2nd quarter: straight 'F's?

<p>Hello all,</p>

<p>Okay, so here's the situation. I've been accepted into Penn State - University Park for this fall, and I accepted my acceptance. So my plan is to attend there. However...</p>

<p>1st quarter of senior year: 'A's & 'B's. 2nd quarter: straight 'F's (and we're talking low 'F's, like 2% range). Midterm grades: A - Statistics, D+ - Government, C- - English, F - Physics (0%). </p>

<p>Basically what happened was that I was absent almost the entire second quarter due to medical reasons (but not the good-excuse kind...more like the kind where something little was constantly wrong with me and I'd just decide not to go to school and it really built up. I have doctor's excuses for all of it except for one day: the day of my physics midterm, hence the 0%).</p>

<p>3rd quarter is going well again...maybe slightly worse than 1st quarter...and I expect no complications 4th quarter.</p>

<p>Now, PSU doesn't ask for mid-year grades, and as far as I know my school reports grades by year (not by semester), so I don't think I'll be showing any 'F's on my final grade report. But 'D's are not out of the question, especially in the classes where I got near-zero grades on the midterm or during 2nd quarter.</p>

<p>Given that I don't really have a "good excuse," how much of a risk do I run of getting my acceptance rescinded?</p>

<p>Thanks in advance...</p>

<p>…pretty much</p>

<p>wow. How do you get in the single digit %'s? You’re looking at community college.</p>

<p>After missing almost the entirety of 2nd quarter, I made a decision to cut my losses from second quarter instead of trying to make up an entire quarter’s worth of work and falling extremely far behind for subsequent quarters.</p>

<p>Basically, my question boils down to this: Since PSU won’t actually see any Fs on my report card, would they rescind me for two or three 'D’s? I know that some colleges would, but I’m looking for opinions on whether or not PSU - UP would.</p>

<p>You’ll get rescinded. What did you expect for skipping 1/4 of the year.</p>

<p>I’d say a there’s a high risk of getting rescinded. Wow, and you got into University Park. You might want to call up PSU and start seeing how they will react. They will eventually see the grades. You may want to see if taking summer school to replace the lost quarter would be something they would be willing to accept. I dunno though, basically taking off a quarter of school is not going to be looked upon favorably and there are a lot of people on the waiting list for University Park. Best of luck.</p>

<p>Hmm, thanks for the ideas jec.</p>

<p>Also, does anyone think that writing them a letter explaining how I stumbled for one quarter but then finished the last half of the year strongly would help? It might give me more bargaining room. I’d be happy to start the year on academic probation, whatever. I just want to hold on to my acceptance, which I realize (as you have all said) might be unlikely.</p>

<p>Also, in terms of other college plans, which I should start preparing for…I guess I’m stuck with community college if I don’t manage to hold on to my PSU acceptance?</p>

<p>Furthermore, let’s say I do go to community college. Let’s say I do really well there (3.8+ GPA). How will my transfer options look despite me screwing up my senior year of high school? Test scores are good (2280 SAT), it’s just this senior year that I screwed up so badly…</p>

<p>Thanks in advance again…</p>

<p>No college wants a student who is going to totally drop the ball like that, even for 1 quarter.</p>

<p>You have an extremely high chance of being rescinded…</p>

<p>CC is definitely an option. As a transfer student, your grades in CC will be the their focus. A 3.8+ would be great.</p>

<p>Alright, I did some math, and here’s what I figured out:</p>

<p>I can pull off a C- in each of my courses with the following average marks for the remainder of the year:</p>

<p>AP English: 88.52%
AP Government: 83.4%
AP Physics: 85.2% (hardest one by a long shot)
AP Statistics: 66.3% (easy)</p>

<p>So if I managed to pull off 'C-'s for my final grade report, would I still be treading on grounds for a rescinded acceptance?</p>

<p>If you were going to have all Fs on your final transcript I’d say you had a high chance, but actually reading the OP it appears that you have midterm F grades but that your final grades won’t necessarily reflect that.</p>

<p>It takes a lot for a school to rescind admissions – I mean, you have to have much lower grades. Straight Fs, yes. Straight C- with doctor’s excuses and a medical reason…perhaps not so much. I think you should shoot for higher than a C- in at least two of those classes – pick the easiest two and work REALLY hard, try to get As in both of those classes, so even if you end up with Cs, you have some balance. That plus the doc’s notes should prevent you from getting rescinded.</p>

<p>Don’t chalk it up as failed and look at community colleges yet. A lot of college-bound seniors have rescission as a big fear and they assume that anything beneath their regular straight-A performance will get it taken away, but average grades in your last semester (like straight-Cs) likely won’t get your admissions rescinded.</p>

<p>[College</a> Search - Penn State University Park - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.jsp?collegeId=4136) </p>

<p>(Scroll down for G.P.A.s of ENROLLED students.)</p>

<p>Yo, you aint going to college. Homie.</p>

<p>damn son. i would say you are screwed.</p>

<p>worst comes to worst, bring a few twenties to school and bribe, bribe, bribe.</p>

<p>but you did have a medical reason if you had a doctor’s note every single day…just because you didn’t have a chronic disease doesn’t really make it less legit. have your doc talk to your counselor. then on the midyear your counselor can write some stuff to try and help your case.</p>

<p>rereading all your posts…PLEASE have your doc/counselor somehow communicate with the college. unless your doc is your mom/dad, there’s no way a legit practitioner would write you excuses for all those days unless something was wrong with you. Being sick IS a legitmate excuse. You got in, and from your previous grades and SAT scores, you really deserve to go. People on here are probably just angry because they had to work hard 2nd quarter…ignore the CC comments and just work on explaining to the college what happened. I feel like you have a really good chance as long as you do well 3rd and 4th quarter. Don’t try to cover up the low grades, just explain them while you can.</p>

<p>Yeah I agree with princessbell.</p>

<p>Can I ask how you had a sickness bad enough to keep you out for a whole quarter yet your school expects you to keep up with work and then flunks you when you don’t? Seems quite unfair to me. Talk to administrators and get your parents involved.</p>

<p>Did you ever get tested for mono? You may have, or had the virus and did not know it.</p>

<p>Agree with princessbell</p>

<p>If you have doctor’s notes, then you had a medical reason for not being there. It doesn’t matter if you don’t think it was serious, if the doctor thinks it was serious enough to get a note it should be enough. </p>

<p>Write to the college and tell them you had medical issues in 3rd quarter, but your 4th quarter grades were A’s and B’s</p>