worried-please help!

Colleges and Universities A-Z Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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<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>

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<p>I got a B my first semester of math in high school. I also got a couple of B’s scattered throughout (though never in math again).</p>

<p>No, your chances aren’t ruined.</p>

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<p>It isn’t just for the semester though-the year,my school gives you a grade based on the number of A’s and B’s you get on each quarter and the final, so it’d be a B+ or 3.5.
I see your point though, but I’ll be applying as an international student, I’m a canadian citizen (indian girl), but I’ve studied my entire life in America.
Being an international will already make it tough for most US colleges, and for MIT and other ‘top colleges’…I’m afraid that any missteps will take me out of the running.</p>

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<p>I think above a 3.8, preferably a 3.9, you’ve done awesome. 4.0 looks awesome too, but it doesn’t really look that much better at schools like the ones you’ve mentioned.</p>

<p>Keep in mind, your GPA will probably be higher (at least it was in my case) of what I calculated beforehand, and you can always take summer school, dual enrollment, etc classes.</p>

<p>But really, a 3.8+ is really awesome.</p>