<p>Currently, I’m looking to take Engineering at Cornell, and my grades are pretty good, I’m ranked between 5-12 out of 850. In all my classes (including AP Chem, College Pre-Calculus, AP Biology, AP US, Physics Honors, AP Stat, AP Eng), I have over 95 in all of them, besides AP Bio, which I have a 91. AP Classes are weighted 10 points in my school (honors 5 & college level 7.5) so in reality, I don’t have under a 100 in any of my classes.</p>
<p>Except, my grade in architectural drawing I is an 89, unweighted, because of my inability to draw free-hand, and it’s past the date I could have dropped the class. Would this one grade in an elective lower my chances of getting into an ivy league, without even looking at the AP scores, or are my AP scores enough to boost the chances?</p>
<p>With that score in architecture, my average is a 100.889 weighted, but without the class it would be 102.375.</p>
<p>I strongly doubt that a B+ in this class will negatively affect your chances, unless your school ranks and it crushes your class rank. Even then…</p>
<p>thumper1 - My SAT scores are 800 math, mid-700’s writing, and mid- 600’s reading (but I’m getting an English tutor to help with the questions I always get wrong, so that should improve when I take it again in June.) Also, I didn’t take the ACT yet, but I’m planning on taking it soon.</p>
<p>Consolation - It doesn’t “crush” my ranking, I’d still be in the top 5%, but I’d go down from 5-8 to 18-21. </p>
<p>If it changes your rank before the school reports grades, yes it could make a small difference. That said, the colleges themselves probably won’t care much when they evaluate your curriculum. Top 5% is definitely good enough for Cornell at our big suburban high school. (Not a guarantee, but excellent chances if everything else is there.)</p>
<p>Wait – are you a junior? You mention retaking the SAT in June. </p>
<p>If you’re a junior, it’s too early to estimate your rank or even your GPA for college admissions. A lot can change in the next year, not only for you but for your classmates.</p>
<p>It is possible that one low grade could push your rank low enough to hurt your chances. However – and this is pretty important – you will never know if that is the reason you didn’t get in. It is highly likely that you would have been denied even if you had gotten an A in that class. A majority of students with top grades and SATs don’t get accepted. </p>
<p>All you can do is do your best, and tearing your hair out over one grade is not productive. However, I’ll also note that this is early October, and unless this class ends soon, you have plenty of time to raise that grade. Talk to the teacher, maybe there is extra credit or something you could do to improve your grade.</p>