I can’t disagree with you there. I’d much rather see my D23 take far fewer AP classes (or none at all) and enjoy her senior year more.
This is not a senior year issue. I agree - some schools start and end later. But it was junior year too.
And the colleges accepted them after Junior year grades - where they also had AP classes. So they were able to get good grades.
That these kids wanted such rigor as to get into a top 20 is fine - but it’s also a choice - and a choice they made long before senior year.
So I see the point about brining in AP credits (maybe the west cost is less ready for the test) - but not really the rest of it.
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not saying this is the case for the OP but so many kids take AP classes they aren’t really qualified for to make their rigor look good for colleges, and just pay for tutors to get through the class. this is prob especially true senior year when they don’t even need to worry about sending in the AP test score at the end.
will these kids struggle when they get to their elite college? some of them probably will. others will just avoid classes in subjects they aren’t good at.
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The student in this case was a math kid, an AIME qualifier with a planned physics major. This course wasn’t optional for her.
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Our school just sent out today the final exam schedule for seniors. And these final exam grades go on the transcript. We live in a top public school county and it’s required by our county for all highschoolers to have midterms and final exams even for seniors.
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I understand that maybe it seems “unfair” at the high school level to have only a few tests comprising the grade for the marking period. When they get to college, this is going to be the norm. I have a freshman physics major at a college far less elite than Princeton. It is not unusual for the semester grade to be based almost entirely on one or two midterm exams and a final. Although this situation is undoubtedly very stressful for the OPs daughter, it is good preparation for what college is going to be like.
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Could we keep this thread focused on the OP’s issue? Could a moderator split off the academic calendar vs college expectations conversation?
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I started a new thread about the academic year this morning. http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/t/school-calendar-and-ap-tests
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But loads of kids take 4+ APs in 11th AND again in 12th AND keep all As, even in the most difficult APs. It is not unusual at all, and in fact is expected, and is not a valid excuse. OP needs to avoid excuses , put all energy into getting it up to a C and hopefully will not be rescinded over one C.
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I don’t disagree with you on any of what you state here. In fact, update to my post is that my D23 is taking 5 APs this year and was able to pull her APES class back up to a B (just aced her final exam). It wasn’t my intention to create an excuse for the OP. Since the OP was potentially going to notify Princeton, I was just making a suggestion to her to add a factor of having a very tight Q4 schedule as part of her explanation on why she may struggle in getting her grades back up above a C. Of course this is based on an assumption I made after reading her posts.
Do we know what tact OP decided to take - ie asking the school about the risk ?
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Update:
The gc reached out the Princeton and was assured c and above would be okay, but anything below a c would be “reviewed”. Kid just took a test this week and got a 68, and has one more next week.
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Is the teacher aware how impactful this is? Is ther going to be any effort based work? My sons Calc teacher is adding grades effort based work for his class(which is shocking as he is not at all a generous grader). But he is adding this as their grade otherwise for Q4 would be only on 2 tests and 1 homework grade.
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If 3 of the 4 grades are at the D level, it is unlikely the student will be able to pull this up to a C grade. I would prepare a letter of explanation, hopefully with input from both the teacher and the guidance counselor, and perhaps the principal as well. I still think it is very unlikely the college will retract for one poor grade.
The student will retake calculus her frosh year anyway. Depending upon how that goes, she may reassess her plans to major in physics.
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Will the semester grade be curved? Does your D have any idea how she is doing relative to the class? When the GC called the AO did they make it clear that the semester might show a D, but the full year grade would be C+ (or whatever).
Good luck to her, I am sure this is stressful.
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While that is generous of your high school teacher, your son should keep in mind that college grades will reflect his results, not necessarily his efforts or good intentions. That seems difficult to adjust to for some.
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My kids’ colleges (one top 25 and one top 50ish) both allocate at least as much for effort grades in their math classes than their high schools did. They continue to get credit for some combination of homework/take home quizzes/tophat/participation and similar, plus their high school classes weren’t curved and many of their college classes are.
My sons not concerned with his grade. Just trying to offer support to OP.
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