should i worry?

Parents Forum
1

<p>Hi everyone,</p>

<p>I’m a freshman at a competitive high school. It routinely sends the best kids to Ivies, top 20 schools etc.
The first quarter, I was acing all my classes, (I’m in Algebra II/ Trig Honors, French Honors, Chemistry Honors, Biology Honors, English honors and Social Studies (no honors yet).
However, in the next two quarters, I kind of went through a sort of depression/slump sort of thing. I became disinterested in my classes, I didn’t really try extremely hard, but I still maintained A’s in all of my easier classes, excepting math and French. Both of the teachers are extremely tough, and a slight slip up really hurts you. For this reason, I got high B’s in those subjects for the last two quarters.
Because of this, I may only receive B+’s for the year, which won’t hurt my GPA much-I calculated that if I maintain A’s for the next two years in all my classes, I’ll have something around a 3.94, which I’m okay with.
I’ve moved past my ‘slump’ or whatever, by stimulating my interest in academics again-I’m really going to try and delve deeper into the subjects I’m studying to make them interesting for me. I’ve started studying calculus on my own, and I’m reading Tolstoy and other ‘good literature’ so that I won’t get bored by dishing out examples of ‘symbolism and irony’, the BS stuff in English.
Also, for the summer, I will most likely be working in a lab so I can learn techniques and begin my own research, taking anatomy and physiology and likely other courses at my local community college and probably continuing calculus. ECwise, I’m fine too, many clubs and likely leadership positions in the future and sports.</p>

<p>I’m just wondering, and forgive me if this is a stupid question, but it’s really been on my mind lately since I’m back in the zone, will a B+ in math and possibly French bar me from MIT, or Caltech or other Ivies/top schools?
Clearly math is a big deal for the first two mentioned and I don’t want my app to automatically be trashed because of that one grade.</p>

<p>Would skipping precalc honors and going straight to calc bc show that I’m not totally incompetent? I actually enjoy studying calculus (I’ve studied integration and differentiation through kumon, but now I’m learning it formally) and with hard work, probably wouldn’t be much of a stretch for me. </p>

<p>Please advise! I’m really stressing about this because I know that I can ‘do math’, it’s just that my grade might show otherwise. </p>

<p>Thank you so much!</p>

<p>I'm sorry for reposting this but I feel like I have a better shot at getting a reply here...again I'm sorry for asking a probably stupid question, but this has really been killing me.</p>

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<p>I believe MIT does not count your grades from your freshman year when they review your hs transcript. Anyhow, they are willing to overlook a poor grade from an otherwise attractive applicant. They accepted a kid I know who flunked freshman English (did not see the point of reading The Odyssey) and had to go to summer school to pass the year. However, he had fantastic math/science grades and test scores, and won some major science fairs and similar competitions.</p>

<p>Anyhow, I don’t think a single B+ is going to sink you. Admissions committees look for patterns and try to make a prediction. It’s more important to look interesting than perfect.</p>

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<p>You want to know if one or two B+s as a freshman is going to lead to them automatically trashing your app? The short answer is no. They understand that sometimes things happen. Good luck with your studies (and please don’t start worrying about admissions as a freshman. Work hard, do things you’re interested in and you’ll be fine)</p>

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<p>"Will a B+ in math and possibly French bar me from MIT, or Caltech or other Ivies/top schools? " - </p>

<p>Probably not. Just work hard from this point on. Down the road when looking at colleges, read the advise on these threads and apply to a variety of schools. That would be my advise even if you had a 4.0 since there are a surprising number of highly qualified students competing for a relatively small number of slots at the tippy top schools.</p>

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<p>Thank you so much for your replies! I would like to consider myself an interesting person haha, and there’s still time to grow.</p>

<p>I’m really stressing about this because I’ll be applying as an international. I’m a canadian citizen (Indian girl), but I’ve studied my entire life in America. Competition for domestics is crazy enough, and internationals is just insane, (for most ‘top colleges’, and MIT…). With so many other qualified candidates, I’m afraid that a single misstep will just take me out of the running…</p>

<p>But in the meantime, I’ll work on being passionate about science and becoming interesting :P</p>

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<p>Do not worry about a couble of B+ freshman year. Guard against “boredom” for the next three years. More importantly, focus on ECs and anything else that will help you to stand out. GPA is not everything, nor are CalTech and MIT.</p>