I took one dual enrollment class, honors precalculus, in high school.
I was a much different studnet then than I am now
The prerequisite class for precalc that was offered at my high school (a small school of 35 kids per grade) was only offered as a regular, non-honors class. However, I did so well that my teacher pushed me to do dual enrollment the following year at another HS campus. There ended up being a HUGE gap between the two. It felt like I had skipped two years of math and despite my efforts to get help, I couldn't bridge the gap and keep up.
My DE teacher, knowing I was doing awful in the class, encouraged me to continue to take it for a dual enrollment credit as- according to her- it would have no adverse affects on my college GPA and would benefit me now because it would slightly weight my HS GPA even with a bad grade. "There's no harm in taking it for DE, it would be dumb not to." She was WAY off.
My mom lost a job after the course drop date so I had to work two jobs, 30-40 hours a week, on top of a heavy load of ECs and a maximum course load. Obviously had I had known I would be in this situation, I wouldn't have taken so many classes, but unfortunately it was too late to change my courses so I just had to make the most of it.
I got a D both semesters.
Now that I’m a couple years into college, I’m a much more serious student. I have a 3.86 GPA. I’m in a better situation where I don’t have to work so much and I’ve actually been able to focus on school. I’ve been doing great and feeling better about my academics in general.
I was looking forward to applying to a good graduate school next year for English. I was finally feeling good about myself, but then I remembered these stupid grades I got when I was a kid.
Because of these grades, is my college GPA when applying to grad schools only going to be in the 2s???
I feel like my entire future is ruined and I’m really depressed over this. No matter where I apply to grad school or if a job ever ask to for my GPA it’ll always be incredibly low despite working so hard when I got to actual college. I’m worried that everyone is just going to see the 2 and toss my application aside without being open to an explanation.
I can’t believe I let two teachers talk me into something I didn’t even care for doing, assure me that I would be just fine, and then have it come back and bite me like this. I feel like one little mistake I made when I was a 16 year old is going to continue to mess up things throughout the rest of my life.
Has anyone else been through this? Is there ANY way AT ALL for me to have these grades not factored into my GPA at the very least? Are my chances at getting into an Ivy League for grad school (all other factors aside) or getting a good job completely ruined?
I really don’t know what to do, I want to give up at this point because I don’t know how I can fix this.
Grad schools will see it, but will consider your age when you took the class and will likely discount it, especially if those grades were from a different college from where you are now.
Not to pick on your math skills, but how does your GPA drop into the 2’s? Let us do a worst case scenario. Assume that your DE class was 5 credits each semester and you got a D. You say that you have a 3.85 at your current college. To have an overall GPA in the 2’s you would only be able to have 23 or less credits at your current school. If/when you have a more likely number of credits to apply to grad school (90+), your total GPA will be 3.5+ if you have(keep) the 3.85.
Don’t worry about these old DE grades. The grad schools you apply to will look at your total academic record, and your newer, better grades, and the grades specifically related to your proposed field of study, will matter much, much more.
It is unlikely to be a problem when applying to a PhD program, which will holistically look at your record, with greater emphasis on upper level courses in your major than on out-of-major courses taken while in high school.
However, medical and law schools will include all college grades into the GPA that they calculate.
Excellent way of putting it! DD and classmates were warned at the beginning of their DE class that scoring below a C could harm their chance of financial aid from all our state colleges because it could put their (college) GPA below the eligibility threshold right out of the gate. Of course that might not be the case in all places, and our OP of this thread is already in college, so presumably it didn’t hurt him. But it’s so easy to jump in before being aware of all potential ramifications and outcomes.
@Eeyore123 My bad, I had been told that college GPA was the average of your college transcripts, so (1.0+3.85)/2 = 2.425… so you’re saying that credit hours also factor into it and when factoring my DE class into my college GPA, it’s not weighted heavier because I took it through a different college, but is weighted as if it were a class I took at my actual college?
@emptynesteryet Actually if I recall, there was one honors precalc class at my high school, but it was during the same time as orchestra and AP Lit (both of which I really wanted to take since they related to what I wanted my majors to be at the time; downside of a small school is that there’s only 1 or occasionally 2 periods of each class so there were many, many conflicts, as you could imagine, which were often resolved by taking some courses at the other local high school.) The only HPC class I could get into at the other school was offered as DE. It sucks to think that if that one math course was put at a different time or if I hadn’t been so invested in English or orchestra it wouldn’t have had this awful effect later on.
Like I said, nobody, not even my counselor or math teacher told me it had this kind of effect and even assured me that “only the credit transfers, not the grade, as long as you pass” multiple times when I asked. I think they MEANT the credit transferred to most public colleges and that it didn’t factor into THAT colleges GPA. I really really wish there was some sort of pamphlet or warning I could have read back then before making this decision, because I absolutely would not have done it
Yes it is done by credit hours. Your cumulative GPA should be listed on your transcript. I am in the same position… applying to Law School with bad marks from DE courses. I was shocked to find out a month ago that my chances of getting in have been obliterated because of college courses taken at the age of 14! There is unfortunately no way to remove these courses. I have looked into legal avenues, forgiveness policies, and talked to dean of my dual enrollment college and current college. You can apply for Texas Fresh Start if it has been 10 years since your bad marks. They will erase your record from the semester exactly 10 years ago and prior to. It doesn’t matter if you’ve received your degree or have never attended a Texas school before. They completely remove the classes from your transcript. I called Texas A & M University, who confirmed that all of this info is true.
As a side not to all those reading this- Unfortunately, Law School and Med School will require you list ALL grades ever received. Although, Texas has their own system for collecting and sending your GPA and MCAT scores compared to the rest of the US called TMDSAS, so Texas Med schools will honor the program.
OP, talk to one of your advisors in your major about your shot at grad school. You’ll need their support. It’s not open season like undergrad, where you just apply with a major in mind and, once admitted, figure it out as you go.
But first, do some research into the basics. Your college GPA is your college GPA, not what you did in high school. DE is a high school program, shows on the hs transcript.
Why would a law or medical school be interested in high school grades? Since @mnsch1 mentioned Texas A&M, the law school asks for “all post-secondary transcripts”. You can find that online, I did. All college courses/grades since high school.
Post-secondary doesn’t mean “taken after you graduate high school.” It means “awarded by a college or university.” Dual enrollment classes taken while a high school student absolutely figure into your LSAC GPA for law school and AMCAS GPA for medical school purposes.
@lookingforward While DE is a high school program, those DE grades are awarded by a college and follow the student forever. Many DE students and their families are not aware of this policy and its potential negative long-term ramifications.
@lookingforward The above posts are correct. DE is not a high school program. Dual enrollment is when students use college courses to satisfy high school requirements, hence they are double dipping/receiving dual credits.
It is a typical mantra amg homeschoolers that students should only dual enroll if they are strong students who are prepared for the grades to follow them forever. Those transcripts are most definitely in the National Student Clearinghouse. (I have ordered them for my kids enough times during their college app seasons.)
It should be common knowledge, but there are some families who get surprised by it all the time.
Fwiw, some UG institutions immediately incorporate those grades into student GPA.
Each grade in a college course will be weighed by the credit value of the course. So if you have 2 D grades, 2 B grades, and 14 A grades out of all of the college courses you took (including while in high school and while in college), and all of the courses have the same credit value, your GPA would be 3.55.
