<p>I have gotten mostly A grades in the past. However, due to various things (none of which give me an excuse worth writing up), I have a good chance of getting a C in AP Physics. I am not interested in math/science when in college. I'm not too concerned about risking my acceptances because I don't have my heart set on any top schools, but... how will this affect my chances at merit scholarships from second-tier colleges? Will merit aid be lessened or retracted at schools without formulas for merit aid if I don't do as well in senior year?</p>
<p>Typically, no. Usually, merit awards from tier 2 schools are based on GPA from grades 9-11. As long as you qualify to go to the school at graduation, you keep your award. However, I wouldn’t suggest to anyone that they should let their senior year grades slide. I don’t think you will. 
The one C in AP Physics shouldn’t be a problem. Which schools have you rec’d merit from? </p>
<p>However, once you’re at the college, be sure to mix harder classes with easier classes, so that your GPA doesn’t dip below the minimum req’d to keep the merit $$.</p>
<p>Also, be sure to take a rather light load your first semester. It’s ok to take one or two challenging classes, but don’t take 4 classes with labs or something like that! There will be many adjustments, so you don’t want to make things worse by having 17 credits of very hard classes! :)</p>
<p>Thank you very much for your advice. I have received awards from two schools so far, both of which use formulas to determine scholarship awarding, which is part of the reason I’m nervous about nonformula awarding.</p>
<p>The formula ones can be affected by final year grades. For instance if the scholarship requires a 3.8 GPA and your final GPA drops below that then you could and probably would lose the scholarship.</p>
<p>The non formula ones I would expect to be ok if they have not told you you must maintain x.xx to keep it.</p>
<p>^^^^</p>
<p>Both my kids received formula merit scholarships offers from many schools and neither one used 12th year grades at all for determination - only grades 9-11. Nor, did their scholarships say anything about final grades. I’m sure if they had done badly, perhaps their acceptances would have been rescinded, but no where did it say that their senior year GPA had to be a certain GPA. </p>
<p>If a school was going to look at 12th year grades to determine whether you could keep your scholarship award, the school would just average the senior year GPA into the grades 9-11 GPA. The 12th year GPA wouldn’t be looked at by itself in order to determine whether you could keep your scholarship award.</p>
<p>Besides, isn’t your AP Physics grade weighted? If you end up with a C for 1st and 2nd quarter, and the rest of your grades stay high, what will be your overall weighted high school GPA for all 4 years?</p>
<p>As with everything it varies by school. The GPA related scholarships at my daughters school look at your GPA when you apply to offer you the scholarship and the GPA upon graduation to make sure you are still eligible for it. All cumulative GPAs.</p>
<p>anagram…</p>
<p>What is your GPA so far for grades 9-11? What do you think your GPA will be for grades 9-12? Will your AP Physics grade be weighted?</p>
<p>Did your scholarship offers say anything about senior year GPA?</p>
<p>My GPA so far is 3.86 unweighted, 4.55 weighted. I haven’t calculated my GPA for grades 9-12 yet, but I expect it to be somewhat lower, but not greatly so. AP Physics is weighted by one point.
The scholarship offers I’ve gotten so far have said nothing about senior year grades, but as I noted above, those were formulaic scholarships, and I’m more confused about the effect on nonformulaic ones.</p>
<p>If the scholarship offers say nothing about senior year grades, then I doubt that you have anything to worry about especially since your GPA is high enough to absorb a C that will be weighted.</p>
<p>Did your schools use your weighted GPA or unweighted GPA? If they used your weighted, then this C (which will be weighted to a B) will not bring down your GPA to a level that would threaten your scholarships. </p>
<p>The details about scholarships are pretty cut and dry. The schools specifiy what the requirements are to keep the scholarships - usually college GPA’s that fall below a certain GPA. If the school did not state that their scholarship could be taken away if your senior year GPA slightly dips, then they really can’t take it away.</p>
<p>What schools are these scholarships from?</p>