So I’m a straight-A student who is finishing up my freshman year at a competitive high school IB program. My universities I plan to apply to are MIT, and Cornell so far. Yet, I unfortunately screwed up with my college psychology class and earned a C- (almost an F). With the exception of my first test, which the staff didn’t give me the book to study with until it was too late, I have no excuse to why I did so bad. I hate to blame my Aspergers, but communication is something that isn’t my strong suite, and I wish I had known that I could drop the course.
Anyway, my question is if I should give up my dreams of having even a tiny possibility to MIT or any other ivy. My major will be Aerospace engineering or computer science, leaning more toward aerospace engineering. I have no support in my life that can help me with the college process so I am leaning on advice from strangers online that can help me either be more realistic or possibly make better choices.
And how bad is my highschool gpa suffering because of the C- dual credit course? Thanks.
I think that mostly you should just take this as an opportunity to learn an important lesson. There really are some classes that you are not ready for quite yet.
University admissions will see that this is a university course that you took as a freshman in high school. They will mostly just think the same thing that I did: “He just took this course too early”.
From now on you should make sure that you are taking courses that you are ready to take. Make sure that you have first handled the prerequisites for any given course. Do not jump ahead too far.
One positive that I see: Most likely nothing that you take in high school will depend upon what you might or might not have learned in a college psychology course. Thus you have not messed up your progression through high school courses. This is a plus.
In contrast, we occasionally see posts from students who jumped ahead too far in math. This can be more of a problem. Students who jump ahead in math are usually very good at math and will be likely to take more math courses pretty much every semester as long as they are in any form of school. The issue here is that future math courses will depend a great deal on previous math courses. What you are supposed to be learning today will be important next week and next year. Thus if you jump too far ahead in math and do badly it is hard to figure out what course you should take next. This will not be a problem in your case because you jumped ahead in an area that is not going to be the basis for anything else that you need to take in the near future.
I do not think that I would worry about it too much. Just learn the lesson, and do better next year (mostly by not jumping ahead so far).
Also when the time comes you need to also make sure to apply to safety and match schools. MIT and Cornell are reaches for nearly every very strong student.
Getting a bad grade in a dual enrollment class this early wont have much bearing on your college apps. I think you have identified the issue. You need to learn how to access help, be it with study habits or with networking for info. Most people with high functioning autism also have trouble with executive functioning, often ADHD, and always have trouble with social networking. Can you register with the disability services dept at the DE college, so that you can get help and advice on navigating college classes? Can you get help from your high school?
Don’t stress over this! It is early in high school and a college course. Were you registered with the Office of Disabilities? You should have received accommodations if so. Perhaps you can get a retroactive withdrawal -? Talk to an advisor at the college or high school.
But I would not worry at all.
Please be aware that there are countless colleges where you can thrive. By all means apply to MIT and Cornell but these are high reaches for everyone. You do not want to spend high school years stressing over your chances at these schools. Don’t spend your high school life trying to fit a school: instead find schools that fit you!
State universities are an option. I also like the Colleges that Change Lives schools: Colleges That Change Lives – Changing Lives. One Student At A Time. (ctcl.org)
I think the key to your stress is 1) not worrying about college yet (!) and 2) if you do worry about college, broaden your choices and learn about all different schools, not just the prestigious ones that are well-known
And to add to compmom’s fine post- you do NOT need to be doing college courses right now!!!
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Don’t stress about this one grade.
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Open your mind to schools other than the Ivies. There are plenty of other wonderful colleges out there. But as a freshman in high school…don’t stress about this either.
Am I missing something? This is a freshman doing the IB diploma program. Correct?
So why are you also taking DE classes? IB diploma is regarded as very rigorous. If you think also doing DE classes is going to improve your application, you are wrong. So just stop. Do an amazing job on your IB diploma course. Get the highest grades in your high school, and keep up with the extra curricular activities that you love.
Super selective colleges are not looking for academic drones. They want rigor, high grades, and genuine involvement in activities. The IB program has plenty of rigor already. There is no need to take other stuff. The same goes for trying to self study a bunch of APs. Don’t bother, because colleges won’t care.
The #1 best thing you can do for yourself right now is stop focusing on the most selective colleges. Find colleges that you like and can afford and most likely can get into. Those colleges are the most important ones on the list. And you don’t need to do that right now. Enjoy your summer of being a kid, because it doesn’t last long enough. You can think about colleges next year.
thanks. Problem is my family has no money saved for my college. So getting accepted to an ivy league university is what likely allow me to even attend college. And I thought I had a least a slight chance…it was expected for me to be at the top of my class. But now having a C on my transcript, I likely have dropped down significantly and eliminated any possibility of attending my dream school.
Admissions to the top universities in the US is NOT just a number’s game. The student with the highest GPA is not necessarily the one who gets accepted.
Ivy league and other top ranked schools will look at your actual grades and will look at the courses that you took.
Also your freshman year of high school will be less important than the next two or three years. Some universities will not even consider freshman year. One single C or C- in a college course taken during your freshman year might be something that they just will choose to ignore, particularly if this does not repeat.
For MIT I would be more concerned with a poor grade in a math class, but that is not what happened. I was accepted to and attended MIT with some poor grades in English and French classes, but with consistently very high grades in math classes.
Just do the best that you can from now on, and one way or another things will work out. None of us have a perfect past. None of us have a working copy of Hermione’s time turner, so none of us can go back and change that one bad grade or the one car accident or whatever we would like to have done differently.
It is a grade that you will learn and grow from. Your high school should have offered more guidance on this milestone course. I am wondering if they advised against it initially?? Most high schools advise against it this early and if you have any accommodations, they should have explained the process of what that looks like in college. It is not the same.
Keep in mind there are lots of pathways to affordable college options. You can work with your family to run the net price calculators on some colleges to understand what aid might look like.
Expand your possibilities beyond the T15 or so. Also look at state flagship honors programs and private colleges that offer merit, ones that are not just need based aid.
You need to drop the dream school notion. You need a variety of colleges when you get to that point…where you would be happy to attend, and are affordable for your family.
One C grade isn’t the end of the world.
If you’re low income, look at Questbridge and run the NPC (net price calculator) on ALL the colleges on their list (these are the most elite colleges in the US). Dig into each of them and find 20 you like.
Then, look into your state flagship(s). Find programs you like and see if they offer scholarships. See the criteria fo the scholarships (IB will meet any program’s requirements) and decide to meet them.
Once you’re thus reassured, forget about college till you’re in the Spring of Sophomore year.
The way top colleges evaluate students isn’t “who has the highest GPA” or “who stacked up the most rigorous courses” or “wow, impressive, s/he took 10 college courses vs. this one who took 1!”
They want to see a variety of factors, some of which form a sort of “background check before cut off”, then, once they’ve culled everyone who doesn’t meet that basic standard, there’s another round. So, first “can they do the work at our college?”
Roughly speaking, round 1=
Did the student take
- 4 years of English (IB: MYP English + SL or HL Group 1)
- Math through precalculus or calculus (IB: Math AA SL, Math AI HL or AA HL if you want to study a STEM subject - BTW AI SL is fine if you’re not thinking STEM, it even includes a bit of calculus, but it’s not appropriate for Engineering.)
- 4 years of Social Science/History (IB: MYP Individuals&Society + SL or HL group 3)
- Bio, Chem, Physics (usually through MYP) plus 1 science (HL if you want to study STEM - Physics HL for Engineering, probably.)
- Foreign Language through level 4 or 5 (group 2 SL meets that target)
- Art = met through CAS
- classes you’re personally interested in, demonstrating intellectual curiosity - your 6th IBD choice
CAS, EE, and TOK are all opportunities for you to demonstrate intellectual curiosity, creativity, ability to pursue a subject in-depth, etc.
The IBD automatically meets any college’s requirements for rigor.
You DO NOT need anything else.
For the classes above, you’d need mostly A’s, especially 10-12th grades.
If you meet these criteria, you can do the work at any college, academically. You pass round 1.
So, round 2:
What do you bring the college? Do you meet an institutional need? Do you offer something unique? Are you nationally or internationally known for sth (Olympics -athletic or scientific -, national/intl Science competition, chess master, soloist oboist, founded sth significant nationally, top 25 in esports…)
Ideally you have won awards in something competitive and you also do sth non competitive to relax.
the 2nd cut isn’t about your classes&grades - all people in that round can do the work. So, now, you need to be uniquely YOU. Growing that “you” is also your job as a teenager. It can’t be “what colleges want to see” but rather “if I were my best self, amplified, made the greatest ever, who would I be and what would I do to get there?” How can you become the greatest 15-year old YOU that you can be?
As you can see, that C in a DE course is inconsequential for colleges.
It should, however, be a good lesson: challenge yourself - but be reasonable in doing so and don’t do it just to impress colleges.
A HS freshman isn’t a college freshman.
What you CAN do to show it was a blip on the radar is look carefully at the college catalog and see whether another psychology class is offered. Perhaps take it summer after sophomore year, when you won’t be distracted by something else. Show you’ve understood how college works and, this time, get all the support you can (visiting the professor every week, attending review sessions when they’re offered even if you feel you study better on your own because hints may well be dropped during that session, and of course scheduling then meeting with a tutor*). And that time, get an A.
But don’t do that right away. Take time to reflect about what you’d do differently if you’d known then what you know now. Write it down. Add the resolutions to help steer you towards what needs to be done on a piece of paper.
But show you’ve learned and matured, and wait till after Sophomore year.
(* tutors in college are there to avoid what happened to you. They’re not just “remedial”, they’re most often the difference between a B+ and an A.)
OP is considering computer science or aerospace engineering, so (if the OP continues in the IB program) the IB math AA option is preferable to the AI option, whether the OP chooses or is placed into SL or HL. For HL, some colleges give subject credit or advanced placement for AA but not AI (example: Exams - Berkeley Engineering ).