Am I Screwed?!

<p>I am in a bit of a predicament. I have never made anything below an A on my report card. It is my senior year, and I am taking 5 AP classes. I think I will have all A's and one fat whopping C in AP Calculus AB. My teacher is also a college physics professor; his tests are always like 3 humongous word problems. I study for hours but alas, I fail miserably. I have a 33 on the ACT and think I got a 34 this last time. That coupled with four years of All state choir, state tennis, quiz bowl (this year's captain), president of NHS, and other leadership positions should hopefully save me. Will this gpa dive kill me!? If I make a C I will still be top 5% in graduating class, but my uw gpa will probably drop to about a 3.93 (ish). I feel like my big reach schools like Duke will be out of the question, and my low reach schools like Northwestern might be toast as well. Can you quell my growing fears, or should I brace myself for the worst?</p>

<p>I don’t think you’re completely screwed. However, the C in AP CalAB won’t look good to super top competitive schools since they want kids who can excel in those kinds of classes. BTW…did you take SATII Math? if so, how’d you do?</p>

<p>Don’t despair…but what are your backups?
You need to have a couple of matches and safeties of schools that you’d also like.</p>

<p>BTW…can you pay “full freight” or do you need aid?</p>

<p>I have not taken Math II, but I am considering some serious prep for the December SAT. I think I can get accepted to Rhodes and Hendrix and get scholarships to both so I have strong safeties. I plan to pay “full freight” if I can get accepted to a school like Northwestern or Cornell. Those are the two that I am really concentrating on. I really feel a connection to them; I just see them opening so many doors for me.</p>

<p>I would suggest doing a few things. First of all, try and pull up your grades in math. Speak with the teacher about what he thinks you can do to improve, go to any review sessions he offers and maybe use in school tutoring options if anything is available. </p>

<p>Secondly, assuming you are correct about that C average (is it possible that the teacher will curve your grade?), check on whether your teacher known to be a harsh grader and if so, speak to your counselor. Sometimes a school counselor is willing to write something on the recommendation on the lines of “Helvetica is generally a very strong math student. Although he is struggling somewhat this semester, many students find it difficult to adjust to Teacher X’s testing style, at least in the beginning of the year.” </p>

<p>If the counselor won’t do it (or if your teacher is not a particularly harsh grader), you should write a statement indicating that you are generally good in math, that you have found Teacher X’s approach somewhat difficult and that you have taken a number of steps to improve your understanding of the subject (don’t mention the grades, speak about the subject matter) and that you are determined to do better. Generally most applications have a section for giving the college further information and that is where you could place such a statement.</p>