I’m a sophomore right now in high school and I have an overall GPA of 3.82. I’m taking 2 AP Classes: Chemistry in which I have a C, and World History in which I have a B, but I have A’s in all of my other classes, except for a B in English Honors. Last year I took 2 honors classes at an online charter school, and had all A’s and one B. In middle school I took all honors classes and also had good grades in them, so this year was my first C. I haven’t yet participated in any after school activities, such as sports or clubs, because I don’t have time for them. But next year I’m thinking of taking AP Bio and AP Calculus and doing some extracurriculars. If I get better grades and do well in my AP classes next year, do I have a chance of getting into a good college, or will my grades this year ruin my chances?
Maybe take a few more AP classes next year if you can, you definitely don’t want to be taking too many regular classes compared to the top students at your school, especially junior year cause it’s the most important year of high school. If you can try to bump up your chemistry grade to at least a B. I also had a C in AP chemistry but I didn’t apply to any of the UC schools so I don’t know about those particular schools. However, if you are majoring in something science related, that C might not look so good, but if not, some colleges are willing to overlook the subpar grades in classes that don’t relate to your major in response to seeing stellar grades in classes that do. Ask your teacher for extra credit, go to office hours and ask questions, and study your butt off. Who knows? Maybe your teacher might see your hard work and take pity on you… But don’t rely on that; it almost never happens.
First, if you are asking about a UC, are you from California? That automatically makes it difficult as they are taking many students from out of state or from out of the country, as they pay more tuition. We have heard over and over that’s it’s better to not take AP’s than to get a C or lower, so think about that for junior year and up. UC’s have a lot of applicants, so testing and GPA are important, as they don’t have the time to examine applications as much as private schools do. Talk to a counselor about AP’s.
Rigor of coursework is super important. You need to be taking hard classes compared to the rest of your graduating class and doing well on them. If Chemistry is the the only subject that is hard for you, then be glad it’s over, but you need to be taking AP classes. If you take AP classes and get a B or two, that’s okay. It will still look better than taking regular classes and getting all A’s.