(I deleted the old thread as there was too many typos)
Hello, so long story short, this summer I decided to take 2 computer science classes at my local community college. However, I failed one of them. I am not too worried about the other class. The class I failed was a really hard programming course and I struggled a lot especially since it was only an 8-week class. I changed the grading from a letter grade to a P/NP. I also petitioned for a withdrawal, which if I’m being honest I don’t even know if it will go through. I’m also thinking about retaking it but that will look bad on my college application (I’m coming up on my Junior year). I am terrified right now and I have no hope left for a better future. What should I do? any help is appreciated.
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The most important thing is to figure out why you did poorly and struggled, and try to remedy that in the school year.
What was your grounds for the withdrawal?
Unfortunately you will need to send your DE transcript and report classes and grades on your college application.
How are your HS grades in general? IMO, one poor DE summer course will not derails your hopes! Just have a well balanced college list and you will be just fine.
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Is this bad? Well, A’s are better than F’s, as are B’s, etc So yes, that could be better.
Can you change the past? Probably not - so that limits how much fretting about it is going to help you.
I hope you’ve learned something from this - where your limits are. Most people don’t discover this until college, so in one sense, you’re ahead of the game. Two 8 week classes is about the same pace as 3 or 4 classes during the semester, so you probably should think hard about a) taking 3 or 4 technical classes per term, b) pickijng a school or major that requires this, c) picking a school where they regulrly teach at this pace.
Your academic career is not over, and hopefully this is allowing you to make future decisions where you will do best.
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I’ll punt on this one. Summer courses are very condensed into a short time. Perhaps taking two was just too much.
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I just wanna say that I did take two semesters of geometry over the summer between my Freshman and Sophomore years so I am a bit familiar with the pacing. In terms of college work, these aren’t my first college classes either. The last two semesters during 10th grade I took French and I did well in those classes.
Geometry classes sound like high school level. Summer pacing of a high school class is different than summer pacing of a college class. And the pacing of a college summer class is different than the pacing of a semester-long college class. I think that is the point that @thumper1 is making.
Be that as it may, I agree with the others. There’s very little that can be done about the course you failed. All you can do is learn from it.
When did you realize you were having difficulty in the class? Did you attend office hours or reach out to the professor for clarification on the issues you were having? Did you seek out any of the tutoring resources available from the campus (which, for a higher-level programming class, may not have been available…depends on the campus)? The steps you mention taking seemed more about minimizing the impact of the grade (i.e. switching to pass/fail and then trying to withdraw) rather than attempts to learn material that was very challenging.
Everybody, no matter how smart they are, will get to a point where they need to learn actual study skills and can’t just coast by on their natural gifts. Some people reach it earlier than others, and if yours came in an advanced CS course after your sophomore year, I suspect that you’ve experienced little academic difficulty up to this point. The fact that you’re still in high school means that you now have the opportunity to learn a lot of the study skills that are needed in life in an environment where there will be lots more support for it. (Living with your family who can help provide supports and attending a high school which is much more accustomed to providing higher level of support than most colleges.)
As others have said, this is not the end of the world. Learn from it and your future will continue to look bright.
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In the other class I mentioned (Python), I got an A in that class. Would that counterbalance the other grade? Should I retake the failed class?
Meaning what? Your grade in Python will not make your failed grade in the second class look better.
You can retake the course, but be advised that all of your course attempts will be included on your transcript…unless the college allows grade replacement.
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In the long run, this probably won’t change your educational trajectory. You will still be able to major in computer science if you want to, and you will still get a great job. You’re just not getting into MIT.
Just move forward. Take whatever is appropriate for you, course-wise, for the remainder of high school. Plan on applying to less-competitive colleges than you might have hoped for, to colleges that match your record. You tried a college class that you weren’t ready for. You failed. Move on. You’ll do better once you identify and remedy the reasons why you failed, and once you have more math and comp sci background.
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The F grade will remain on your permanent college transcript so I would try to repeat the course and hopefully get grade replacement. You will have to disclose the grade if you apply to any college and post graduate school, so it would be better to have to have the ability to show that you can achieve a good grade in the class even if grade replacement is not an option.
I switched it from a letter grade to P/NP. Do I still have to tell colleges the letter grade even though on my transcript it will show NP?
You got a NP…NOT PASSED…which is the same as an F grade.
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It may be worth exploring the requirements at the colleges you are applying. Some colleges do not require DE transcripts for admission but may require them along with your final HS transcripts after graduation.
@Novacat9191
Was this a DE course…I’m not clear on that as it was a summer CC course. Student said he took two courses at the CC.
If DE, at our HS, those courses were listed on the HS transcript.
NP or grade, it will still have to be disclosed upon application and a final transcript submitted upon enrolling in college.
Counterbalance? They’re not going to average to a C. Is the college admissions officer going to see that an F on your transcript is an anomaly and that you took it when you were a sophomore in high school and take that consideration? Quite possibly. Does it mean it no longer exists? No.
I missed the fact that this is a dual enrollment class. If it was, then that F goes not only on college transcripts, but it just changed your high school GPA, weighted and unweighted, in whatever way your school weights dual enrollment classes. That is going to hurt you more than if it was just a community college that you failed, as many scholarships are based on one’s GPA.
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in terms of listing dual enrollment on high school transcript that is very school specific but it most likely will meniton it somehow - the formal classes and grades will need to come from the college where the classes were taken not just the high school. Our school will say de math and grade but you need college transcript if there is a need to know math course. Every college will expect it. How they use the info is up to them
I think this is great.
What a great part of an essay(section of… Is there anything else we should know about you? ) that you challenged yourself as a rising junior and got an “A” in Python and not so great grade in the other class due to its condensed version. It’s actually impressive that you attempted to take 2 CS classes in the summer. Every reader most likely has done something similar.Challenged themselves but it didn’t work out so well. Learning isn’t all about getting the best grade. Many, many famous people have learned from their failures to become immense successful people in life. As you were asked before… “what did you learn about yourself with this experience”.This is the classic making a bad situation better.
I don’t know. For some people, “The Time I Bit Off More Than I Could Chew” would be a good essay. For others, not so much. In this case? The OP comes across as a bit defensive and an increased self-awareness vibe is not coming through.
If it were me, out of the zillions of possible topics to write about, I probably would pick another one.
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Not as an essay but added to the application in the area of “what other things should we know about you” or have the counsler add it in on their report. I thought I rephrased it. Also my point. It’s not the end of the world.