That depends on the college you would like to attend and what kind of career you plan to pursue. I took an easy route... I learned that in the state I went to school that Community Colleges had to accept me as long as they had space and i completed high school. So i skated by through the last few years pretty care free. Then i went to a community college and worked harder on grades -- took classes i wanted to along with the basic courses and did well. When i transferred to a bachelor program they just wanted to know if i completed high school and they wanted transcripts from college. For every job i've applied for they only ask if you graduated from high school. I guess listing good grades as a skill or to show you work hard might get you in the door faster than someone without those. But i'd be embarrassed to list most high school accomplishments on a resume 15 years later. I think more important is a broad range of extracurricular activities. Not just sports - scouts, work, volunteerism, hobbies... something that an admissions employee will see and make you stand out. They'll be looking at thousands of students with good grades, positions in the student government, and basketball stars... how can you be different? I did work study in a college admissions office for a year.

You're lucky with the weighted class thing. We don't have weighted classes at our school. All of the people in the minimum level classes have it so easy at our school because their grades look exactly the same. Not that I'm one to worry about grades. It's all about what you learn anyway.

In and of itself freshman year is not that significant (grade-wise), (you should certainly do well, of course). What makes freshman year significant is that it really helps set the tone for future years of high school, thus you will want to be well disciplined and show focus and dedication to your studies.

Its good that you are focused on your studies at a young age. I knew a lot of kids when I was in school goofed off their freshman year and later regretted it. Also colleges look at volunteer work/leadership developing, like boy scouts. Something like obtaining Eagle Scout looks really good, even if your GPA isnt as great. I will tell you a little secret, High School Success does not equal college success. So dont worry about what your classmates are doing, worry about what you are doing. I guarantee you alot of them will NOT finish College. And lets say that something doesnt go as planned, All those outstanding things that you do now, will open doors up for you later in life.

You're actually lucky. I was told (in 9th grade) that all of the advanced/honors/academically gifted courses would be heavily weighted, and that all the college prep courses would be weighted (although not as heavily). I jumped in head-long, and always took the harder courses when they were available. Then in 11th grade, they said, "Oh yeah, we decided the weighting system is unfair to minorities." So without the weighting, I ended up with a high "C" (overall GPA) rather than the high "B" I would've had! Moral of the story- Forget grades and do your best to actually learn something, or take bare minimum type courses and be the valedictorian (true story!!).

Here's the recommended high school courses from MIT's web site. Just looking at that, they claim to be more concerned with you challenging yourself than getting perfect grades, and lots of weighted classes count as challenging yourself. That said, try your best to keep your grade up. (This from a guy who's trying desperately to get his grade up from an 89.4% in English.)

I'm planning on applying to MIT, though I have no plans to attend...it's too far from home to come home more than two or three times a year. I just hope to be able to put "accepted at MIT" on my resume. ;-)

_{You're only a freshman? I would have guessed sophomore...}

As long as you improve over the next few years, it shouldn't matter much. The biggest thing it will affect is your GPA, which colleges definitely look at. But a few C's won't hurt too much. I screwed up this year too, I have two Cs right now. Had a few too many late assignments early in the year :( Slowly going back up to Bs though

Wow! You really do seem paranoid.. I'm a junior, and I get mostly C's and B's, I'm not to concerned about it. Of course, I have no idea what I want to do after highschool.. :D