So I think my son has made things a bit difficult for himself. He had a 3.98 unweighted gpa going into his second semester of junior year, but ended up with a b+ in AP stats and a c+ in AP Calc in the second semester of his junior year. This brought his overall unweighted gpa down to 3.91. He has a 35 ACT score, and has a lot of extracurriculars, including leadership. He is instate. Michigan is his dream school, and he is feeling a bit devastated. Does he still have a decent shot?
Yes
The instate admission rate is still near 40%, except for engineering and Ross which are a bit lower. Your son will be just fine as he is well above the median for in-state kids. Just make sure his essays are excellent and that he applies EA. Under worse case they will ask for 1st semester senior grades, so make sure he continues to work hard.
Agreed that he still has a shot.
That said…they will not like his C in Calculus if he wants to go into a STEM field. He should try to take Calc One for transferable credit at a community college before applying if possible. And raise his grade. (night school, online, etc)
The 35 ACT should help a lot.
A single “C” is an anomaly in an otherwise stellar record. Sometimes a poor grade just has to do with a bad teacher. If it is a lack of understanding of calculus, he should get some tutoring as thorough mastery is critical in engineering, economics, statistics and many of the sciences.
That was sort of my point. Someone considering him for engineering might see that calc grade and go…wait a minute. The ACT only tests through geometry and algebra two, with a couple of precalc/trig questions. If Calc looks like a stumbling block, it could hurt his chances for engineering bigtime. If his ambitions are STEM related, he should see about correcting the impression of that Calc grade by proving he can succeed in Calc elsewhere.
Thank you all for you feedback. I really appreciate it. I will ask him if doing a Calculus class in a community college is an option, as it will need to finish early (so that the grade can be demonstrated), as he plans to apply EA. He would like to do STEM, but with more of an emphasis on pure science, like Biology / Neuroscience.
For LS&A Calc is not as important as engineering, I doubt he will have any issues with admissions
“He would like to do STEM, but with more of an emphasis on pure science, like Biology / Neuroscience.”
Both of these “pure sciences” will require at least a couple of years of calculus. And Stats. And very mathematical chemistry. And physics.
If higher math is a stumbling block…he needs to review the required classes for each major and prepare.
Michigan has TOUGH Calculus.
My kiddo got an A in AP Calculus in highschool. She got a 4 on the AP test. She struggled with Calculus at UMich. Got through it…but worked incredibly hard after the first shockingly bad test grade, and was extremely grateful for the low B she ended up with.
Incidentally, she’s a biology major.
Yes, I totally understand that he’s not going to be able to “escape” higher math, and so needs to have a plan to get better. Incidentally, he did get a 5 in the AP Stats exam (just found out), and has been good in all of his math classes up until this AP Calc class. Don’t know if he just hit a wall, or if he didn’t get to a more fundamental understanding of Calc conceptually.
Biology and Neuroscience do not require a couple years of calculus. At most, Calc II (second semester single-variable calculus) will be elected (and this can be avoided as well, but not recommended to avoid if interested in med school I would assume).
tl;dr : at most two semesters of single-variable calculus
Most medical schools dont even require calc 2. Harvard medical school.only requires one semester of calc and one semester of stats and ap credit can be used for calc.