Junior year grades just came out and unfortunately all my grades were borderline. I ended up with 5 B’s and one A (I’m taking five AP classes)! This is completely disappointing because I have always been an A average student! My extracurriculars, standardized test scores, and basically every other aspect colleges look at are up to par, but I am now worried that my GPA (especially from this semester) will hinder me from achieving a bright future. My dream school is Columbia, and up until now I have been considering applying for early decision because I really love the university! Do you think that if I get all A’s next semester and take some extra academic classes at a community college during the summer, I will still have a good shane of being admitted to Columbia, or any other schools that are highly ranked? Any input is appreciate!
Columbia is an extremely selective school, but since so many people apply, admissions can seem like a bit of a lottery. There are kids with perfect grades who get rejected, and kids with less-than-perfect grades who get accepted. However, having 5 B’s your junior year will indubitably hurt your chances, since Columbia receives way too many applicants who have never even had one B on their transcripts. Your chances of getting in are definitely lower than they would have been if you had received all A’s instead. Nevertheless, colleges also consider your grades in the context of your school and your class. If you have a class rank of #1 despite receiving all these B’s or if you attend a notoriously difficult school (or if there is some other quality/experience that puts your grades in perspective such as a health problem or physical disability) then your B’s would not make much of a difference.
Unfortunately, this is often the case with many juniors (as I’ve seen). Junior year is known as the most school-intensive year, and many kids find that while they excelled in honors classes in freshman and sophomore years and thus had high hopes for ivies/top schools, they crash a bit at the workload of junior year. If you can get your grades back up to all As, or have some reason for the Bs, then you might be still considered competitive. If not, you might want to reconsider where you’d really like to go to school.
You done.