<p>I wanted to know what Columbia is looking for as far as first semester grades. Would having 1 or 2 B's totally ruin my chances?!</p>
<p>They won’t ruin your chances, no. However, if you were already a borderline applicant and they were not in exceedingly difficult classes (like AP Physics or AP French or the other famedly difficult senior classes), they may well assume that your grades are further slipping and that you would lower their GPA and that you are not a self-motivated student for their school. That’s the risk you’ve run.</p>
<p>Hopefully, however, if it is one blemish on a litany of other A+'s in difficult courses first semester, then you should still be well in the running. However ,beware colleges analyze very heavily First Semester data for patterns and to “detect” senioritis, whose sufferers no school desires to admit.</p>
<p>how about 3 Bs in a 7 AP class schedule? my GPA up through now is a 4.0 so I’m afraid it’ll look bad. </p>
<p>are senior year grades weighed the same as the rest of your transcript or is it more of a progress check to see if you’re not slacking off?</p>
<p>@jumpshooter. don’t think so. being that all your classes are AP’s, it’s understandable that 3 of those are b range. they won’t crucify you for it</p>
<p>@jumpshooter, I’m in the same position. But I’m really trying to bring all them up to A’s by the end of the semester. Its definitely possible…I just need to work hard at it. Good luck to you too !</p>
<p>Oops, also I just realized that I meant midyear report.</p>
<p>How about one B+ out of 5 APs this year?</p>
<p>@undecided 11, you should be fine. don’t worry.</p>
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<p>No doubt it will look bad. You have retained a 4.0, a perfect GPA, till now, and all of a sudden you drop to not 1, not 2, but 3 Bs. You clearly have a downward trend present, but since you are taking 7 APs (which is a lot), I’m sure they will be a bit more understanding. But overall, it will affect you negatively.</p>
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<p>I think you’re fine.</p>
<p>@OP, I think it depends. If you’re the kind of student who is going to be admitted to places (not just Columbia, but in general) largely on the basis of a stellar academic record, then yes, it’ll matter. But if you’ve got other particularly striking qualities on your app (several unusually good teacher recommendations, an amazing EC, some incredible scholarship you won, work experience programming for Microsoft or something) then the dip in GPA will be fairly insignificant. Look at it this way: regardless, they know you can do the work. Anybody who can get a 4.0 for three years can do the work at Columbia and get perfectly good grades, etc. Anybody who can get As in four out of seven APs senior year can do the work at Columbia. The question is not whether you can do the work, but about what separates you from the other applicants. If what separated you from the other applicants is that 4.0 GPA (and even at Columbia, a perfect GPA does separate you from the pack to some degree), it will be very significant. If there was something else distinguishing you, the impact will be mitigated.</p>