If I get Bs and Cs in high school, am I still going to be able to get into a decent college?

Talk to a guidance counselor. Do they have them at your school? Here is the school’s admission webpage: http://www.berklee.edu/admissions/general/admissions_requirements.html

I edited and added this also:

http://www.berklee.edu/admissions/general/audition_interview.html

If you knuckle down and work hard from here on out, you should be able to get into a decent school. Sometimes, being able to point to your grades iimproving and say it was important to me to go into a good school, I worked hard, and my grades went up. Being successful in college is a lot about being able to apply yourself and do the work.

There are lots of really good music schools out there – Indiana, Cincinnati, Belmont, Otterbein.

Schools also take into account things like extra curricular, clubs, volunteer service, awards, and achievements. Not everything is about grades, I recently learned this because I am soon going into college searching and am getting things from schools my grades wouldn’t work in. But my strong point is having a very well rounded school life, not just grades.

@2CDenzy What do you mean by school life? Would my music achievements help me there?

Not too late. They will not only look at your GPA, but also how your grades trended, meaning if they got better and better demonstrating you became more serious and buckled down. You can greatly improve your GPA in the next two years. Also, you test scores, be sure to take SATS or ACT twice, whichever one is the one that your college prefers, and if you don’t do well on the first pay for a class to help you do better on the test, its worth it. Also, extracuricular activities that will show your commitment to music and the arts, and even things outside of music, which can show you are well rounded and take committments seriously.

You still have to work very hard. I’d be a little worried about the C’s. You can still get into college, but it might be harder to get into a place you really want to. Just make sure that you do well and keep on the right track. I am assuming that you are taking necessary music classes right now. If you’re doing well in those, they automatically boost your GPA. This will help you out greatly.

@rentluva5256 I couldn’t think of a very good way to describe what I meant so I just used ‘school life’. I meant stuff like volunteer hours and other things I mentioned before.

Musical achievements are very good, especially since you would like to go into it. If you have more than one musical program at your school, (ie. my school has marching band, concert band, jazz band, pit orchestra, indoor drumline, and pep band.) try and get involved into as many as you can. I am in all of mine except pep band. You can put these things on your application. If you happen to be first chair of your section you may not think that’s much of an achievement but colleges might, put that too, especially if you are now or next year.

I’m not trying to lessen the importance of grades, because those are definitely important too. It’s not the end of the world though, just focus on doing some of everything. Colleges like well-rounded students.

You have to both improve your grades from here forward and you must demonstrate the kind of character better colleges what in their incoming students.

What colleges do you have in mind? There are some who take only a percentage of the top performers who present all A’s, there’s a lot of competition, especially if you want to also apply for grants and scholarships.

i think it depends on what you consider a “decent” college.

Yes. Colleges look at more than grades. They also look at extra curricular activities, and community service. So if you play a musical instrument, or you’re on the soccer team, or you have an after-school job, or volunteer with a community-minded group, all those things will help you. Colleges look at one more thing: your SAT scores.

I agree completely with @betterbird. Most colleges want to see a well-rounded person before they want to see all the highest GPAs and only high GPAs in their school, again I said most, but not all are like that. The university benefits by having a diverse student body, and most strive to cultivate that. It sounds like music is your true calling and colleges will easily recognize that. You should look in one of those college book guides your high school should have to see how much a university weighs to GPAs, as well as schools that are respected and known for their music programs. Keep in mind though, that even universities that only admit the highest GPAs, also admit a small number of the lower GPA students if they have an exceptional talent.

Just to be contrary, colleges do look at GPA and it is important. If you don’t do well in high school you might have a problem, so you should shape up. One alternative is if you don’t get good grades in high school is to go to a JC, do well, and then transfer.

Three things:

1. You are only a sophomore right now. Many colleges look for an uptrend in grades. Therefore, you have a chance at getting into a good college if you have very good junior year grades.

2. Contrary to popular belief, grades are important but they are not everything. I have heard of people with a 4.0 getting rejected by Harvard while others with lower GPAs get in. One person I know was very good with the flute and she got a scholarship to a good school. Colleges also look to see if you have any special talents.

3. In any case, people I know who graduate high school with poor grades will usually go to community college first. They will try their best to get good grades and then transfer over to university. One benefit of this is that it could also allow you to explore your interests. You might also be able to transfer your community college credits over to university, but you would need to check with a counselor on that.

Actually, @Rarebear makes a good point that if you wind up npt being able to get into your first pick of colleges, going to JC, or even a college that is not your first choice and tranferring, can get you where you want to be, but with a detour to get there. Butm I still recommend doing your best to improve things now, because your option will be that much better, and sometimes students feel rooted and then don’t transfer when they should because they have made friends and becke accustomespd to the college they are at. Also, going out of state to a college that does not attract a lot of out of staters can be easier to get in to. My GPA wasn’t great in high school, but my junior college grades were very good and i was accepted to Michigan State University, which does ot have a very large out of state student population. From what I understand they reserve spaces for out of staters, we pay a lot more for tuition, and I guess we are figured into the budget. Oh, and if you find yourself having to go to a junior college, or college of second choice, don’t feel like you have to get an AA or finish two years, apply to transfer as soon as possible. I transferred as a Sophomore, and so did many of my friends. Make sure whatever college you go to, if you might want to transfer, that you will be able to transfer all of your classes easily. Some schools will only take credits from certain schools.

But, again, I recommend doing better now, and making it easier on yourself later. College is so much fun. I highly recommend living in the dorms. Junior College you might lose some of that experience.

“But, again, I recommend doing better now, and making it easier on yourself later. College is so much fun. I highly recommend living in the dorms. Junior College you might lose some of that experience.”

ding ding!

Yes. If you check out the websites of colleges your interested in, they will tell you the mark standard for acceptance.