Drop Class Senior Year?

Applying to College
1

<p>Currently I am a senior. I have been a straight A student for the past 12 years of my life and have had excellent relationships with teachers. I have taken the hardest classes available at my school and have maintained a GPA of 97+ my entire career. This year that has been mostly true except for one class, it's an AP Course and it is taught by a woman with whom I have been unable to learn from. My average in the class is a low 70 currently - a full 24 points below my average math grade. After trying my hardest this semester, getting a tutor, studying outside of class and doing thousands of superfluous problems that have done nothing other than steal time and points from my other classes, I have recongized that I am unlikely to be able to change my grade in this class. The teacher has become aggressive/unhelpful and seems to be detracting points from tests out of spite. She is keeping me from participating in extra-curricular activities I have dedicated the last 4 years of my life to and has generally turned my highschool experience into a living hell. </p>

<p>I have communicated with school administrators and they will let me drop the class for my second semester. However, I have heard that dropping a course can crush college acceptance chances. Going into this year I was in a position where I was competitive at any Ivy I liked - this lady has single-handly destroyed that option. I am still nationally competitive in my sport and being recruited by some fantastic second-tier schools + Harvard for that reason. However, she is likely to make me academically ineligible to compete next semester. I was wondering if anyone had any opinions as to if I should a) Suck it up, stick with the course, hope she doesn't get me out of the recruiting pool and that admissions officers overlook the failure, or b) drop the course - take an alternative math course option and the risk that my dropping the course will ruin my already flimsy chances at second-tier schools.</p>

<p>Anyone ever heard of a similar situation or have any advice?</p>

2

<p>D had a serious outside commitment her senior year and took her math class on-line. Stanford and Johns Hopkins both offer this option and there are probably others. Sounds like this might be your solution too. Taking the class at a community college might also work but is generally harder to schedule. She also had to drop AP Music after one semester because she couldn’t otherwise make her schedule work. She simply stated in her application that she did this for ‘scheduling’ reasons to accommodate he EC. You can do the same. (And none of the highly selective schools she applied to had a problem with this).</p>

<p>“Going into this year I was in a position where I was competitive at any Ivy I liked - this lady has single-handly destroyed that option.”</p>

<p>Not possible. One bad grade in one class is just not going to matter enough to knock you out of contention for any school, even the top ones. And how can she keep you from participating in ECs you’ve been doing for 4 years? Remember, it’s not that you are on the Math Team (or any other school club) that matters - it’s that you’ve been pursuing your interest in that area outside of class and there are lots of ways besides a school club to show continued commitment. Work around her.</p>