<p>I'm going to end up with 2 Bs this semester (AP physics and Spanish 4 h) and it's going to bring my cumulative GPA to a 3.925 unweighted. I had straight As in high school with an exception of 1 B in Spanish last year. My current courseload is 5 APs and 1 honors. (Econ, Lit, Chem, Calc BC, Physics, and Spanish) </p>
<p>How bad is this going to look and how much is it going to affect admissions? Especially since it's a downward trend? Will they understand since I'm taking a pretty heavy courseload this year? </p>
<p>Schools I'm applying to:</p>
<p>Cornell
Duke
Harvard
Johns Hopkins
MIT
Rice
Stanford (applied SCEA, deferred)
WashU
UCs (Cal, LA, SD...they don't ask for mid-year school reports so I think I'm fine here)</p>
<p>Admissions officers look at the whole senior year program...we know if you're taking it easy in the second semester...it isn't a good idea to bring down the rigor of your curriculum at any point in the senior year if you're applying to most selective schools - there are scores of students taking AP Calc BC, AP Physics and Chem, and other difficult AP courses through the end of their senior years applying to these schools - taking it easy at any point in the senior year sends a pretty strong message to an admissions officer.</p>
<p>And as for ED admits, it is really not a good idea to let your grades slip - a few B grades (and I mean a few, like 1 or 2) isn't going to hurt, but seeing a general downward trend in grades at midyear or for final grades is going to get you in hot water.