<p>You need to stop worrying, and I mean this in the kindest way possible. If you want to think about it strategically:</p>
<ul>
<li>Upward trends look good. People can struggle with the junior high/high school transition, so low freshman grades won’t be a red flag, especially since you’re participating in so many ECs.</li>
<li>The fact your C+ comes from a superadvanced class mitigates it somewhat. It can be explained as you trying to challenge yourself in a much more difficult course.</li>
</ul>
<p>That said, if I may offer some advice:</p>
<ul>
<li>GPA will still take a hit unless you can pull your grades up. But many colleges will not look at freshman grades, or they’ll recalculate your GPA based on their own criteria, so this one bad semester will not hurt you at all. At all.</li>
<li>Math will only get harder in the years to come. Figure out if you feel out of your element in your math class (drowning in work, hopelessly confused) or if you feel you’re being intellectually challenged and stimulated by the work. I would take a B or C in an advanced class I loved over an A in an easier course any day (and this is going to negate my old advice, but honestly, some things are more important than preserving your GPA, and actually learning is one of them).</li>
<li>You have a ton of ECs. More is not better, especially if they’re contributing to lower grades. You don’t need to have a huge laundry list. Figure out which causes you care about the most, the ECs you are most passionate about, and concentrate on those. Reading your list, you seem to be someone who cares about your school and community (a social conscience, as evidenced by the civil rights team and bullying work) and someone very interested in the law. Does that sound like who you are and what you’re interested in?</li>
</ul>
<p>Depth, not breadth. Don’t think about the colleges, honestly…at this point in your life a lot of things can change. The two greatest passions of my life developed my freshman and sophomore year and completely changed what I wanted to do with my life. So. Focus on doing what you love and doing it better than anyone else. Then worry about it in a year or two. Do you want to fit yourself into a college, or find a college that fits you?</p>