Anonymous wrote:My son received a B in his Differential Equations course. He is attending Princeton. My daughter received a B in AP Physics C Mechanics, but a 5 on the exam. She is attending Hopkins. Having Bs on their transcript did not hurt either of them.

The college forum on DCUM used to be helpful. Now people just bully other parents, post lies, utilized scare tactics, and post information that is not beneficial. It is like a full time job trying to dispel all the misinformation that is posted here. I wish there was a way for parents who are seeking assistance to get the help that they need on this site. Now the college forum is dominated by folks who are purposedly misleading other families.

Receiving a B will not hurt a student's chance at a top school. Grades are only a portion of what AOs examine on a student's application. Test scores, extracurricular activities, community service, job/internships, national or state awards, independent research, a student's character, letters of recommendations, geographic location or country of origin, etc. are some of the factors that AOs consider besides grades.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well I’m sure it “hurts” your chances but it doesn’t eliminate them. My unhooked UMC white daughter from MoCo got into a top 10 college and had 2 Bs from freshman year.

Anecdotal.

Same for both of my kids. Unhooked, mcps, 2 Bs. Both at Ivies. One with multiple acceptances, 1 early and done.

High GPA is important, but 2 Bs won't make a huge difference.

Anonymous wrote:Well I’m sure it “hurts” your chances but it doesn’t eliminate them. My unhooked UMC white daughter from MoCo got into a top 10 college and had 2 Bs from freshman year.

Anonymous wrote:Totally exaggerated. My daughter is at Stanford and my son at Duke. Both had B’s

Anonymous wrote:OP is from public school. This is definitely true nowadays in the public schools. First, grade inflation is severe in public schools. Typically 10% will get straight As. In contrast, in private schools almost no one got straight A (maybe a few).

Second, even in competitive high school, the percentage of students got in top colleges is lower than private schools. Say only 10% got in top 20 colleges. In contrast, private schools easily send 30% students to top 20 or top 10 SLACs.

I agree with OP that if you are in public schools, a single B will ruin your chance.

Anonymous wrote:For top schools like the Ivy Leagues, MIT, or Stanford, they do expect straight As in a demanding course load. In committee when admissions officers are discussing candidates, Bs will be used as an argument to not admit a student. People have gotten in with some Bs, but the rest of your application has to be even stronger to compensate for it.

First of all, in college admissions, no one cares about your weighted GPA. Weighted GPA just exists to make students feel better, but it isn't helpful for properly evaluation academic performance in admissions. To know your GPA, you need to look at the unweighted GPA for core classes only (i.e. PE does not count).

For many competitive high schools here, a single B can place you outside of the top 10% of your class, which will kill your chances for admissions.

Even for slightly lower ranked top schools like UCLA, a single B will place you below the 25% percentile of admitted students.

A ton of applicants to top schools are going to have straight As. Grades matter a lot, and you want to avoid anything except for As if you want to have a shot at top schools. Even then, many students with straight As will get denied.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Both of my public school kids go to T20 colleges. They each had a few Bs - mostly in Spanish which they started in middle school. Those Spanish grades from 7th and 8th grade do count though. But I don't think those Bs mattered. A B in Calculus or AP English would have mattered a lot more.

But selective colleges know the difference in grading between a public high school and NCS for example. With the amount of retesting that's allowed in public schools - not to mention they way they curve quarter grades - it's not hard to get straight As. My kids had it down to a science. They knew exactly what they needed to do each quarter to get an A for the semester. They'd roll with 4 As and 3 Bs in the first quarter; and then they'd switch their focuses. They'd make sure those three Bs became As in the second quarter, while not stressing too much about maintaining As in the other classes. In a public school quarterly system, A + B = A for the semester. It doesn't take a genius to get straight As in public school. Just some efficient time management.

Not all public schools are like MCPS or FCPS. My kid in public school has had to fight for every A. Zero retests. The cohort of students is very competitive. The teachers grade hard. If you get outside of the DMV, many public schools in affluent suburbs are very good.