<p>I had a few crappy teachers this semester, and I might end up with 2-3 B's first semester of senior year. Will this shoot my chances of getting in? I've gotten almost all A's the rest of high school.</p>
<p>The B's would be in AP Bio, AP Stats, and AP Physics C.</p>
<p>We don’t know the rest of your application, so we can’t say. But the B’s will certainly harm your chances in a big way.</p>
<p>-GA resident, male
-Ethnicity: mixed Hispanic (Spanish) and Asian (Filipino)
-UW GPA: 3.94ish
-Weighted GPA: 4.14
-school doesn’t rank, but I got an award for being the junior with the highest weighted GPA, meaning I’m a would-be valedictorian.</p>
<p>I’m expecting rejections/waitlists across the board to be honest with you.</p>
<p>SAT I’s
Math: 800
CR: 730
Writing:710</p>
<p>SAT II’s
Math II: 800
Chem: 720
U.S. History: 710</p>
<p>AP scores:
US Gov and Politics: 5
APUSH: 5
AP Chem: 5
AP Eng. Lang: 5</p>
<p>Senior Load
<p>-school doesn’t offer honors classes, but mentions “due to the rigorous curriculum of the school, no classes are designated as honors” in school description.</p>
<p>My only B’s have been graphic design freshman year, AP Gov last year(will a 5 on the exam atone for this), and a mandatory composition class at our school this summer? I got straight A’s junior year.</p>
<p>-will mention Math, Economics, and Chemistry respectively as my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd choice majors. I want to be an investment banker or hedge fund manager when I grow up.</p>
<p>EC’s:</p>
<p>Boy Scouts
-Eagle Scout (just did my board of review). My project was building benches, pressure-washing old ones, and putting sealant.
-Senior Patrol Leader during 10th grade, Patrol Leader during 9th
-broke a national record for hiking. I hiked the Bartram Trail (100 miles/5 days, has a lot of elevation): honored by Governor Sonny Purdue and national head of boy scouts for this feat
-LOTS of community service projects
-raised money for inner-city kids to buy scout uniforms
-Philmont Summer 2010-completed trek 34, the hardest trek Philmont has to offer (Only 5 crews this entire summer out of the 1000+ that come to Philmont did trek 34).</p>
<p>Tennis (all 4 years)
-private lesons
-varsity tennis</p>
<p>Academic Quiz Bowl team (10-12)</p>
<p>I founded and am president of our school’s food critic club. We go to restaurants about once a month and write critiques about them, which are published in the school newspaper. I’m trying to see if we can get published in the Zagat Survey.</p>
<p>Trumpet
-Superior Rating (9,10,11) at Solo Ensemble Festival
-Community Jazz Band (9-12)
-GISA all-select band member (11th grade) (top band members of private schools in GA)
-played for church on Sundays
-invited to play at school’s open house 10th grade</p>
<p>Piano for 11 years
-invited to play at several concerts</p>
<p>Duke TIP summer program (summers after 9th and 10th grade, I respectively studied macroecon. and robotics)</p>
<p>Academic Awards:
-Georgia Certificate of Merit
-Phi Beta Kappa Award (given to Junior with the highest weighted GPA in class)
-National Merit Semifinalist
saints2009 is online now</p>
<p>You have great credentials, and will get into some very selective schools, possibly including Yale.</p>
<p>I don’t know, though, whether you will be considered Hispanic or Asian, and that makes a difference. Are you a Filipino with a Spanish surname, or do you have one parent who is from a Latin American country?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Silly thing to say. They won’t help you, but they won’t hurt your application “in a big way.” It’s a little distressing that you blame the grades on bad teachers, though. (That wasn’t an invitation to defend your claim.)</p>
<p>Trust me, my AP stats teacher is a b*tch. We had a test one time, and the class average was a 65. I got a friggin 74 :(. This says a lot because three guys in our class got an 800 on the math section on the SAT, myself included. Everybody else got in the 700s on it. My AP Physics C teacher is kind of apathetic toward our class. Whenever I or any of my other classmates go to him for help, he gives really vague help and expects us to figure it out on our own :(. My AP Bio teacher, for whatever reason, is just really hard to pay attention to in class. Anybody in my AP Bio class will tell you that.</p>
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<p>I maintain my position. A downward grade turn first semester senior year is highly detrimental.</p>
<p>Yes, three Bs will hurt. Does your school have a peer-tutoring service? Could you ask someone in your class who’s really good at AP Physics for help? Definitely get several prep books and work on those, too, to help you with Physics. Are there any other physics teachers who teach AP C and would be willing and capable of helping you?</p>
<p>As far as the Bio goes, a boring teacher is a really lame excuse. Honestly, with Bio you don’t really even need a teacher to explain things to you. Get a prep book for the AP test, maybe an SAT II prep book, read your text book, seek out some online guides–you should be able to ace the class.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>