<p>Hi guys,
I will be applying to college next summer (sophomore right now) & with junior year coming up, I have a couple of questions regarding grades / extracurrics.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Do colleges look at freshman grades? (Specifically about Columbia and UCLA, which are my top two choices) I got 1 B+ for Honors Math and B for PE in my freshman year and so far in my sophomore year I have gotten another B+ for Honors English. I heard that if I get more B's, it's harder for me to get into those colleges.</p></li>
<li><p>I heard that I should do more extracurriculars, but I only do cello (and I don't plan to try any more extracurrics- cello just takes so much of my time). I used to do Science Olympiad, Track, Robotics, FBLA, Speech, Math Club, Science Club, and participate in a couple of non-profits but recently cello has taken so much of my time that I'm just going to focus on grades & cello in my junior & senior year. (I'm in school orch and community orch and a chamber group). I hope this is ok.</p></li>
<li><p>And then I heard if I only do one extracurric, I better be "good" at it. What defines good? Like I know a couple of my cello friends in my grade have gone on to win many competitions like American Protege and they are in the Colburn School's Youth Orch and Chamber Orch (both very prestigious) and have participated in the National cello Institute, etc...but I am nowhere near that right now. I started cello relatively late in the game compared to everyone else (I've been playing for 5 years, as opposed to my friend's 10 years) and I am aiming for Colburn as well, but so far no significant awards/achievements etc. So does "good" have to be winning a nationally known cello comp or just sending in a tape that sounds amazing?</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Also just for reference I am planning to study biology/neuroscience along with music. (But I'd much rather devote my time to cello than research)</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>