Here is my dilemma…I am a current senior about to graduate who will be attending USC in the spring.
During my high school years I took an Astronomy class worth 3 credits at College of Marin and earned an A.
I also went to UCSB for a summer in which I took Poly Sci and Mid East History, both worth 4 units each. I earned a C+ and an A-.
I am going to send in my one grade from astronomy because it is an A-. However, I am reluctant to send in my UCSB transcript because of the C+. In order to get credit for the A- in mid east hist I must send in the C+. How horribly will this affect my gpa and chances of getting into a good grad school and law school?
Would you advise I include or exlude it? It is 8 credits and it balances out to a 3.0…I just don’t wish to be scarred in the future with a C+ on my record.
<p>That grade will not be factored into your GPA at USC, they'll just use it for credit reference. Technically speaking, you <em>can't</em> withhold grade information from the college -- if they request all grades from all classes you've ever taken, that means sending it. If it's tied to your SSN (as classes often are) there are ways that, if they REALLY wanted, they could pull up your entire record.</p>
<p>Will it haunt you forever? Only if you let it. If you learn from it and move on, it's just something that happened during a summer during high school. You are not the same person now who earned that grade, nor will you (I hope!) be the same person once you graduate from USC.</p>
<p>How will it affect your GPA? Unless USC is different, most transfer credits don't count toward your overall GPA. undecided is correct as far as I know.</p>
<p>You know most grad schools won't reject you just because you've got a random C... Sometimes they happen... If you have a lot of them that's one thing, but if 1 or 2 appear on your transcript it won't be a big deal.</p>
<p>A quick reality check: The C+ will impact your law school application. And you cannot avoid it. </p>
<p>Law schools weigh GPA heavily and the way it is calculated is standardized. Furthermore, it would be an ethical violation not to report ALL grades from ALL colleges and universities. So in the larger picture, if , say, down the road you want to be a lawyer, you would be screwing yourself if you got caught ..it would be grounds to not license you.</p>
<p>So...you do have to report it on law school applications and it will be calculated in your standard law school GPA. On the flipside, you will easily be able to explain away this grade in your application. Think of this though as an immediate wake up call. Freshman often blame a lot of things on a "slow start". You now have a reason to really avoid all of the common pitfalls and work hard in your courses.</p>
<p>Heck, I <em>failed out</em> of my first college (Harvey Mudd College in California) as a second-semester junior, successfully transferred to UC Riverside, went back to Harvey Mudd, finished, then got myself admitted to University of Arizona's physics graduate program with a full-ride fellowship.</p>
<p>Will this excuse work: "I was a junior in high school living on my own attending UCSB during the summer. Yes I got a C but I also got an A; it was an accomplishment to be there at that age and make it."</p>
<p>Law schools aren't impossibly hard to get into (aside from Yale). Provided that you don't do a "hard" major and pay attention in class, a C+ from a college course taken in HS won't bring you down severely.</p>