to explain that C anywhere in your application, it will turn off adcoms who is reading your essay. People do make mistakes, but being a crying baby will not receive sympathy in a competitive bidding. The adcoms at any top school is trying their best to eliminate applicants because only 1 in 10 will be in the YES pile.