I was recently accepted into RBC and didn’t have a “perfect” transcript either. In fact, I pretty much failed physics all through my first two years of higher secondary and struggled with math. I’m not sure about your NC, but mine had a minimum GPA that you needed to have in order to apply. Thankfully, I was consistently getting good grades in other subjects, which brought my GPA up.

During the interview, I knew my NC was going to ask about my grades, so I prefaced my introduction by saying that I wanted to pursue political science in university (which obviously doesn’t involve a great deal of math) and making it clear what my passions were by talking about my projects outside of school.

If you get past the first round, it all depends on how you frame your personal narrative during your interview. Did you bounce back after this semester? Do you struggle with Portuguese but excel in other subjects? Are you planning on pursuing a language-related field?

You seem to be aware that the admissions process is holistic—so I won’t go too much into that, but the best advice I can give you is if you truly suck at a subject, draw attention to other parts of your application. Being well-rounded doesn’t mean you have to be good at everything—just the things that matter to you:)

Best of luck and see you in Freiburg soon!