So heres the situation. I failed AP Euro my sophomore year, i am currently a junior. The teacher has a policy that no matter what grade you get in the class, he changes it to an A if you pass the AP exam. So I ended up failing both semesters and passing the AP exam. He did not change my grade.
Some background tho, without factoring in the D and the F from AP Euro, I happen to be valedictorian of my class (3.88 UW, 4.67 W). Even with the D and F in Euro, I am within the top 3% of my class. I have taken the most rigorous courseload offered at my school and have even completed 28.5 units of college coursework at my local community college. I believe my extra-curriculars are somewhat solid (Varsity athlete, internship, research, founding multiple clubs/organizations, creating a successful side business, organizing and proposing a district wide competition etc). And I plan on majoring in engineering so euro has absolutely nothing to do with it.
The question is, what should i do about failing AP Euro? Should I retake the non-honors class for credit recovery? If so, do you credit recovery would make me an automatic disqualification at top colleges? Would this greatly impact my application?
You should talk to your teacher first. Is it a written policy? If it’s the teacher’s or the school’s policy that your grade should convert to an A, you should get an A. Escalate up the chain at the school if necessary.
An F on your record may affect your admissions to the most selective schools. The schools that I am most familiar with would still ding you for the D or F if you took the course again.
D and F grades will look bad to a holistic admissions reader whether or not you repeat the course.
For the purpose of recalculating HS GPA, colleges may differ on their policies, but it would be safest to repeat the exact same course if you are hoping for grade replacement in recalculated HS GPA.
He says he can refuse based on a subjective line in his syllabus that basically says he’ll only change your grade if you did enough work during the school year to satisfy him.
He’s changed grades for students with percentages way lower than mine in the past though (ie. another engineering student who had a 17% in the class 3 years ago). So do you think I should still bring this up with admin?
I was peeking through the registrar guidelines for our district and it says that summer school classes will replace the failing grade on the transcript (no more f) but will also show up as a “credit recovery” class
@ucbalumnus I get that, the problem is that AP euro is only offered to sophomores and is not offered over the summer so I wouldn’t be able to retake the exact class. My only options for retaking are taking world history and getting the grade replaced as a credit recovery class, and taking Western Civilizations at the local community college and keeping the f on my transcript. (Do you think taking it at the college level and passing with an A would prove that I know the material and that it was simply a case of a bad teacher? I mean especially considering I am valedictorian otherwise, do you think AOs would understand?)
Realistically, with a D or F grade (regardless of whether you retake) makes your chances at “top colleges” (if you mean the most selective colleges) much worse than they would otherwise be. You will be competing for admission against numerous other applicants with better GPAs and no “defects” like D or F grades on their records.
There also is the very real question about how is is that you ended up with a D and an F in the first place. Clearly something was going on in your life that made it impossible for you to meet the course requirements. So go get that sorted out.
If you escalate to administration, it’s possible that the F to A conversion will show up in your guidance counsellor’s letter of recommendation. I don’t think there’s any good choices here.
@happymomof1 well I mean there was definitely some not ideal things going on at the time but I’m pretty sure my failing grades in that class are mostly due to how the teacher plays his class.
He purposely gives an unobtainable amount of homework so that students fail/get lower than ideal grades in his class (there are still one or two As but they’re very uncommon without the grade change) so that his pass rates go up when all his students cram for the ap exam as a last ditch effort to save their GPAs. This also means that, under the subjective rule I mentioned earlier, he has complete control over who in the class he gives As to and who keep their failing grades.
Also, to quell any possible misconception, all throughout the year aside from the last two tests, I set the curve for both the multiple choice and essay tests. I also received all A’s other than that one class, including at the college where I took two classes and got >101% in both. It just doesn’t add up to me, that I would fail his class in two different semesters while getting an A in every other class, unless he gives some kind of insurmountable amount of work. You get me? Like I don’t want to be the guy that complains that it’s not fair but do you see where I’m coming from? It wouldn’t make sense for me to have failed unless the teacher does it purposefully.
Then you need to go over the teacher’s head and take this up with the head of the department, the principal, or possibly even the school board. This also might require parental involvement. Pull all of your records together so that you can support your case.
I’m a little doubtful of this:
“ The teacher has a policy that no matter what grade you get in the class, he changes it to an A if you pass the AP exam.”
So a student who fails the class but gets a 3 on the exam earns an A, just like the kid who did all the work, maybe got a C in the class, but got a 5 on the test, gets an A too? I find that hard to believe and I can’t imagine any teacher having a policy like that.
I am also very doubtful about this:
“He purposely gives an unobtainable amount of homework so that students fail/get lower than ideal grades in his class (there are still one or two As but they’re very uncommon without the grade change) so that his pass rates go up when all his students cram for the ap exam as a last ditch effort to save their GPAs. This also means that, under the subjective rule I mentioned earlier, he has complete control over who in the class he gives As to and who keep their failing grades.”
It’s in the best of interest of the school and the teacher to have students pass the class and do well on the test. Unless this teacher was hired this past year, I’m guessing that the school is unaware of this interesting grading policy and teaching style you mention.
Sorry, but to me this sounds like you are making excuses. It’s actually pretty difficult to fail a class. Or, I could say, it’s pretty easy if you literally make no effort whatsoever. I suggest you retake the class, but the F isn’t likely to disappear.
Saying you “would have been valedictorian” is puerile. Nearly every salutatorian in the world would have been valedictorian “if it weren’t for one grade in one class”. It isn’t a point in your favor.
For whatever reason, you took a deliberate and calculated risk that you could do nothing in the class as long as you passed the AP exam, ignoring hints of evidence to the contrary. The risk didn’t pay off.
Retake the class. Not because you think it might help you get into a T20 school (unless you’re strongly hooked, my guess is that ship probably sailed when the failing grade wasn’t removed). However the effort will count for something… somewhere. If you can take to heart the lesson that shortcuts are not the way to go in academics, based on your history, you’ll likely do well enough to get into an excellent graduate program.
This thread is full of tough love, but let’s face it… all AP classes are not considered equal, and AP Euro isn’t exactly on the same level as AP Chem, AP Calculus BC, or Physics C. Colleges would, therefore, expect better. We’d be doing you a disservice to pretend otherwise.
Gotta agree with @lindagaf and @Groundwork2022 . There’s a hint in here that you need to sit yourself down and think about all this. Sorry this will be long. I mean all this gently-
You’re focused on your position in your hs, val, top 3%, setting the curve, etc. And slightly outraged he didn’t change the grade. That’s not the attitude top adcoms look for, read between the lines for.
Failing a class doesn’t lead adcoms to suspect a rotten teacher. More that something went wrong with your own effort. Or, you broke some rule that led to all credit being removed. It’s a flag, as others said. You can’t blame some other cause. For T20, most kids endure challenges, keep on plugging, and do well. They’ll do better than just passing the AP test.
Nor do top adcoms like hints a kid soesn’t like some class or, “But I’ll major in engineering.” They’re looking for the sorts who commit to each learning opportunity.
Rather than escalate, because this teacher denied you a shortcut, what’s the GC advise? In some cases, where there’s a known issue with a teacher, the whole class is suffering, a GC may go to bat for you. But they have to be able to attest to your effort in this class. I’m not sure how that happens if you earned a D and F.
OP- there are a bunch of GREAT colleges out there that would love to have you- exactly as you are, no apologies necessary. Your job right now is to identify them and get psyched about them.
You can grind your teeth and grind your wheels and escalate your complaints about the teacher and try for a do-over and get the principal involved and do any number of things. But at the end of the day- there is NO guarantee that any of it will work, and NO guarantee that even if you got all A’s in everything, first time out, you’d be getting in to your top choice college. That’s how competitive they are. No guarantees.
So why waste your energy on this production? Top 3% of your class- there are terrific U’s that will give you plenty of challenge, introduce you to incredible professors and other students, AND will be able to see past an F. Go get 'em!