<p>To start off, my school's grading system has 95+ as an A and 85-95 as a B. Our transcripts show end of the year grades only (I'm not sure if they show letter grades or not, I haven't actually seen them). I had all As on my transcript in all my classes, up until this year. Due to a bunch of different circumstances and general disorganization on my part, my grades have slipped during my junior year. At the end of the year, I will have four Bs on my transcript. All of them will be above a ninety, and one of them is a 94 (in AP Psych). Is this a big deal? I know colleges like to see upward trend so this bothers me a little bit. If it makes any difference my strength of schedule is "most rigorous available" for my school. And I'm specifically bothering this forum with this question because Columbia is my top choice.</p>
<p>No one can answer this question for you. Sure, it’s better to have As than Bs, but no school is going to take one look at the Bs and throw you in the reject pile. What will matter in the end is your application as a whole–the strength of your academic record, the courses you have taken, test scores, recs, ecs, essays. Who are you as a person? I think that you know all of this.</p>
<p>If what you’re looking for is reassurance that the downward trend won’t matter–no one can give that to you. Just as no one can say anything meaningful if all of those As were Bs, since, even then, that is only one piece of the equation and students with perfect grades are rejected.</p>
<p>The one really good piece of advice people can give you is to stop fretting. What’s done is done and your grades are still very good. If there is something to say about it, your counselor should do this in his/her letter. If you are not applying ED (or even if you are) you still have a chance to show your consistency by doing very well next semester. Make sure that you apply to a range of schools any of which you would enjoy attending.</p>
<p>Generally, schools send out “School Profiles” with your transcript. This gives a brief description of your high school, including some of its rigorous classes/programs and, more importantly, its grading scale. So when colleges view your transcript they’ll know that your B is between 85 and 95, not between 80 or 90 (traditionally a B). If you feel your “bunch of different circumstances” are unique enough or merit their own discussion, talk about them with your counselor and see if you can get your counselor to explain them in his/her recommendation for you.</p>
<p>What dococtopi says is correct. Schools send out the secondary school report along with a report of their own. Columbia will see that a 95 is still a B for your school. However, whining about a 94 will reflect badly. I had 1 B preventing me from being valedictorian and I had an 89.9 in Honors Chemistry and there were two honors chemistry teachers (same tests and homework) and the other teacher rounded 89.5 to an A while my teacher didn’t. It’s not just in my case either - There are plenty of people who got B’s but were extremely borderline to an A. Also, a lot depends on rigor of your school/classes and grade distribution. In my Finite class, a 76% was an A for first semester, and even then, less than 10% of the class had A’s and the ones who got B’s still go to decent schools like U.C. Berkeley, L.A., WashU, Rice, Johns Hopkins (it’s notorious for being one of the hardest classes at my school). Thus, your school’s courses could all be very easy and that’s why a 95 is an A.</p>