Bad grade in calculus at community college? (HS Senior)

Applying to College
1

Hi!

I am a dual enrollment student at my community college this year (all of my classes are there), and I got a C in Calc 1 this semester (lowest grade on my transcript thus far is an 89). I don’t have any reasonable excuse as to why I did poorly. My only explanation is that I was cocky (I breezed through all of my honors math classes in high school) and did not prepare enough. How will this affect my college admissions? I’m applying mostly to schools with more holistic admissions (Smith, Mount Holyoke, and Bryn Mawr are my top 3), but I’m really worried. Will they perceive this as me not being able to do well in a more difficult college class? My other grades this semester are 2 A-'s and an A (I’m still waiting on my computer science class which is a little iffy because the professor is tenured and tends to do whatever he wants because he can, and he has a fairly vague grading policy, but I did well on the exams and tried my best with the programming sets). Also, this is kind of a different issue but I’m not sure if I should try to take stats instead of calc 2 next semester. After my experience in Calc 1, I feel like I’ve learned enough to be able to do okay (this time I should probably do the homework, go to office hours if I miss a class and don’t understand an important concept, memorize the necessary equations, study more than the morning of the final, etc., etc.), but I’ve heard Calc 2 is a really difficult class and I don’t know if I should risk failing/having to drop.

2

i have a similar question too, because the class grade doesnt go on our transript or added to our gpa but will be seen by colleges and my class was just for graduation requirements

3

I think mine goes on my transcript but I’m not sure. After having somewhat of a mental breakdown during the final I emailed my guidance counselor and she gave me a fairly vague reply and told me to email her again when I got my grade back. For graduation requirements, I only need 4 classes so technically it was an extra one.

4

I’m also lowkey freaking out about the hit to my GPA. My HS GPA is pretty solid just because all of the A’s outweigh a C but if colleges look at my community college GPA it’s horrible, especially because it was my highest weighted class.

5

There is no way to know how each college will look at this one C. It won’t be a killer but it will be considered. Hopefully you now know what effort you have to put in.

6

I get that no one can accurately predict how a college will react to a bad grade senior year, but how much of an impact do you think it will have? I got my CS grade back so that makes 2 A’s, 2 A-'s, and a C