<p>I took AP Government, AP English, differential equations, a 100-level college course, and a 200-level college course (both computer science). In all but the last one (which was a B) I received high As.</p>
<p>I don't know how important the midyear report is, but I've heard anything from "dropping off significantly is a problem, otherwise not really" to "they're really important if they're on your transcript". In any case, I have a really bad feeling (which might be exaggerated; I honestly don't know) about what's to come ahead when I submit regular applications to Stanford and Princeton and transcend a deferral from MIT. I focused a lot on outside courses (Coursera CS courses) and competitive programming activities this semester, but in the end, all I can realistically do is blame my time management.</p>
<p>It seems like you’re saying you got all A’s and one B. This is dropping off significantly? On what planet?</p>
<p>Turning on the sarcasm here, but maybe you need to be rejected from Stanford, Princeton, and MIT because you don’t understand the concept of “significant”.</p>
<p>Sorry to not clarify - I did not mean I thought this was a significant drop; I just made a couple of mistakes on important things and it cost me. What I meant was that I’ve heard that unless I drop significantly, I’m fine (in which case I would be okay) and from others that first semester senior grades carry much more weight and are scrutinized much more, etc.</p>
<p>Senior grades are scrutinized in context. They’re important, but only in relation to your overall record. If you’ve never taken anything close to college level classes before and your grades suddenly drop, that’s a problem. Conversely, if you’ve never taken an extremely rigorous schedule before, and you suddenly do much better, that helps. But if your course rigor is the same as it’s always been and you’re close to your previous performance, they’re no more important than any other semester junior year.</p>