<p>My son is a senior and is doing all he can not to get a "D" in AP chemistry. If he does get a "D", can a college that has already accepted him withdraw the acceptance? If it is AP, will it transfer as a "C"..or is he in deep trouble?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Yes, a college can rescind an early acceptance (for senioritis). They are much more understanding of a grade drop for real reasons, however, such as death in the immediately family, illness, etc.</p>
<p>Suggest you get him a tutor.</p>
<p>For immediate help, you might want to check chemguy. [chemguy</a> - Google Search](<a href=“chemguy - Google Search”>chemguy - Google Search)</p>
<p>It helped me quite a lot to establish my chemistry last year.</p>
<p>I don’t think you understand. It looks like the son is trying everything he can to do well (he may already be receiving tutoring). AP Chem is an extremely difficult course. Not everyone has the intellectual prowess to do well in it.</p>
<p>If your son have to report mid-year grades to any schools then he could likely get rejected, depending on grades before etc… though if your son have already been accepted or do not have to report mid-year he should definately pick up 8th semester as the universities will see this and if the improvement is great, he may not get his admission revoked.</p>
<p>Why did he take it if he didn’t have the intellectual prowess?</p>
<p>It won’t transfer as a C, as far as I know. It may be weighted that way for his GPA, but the grade he gets is the one that goes in.</p>
<p>“I don’t think you understand. It looks like the son is trying everything he can to do well (he may already be receiving tutoring). AP Chem is an extremely difficult course. Not everyone has the intellectual prowess to do well in it.”</p>
<p>Unfortunately, colleges assume that if someone doesn’t have the intellectual prowess to pass their senior year courses, they’ll lack the intellectual prowess to pass their college courses.</p>
<p>Even if your DS’s school will make the D a C for ranking purposes, colleges will still see the “D.” Work on getting that grade up, as a D could get an offer of admission rescinded.</p>
<p>Why would the colleges rescind his admission? Just because he took AP Chem and not AP Easy A? Seriously, you really think he’d be in this position if he didn’t choose AP Chem? Yeah, maybe we can start telling everyone to not take hard classes in senior year so they won’t get their admissions rescinded for WORKING TO HARD TO PULL OFF A LOW GRADE IN A CLASS THAT HE’S NOT GOOD AT! Seems more like punishing the students who challenged PAST their limit and rewarding students who didn’t really challenge themselves at all.</p>
<hr>
<p>I’d suggest your teacher write a rec for you to explain that you did everything you could; that laziness wasn’t the issue. That would definitely help.</p>
<p>^</p>
<p>This post operates under the false assumption that doing well in college is a function of hard work and challenging oneself, and not a function of intelligence.</p>
<p>^ I think you really can’t speak unless you’ve taken AP Chem yourself. Several of my friends are borderline failing and I’m struggling for a B+/A- by spending countless hours that I don’t have on my homework and losing sleep. I thought honors chem was easy but AP is no joke if you have a really tough teacher.</p>
<p>^Right on the spot. AP Chem will get you many college rejection letters if you get a tough teacher and don’t have the time. I got one myself and it wasn’t pretty. I DIED.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If the student does not have the “prowess” s/he should have never signed up for the course. Alternatively s/he should drop it immediately and see if s/he could enroll in a College Prep-level science class.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>You are clearly missing the obvious third alternative: rewarding students who challenge themselves AND do well. :)</p>
<p>No doubt AP Chem can be tough as is Calc BC and Physic AB/C. OTOH, most high school teachers really don’t like giving D’s, particularly to seniors in an AP course. The point northstarmom was trying to make is that college work will be much more difficult than the similar HS course. Frosh Chem in college can be significantly harder than AP Chem.</p>
<p><if the=“” student=“” does=“” not=“” have=“” “prowess”=“” s=“” he=“” should=“” never=“” signed=“” up=“” for=“” course.=“”> </if></p>
<p>So people who do accidently choose it without knowing will go to a worse college while the smartass (who also lack the “intellectual prowess”) who chose to take easier classes will end up at a better college because that smartass wouldn’t have a D on their transcript. Right…</p>
<p>I’m sure OP’s son didn’t know that’s what he was getting into when he signed up for AP Chem. It’s like punishing him for taking a harder class, basically.</p>
<p>Perhaps you need to read the third alternative in post #13.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Unless the student is new to the school (or the teacher is new), that is just wild speculation. By the time you are/become a senior, do you not know the easy/hard teachers in your HS?</p>
<p>I think we can all agree that if you are getting a D/Failing a class then it is too hard for you. The OP’s son is not being lazy, so that’s not the issue. I understand the class is extremely difficult, and the student is doing whatever he can to help himself, but that’s not working. So the solutions are 1) somehow do better or 2) drop the class, regular physics, honors physics, whatever</p>
<p>Schools generally rescind D/Fs. However, since it is only 1 bad grade and in a difficult class, it may be OK. I’m assuming the other grades are good and on par with earlier grades.</p>
<p>There are many colleges who still reward students with acceptances by ignoring the third alternative… Unless you’re saying colleges only care about your third alternative when admitting students.</p>
<p>Wait, I was not aware that colleges reward students who work hard but still end up sucking academically. Really? So my 2.0 gpa and extremely hard work ethic will get me into Harvard?</p>
<p>Or did you mean the second alternative, people with no work ethic and super intelligence. This one is slightly believable.</p>
<p>And are you all kidding me? AP Chem is hard, fair, but definitely not something to be crying about. If you really think it is that difficult, you should give up on technical subjects in general. Not particularly trying to be mean, but it’s reality - live with it.</p>
<p>And by the way, I can in fact make all these statements, because I took AP Chem 4 years ago, laughed at the AP test for it’s stupid questions, got my shiny little 5, and am now a Chemistry major. Just because YOU find a class hard does not make it so.</p>
<p>Best of luck to your son, OP. I doubt that if he’s working that hard he will actually receive a D in the class. Most high school teachers would be lenient enough (if he is actually working super hard and it shows) to give him the C- instead.</p>
<p>Seriously, bro, he wouldn’t be worrying about this if he didn’t take AP Chem. But he did… Now, he’s probably gonna go to a worse college because he chose to take a HARDER class that he couldn’t handle over an EASIER class that he could’ve got A/B in. Not cool…</p>
<p>And newest newb… Not everyone’s super smart lol. You seen the bell-shape curve on IQ test right? 50% of people below 100 IQ? Even people with 120 IQ aren’t really take-7-APs-in-one-year-and-get-straight-As material either. </p>
<p><wait, i=“” was=“” not=“” aware=“” that=“” colleges=“” reward=“” students=“” who=“” work=“” hard=“” but=“” still=“” end=“” up=“” sucking=“” academically.=“”> Well, a jackass who got straight As taking all standard level classes would go to a better college than another jackass taking all AP classes and getting Cs and Ds and Fs because he’s a jackass. Even though they’re both jackasses, the first jackass would go to a better college because he worked less AND got better grades while the second jackass would probably get in like Jackass University although he worked harder but sucked academically because of his classes. But apparently high school seems to award students who suck academically but work hard with a C- instead of a D like you mentioned.</wait,></p>
<p>In the above case, who would you rather reward? The guy who worked harder but sucked or the guy who took it easy, still sucks, and got straight As? I mean, one of them actually challenged himself really hard while the other guy did not. But since colleges are more GPA oriented, the guy who watches Tom and Jerry all day would get chosen over the guy overwhelmed with books, papers and pens every night lol.</p>
<p>^
Good example, as you’ve noted it is more likely that the one with less rigious classes -easy- would get accepted to more prestigious schools but there also would be a few schools where they both are admitted.</p>