It’s the end of first semester at my high school and it looks like I will have a C- in BC Calculus. I know this looks extremely bad to colleges, so I’m considering dropping down to AB calc. If I do this, my teacher will allow my grade on the AB midterm to be my grade for the first semester of AB.I can probably end up with an A. However, I dont want to give up on BC after sticking with it for 4 months. I am applying to very selective colleges and although I have at least an A in my four other APs, I’m not sure how this will affect my chances. Should I take a better grade and switch to AB, or stick with the more diffficult BC and the C?
You have a nice offer, I would take it. It will only get harder next semester and there is little hope to bring that grade up. and if your colleges are that selective the C is not good. Where is doesn’t matter too much if you take AB or BC unless you are going to Caltech.
Thank you @BrownParent, I’m not a math or science major, nor am I applying to schools like MIT or Caltech, mostly just small LACs and a few larger universities. You’re right, most colleges won’t make too much of a distinction between AB and BC. Anyone else?
Getting a C in Calc BC makes it look like you overextended yourself. Colleges want to see academic rigor but they like seeing high grades even more. In other words they only care about the grade and don’t care at all about the effort. Switch over to AB and protect your GPA.
As a parent, I’m not a fan of strategic grade protection. But if I were you, I’d switch to AP Calc AB. You don’t need the BC for admissions or your intended major. You’re also not giving up much in the rigor department. Good luck.
Switch immediately. There is no value in toughing it out. Nice of your teacher to give you the option. He or she is trying to do you a favor.
Thank you for your advice, @N’sMom @SlackermomMD and @bomerr. The only thing holding me back is not wanting to “take the easy way out” but at this point, I guess protecting my GPA would be better, and would be less stressful. Not sure if this changes anything, but if I stay in BC and work hard, my teacher has offered to write and send a letter to my colleges explaining how difficult his course is (nearly all his BC kids get 5s, he’s never had a student get lower than a 4)It is rigorous, but staying in would nearly guarantee a good AP score in May.
NO. writing a letter doesn’t mean anything. If he gives you a C it’ll really hurt your application. End of discussion. What other kids get in the class is irrelevant. Switch and protect your GPA.
I got some great calculus resources which got me an A in the class, if you really want to, you can just self-study the material for the Calc BC test.
I am actually in a similar boat, however I took AB junior year, got a B+ and was forced into AP Calc BC senior year. Right now I am getting a C+ and it is very discouraging. I would drop to AB if you can. It is much better to study to get good grades opposed to studying to get Cs.
However, if you did decide to stay in BC, it would not kill your application.Admissions officers would be impressedyou tackled a course like this
Good Luck!
Keep in mind that the most important thing here isn’t the grade or the letter of rec or ‘showing character.’ It’s having a solid grasp of the subject that you can build in. Many majors will require higher level math and going in with a shaky grasp of a foundation course is a bad start. You want to take it slow, do the repetitions, and make sure you really have a solid understanding of all the elements before going to the next level. A slower class makes sure that happens. Impressing adcoms with your grit is nice - but won’t help you in your freshman year when you’re trying to take that next level math class and find you are struggling yet again.