Are two C’s bad?

Applying to College
1

In my junior year I got two C’s in the spring semester, one in my French 3 A class French 3 B class (we have a four block schedule so half a year of French counts as a year, so the first twenty weeks is A and the other half is B). The rest of my grades though are A’s and B’s where A’s are the majority. I’m also planning on taking AP Latin in my senior year so is it bad if I got two C’s? Will it decrease my chances of getting into a good UC?

2

I also plan to major in microbio so does it matter as much that I got a C in a foreign language class?

3

The other half is b*

4

All the UC’s are “ good”. Calculate your UC GPA’s so you can see how much of an impact these grades will have on competitiveness. GPA is only one factor in UC admissions although a Very Important factor. More so for 2021 since UC’s are going test optional.

https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

Now compare your Capped weighted UC GPA to the data below.

2019 UC capped weighted GPA averages along with 25th-75th percentile range:
UCB: 4.23 (4.15-4.30)
UCLA: 4.25 (4.18-4.32)
UCSD: 4.16 (4.03-4.28)
UCSB: 4.16 (4.04-4.28)
UCI: 4.13 (4.00-4.25)
UCD: 4.13 (4.00-4.26)
UCSC: 3.96 (3.76-4.16)
UCR: 3.90 (3.69-4.11)
UCM: 3.73 (3.45-4.00)

Here are the 14 areas of criteria the UC’s use for their application review:

https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/how-to-apply/applying-as-a-freshman/how-applications-are-reviewed.html

A few suggestions:
Continue with your French Language course and not start a new Language Senior year. UC’s only require 2 years, prefer 3 years but many other competitive schools would like 4 years of the Same Language.

If you want to stop taking French, then make sure you have a Biology, Chemistry and Physics class as part of your 4 year HS curriculum along with Pre-Calc or Calculus level Math. These will make you a more competitive applicant than 3 years French and 1 year of Latin.

Remember there are plenty of other “good” schools besides the UC’s so expand your college list and make sure you have at least 2 safety schools.

Best of luck.

5

Two C’s are worse than two A’s or two B’s - that should be obvious.

Will it decrease your chances? Probably, in an absolute, incremental way. But two grades of dozens received in HS, in the context of an entire application, is a pretty small component.

I don’t want to minimize it - grades are important. But it will only change the outcome on a very borderline application. All applications have a range of strong to weaker components - this may be on the weaker end of yours.

There’s nothing you can do about it now - focus on the future. Put together strong grades going forward, along with the rest of the application.

I agree that three years of a single language are a positive to many schools. Not sticking with that depth and hopping to the intro course of another language might impact an application as much a two C’s.