Senior year grades - how important are they?

<p>Like many other students here, my D didn't get into ANY of her (MY) top schools and only made the safeties and not all of those. This is probably due to the large pool of qualified and overqualified applicants this year more than anything else.</p>

<p>Her school grades come out on a quarterly basis and in the 2nd quarter she got the lowest grades in her life. I'm wondering how much of a difference this would make to an admissions officer.</p>

<p>Another thing is her senior year course selection was less rigorous than in previous years, but it was mostly due to the fact that there were courses she has always wanted to take, but couldn't previously due to taking more advanced classes to look better.</p>

<p>We thought the combination of less rigorous overall course load and getting her worst grades (C+ in an AP class and B- in another AP class, a B in CP Psych) may have taken her out of the running for schools like Vassar, Wesleyan, Holy Cross, etc.</p>

<p>can anyone shed some light on this for me?</p>