Bad Dual Enrollment Grade?

Applying to College
1

Last year I took Honors Pre Calculus. The class I was in was taught at my high school and students had the option to take it for a dual enrollment credit or just for regular high school credit.

My math teacher, after the first week of school, gave a speech about how she didn’t know why anyone WOULDN’T take it for college credit because it would count as weighted instead of unweighted high school credit (aka it would give your GPA a bigger boost) and you would not have to retake the course in college. I knew math was not my strong suit and that I was going to do badly in this class, so I thought if I’m going to do badly anyways, why not give my high school GPA a slight boost? Just to be safe, I asked my teacher if I took this class for dual enrollment, will this factor into my college GPA? Because I did NOT want to start college with a 1.0 GPA if I got a D which was very much possible at that point. She was so confident in her answer that she told our whole class not to worry, it did NOT affect your college GPA, it only gave you credit. She said the only chance it would affect your GPA is if you went to the Columbus Ohio Technical College because that was the college the course was under. So, since she promised there was absolutely NO harm to my college transcript for taking this class and that it would only benefit me to do so (she encouraged me to do it even though she knew I was going to do poorly in her class) I quickly signed up for Ohio’s dual enrollment program, College Credit Plus, before the deadline since she said it would be dumb not to. I proceeded to earn Ds for both semesters of the class.

Now that I am actually beginning to apply for colleges, I am hearing quite differently and freaking out. My grades slipped in that year high school due to some unfortunate outside circumstances and really the only thing that was keeping me going was knowing that I would get a fresh start in college and eventually be able to make it into a good graduate school like I had always aspired to.

I really don’t care if this class is on a separate college transcript, because at least then graduate colleges will look at it and see that 1. I took this course when I was 16 and in high school and 2. I did much better in college. What I am worried about is that this grade will automatically be tacked onto the transcript of the college I go to and that it will automatically ruin my GPA.

I am seriously willing to do almost anything to avoid this and can’t believe that my math teacher being wrong about one thing would have this big of an affect. Yes, I know I should have done more research about the implications before signing up, but also I thought I could trust someone who was certified to teach specifically in this dual enrollment program to answer my questions correctly before I made a huge mistake!

My questions are for anyone familiar with Ohio’s DE program:

  1. Will I start out with a 1.0 at any public Ohio college I go to?
  2. Would this still affect my college GPA and transcript if I go to a private university instead of a public one?
  3. Would this still affect my college GPA and transcript if I go to school out of state instead of in state?
  4. What does a CC+ grade look like on a college transcript?
  5. If the above are true, is there ANY way at all for me to still get a fresh start in college? Are there any colleges that will not accept this transfer grade? Can I still have a good future?
2

This grade may affect your college admission, just like a bad not-dual enrollment grade would.

Each college and university has its own policy about recording transferred credits. Some include the grade in the GPA. Many don’t. In many cases, a 1.0 wouldn’t be accepted for transfer, so the course and grade wouldn’t be recorded on the new transcript at all. You have to ask each place separately about how they handle this.

This grade is now part of your permanent academic record, and you will need to have that transcript sent with your college applications, if you apply to grad school, and for any job that requires all transcripts. But if anyone comments on the grade, just be honest about it as you have been here. You were encouraged to take a dual enrollment class. You hoped to be up to the challenge. You seriously misjudged the level of challenge involved, and you have learned from that experience. Now you are more thoughtful about the courses you take, and more disciplined as a student.

3

This is unlikely. When you apply for grad school or some jobs they will not ask for the transcript of the last college you attended, they ask for transcripts from every college you have ever attended. That’s because most colleges (the ones I know about, anyway) only list your courses and grades from classes you took at their school. BTW don’t think that means you can “forget” this school; there is a national database that tracks college enrollments.

Check with an independent adult as to whether these “outside circumstances” are likely to be considered valid by a 3rd party. I say this because some kids will put under this heading “my teacher was mean” or “I spent a lot of time on my sport or other EC so didn’t have time to study”. Attempting to shift blame or excuse your poor judgement is not an “outside circumstance”. Assuming you are referring to something on the order of an illness, family problem, etc. then the news may be even better. You may be able to retroactively withdraw although its a bit of a long-shot. I saw someone in the transfer forum do that recently. Check with the college about the rules; you’ll need to call them, it isn’t the type of thing you’ll find on their website.