How bad does retaking a course look?

Transfer Students
1

Hello, I currently a freshman attend a top 20 public university and I am planning on transferring to another uni either fall of sophomore/junior year (this depends on how bad my current situation is).

I am a double major in applied math and environmental engineering, but I intend on transferring as an environmental engineering major.

As a freshman, I recently took a real analysis course during the fall and got a B solid. That class was absolutely dreadful; the average for all three of our exams were either a D or D- (only one of those tests were curved). All other students in that class were either juniors or seniors. I had taken multiple math courses in HS such as multi variable, diff eq, linear algebra, transition to advance math, etc. all of which I had gotten A’s. But this course was beyond my expectations.

As of now, I have all A’s and A-'s in other courses except for this one. Now that I know the content, I intend on retaking it next semester (19 credits for spring). If I do better, the new grade will substitute for my current one, but the old grade will still be recorded in my fall transcript.

I am wondering how bad this will look if transfer for fall 2019? The school I am applying to is pretty competitive. This course is not a requirement for my environmental engineering major and it is taken almost exclusively by seniors and some juniors. Should I just try to keep my gpa and wait another year before applying?

2

Your final grade was a B. That is all that matters. No one will know or care about the exam grades. Don’t re-take a class that you have a B in. Re-taking is for a D or F.

3

I know retaking courses is usually for people get get really bad grades. However, at my current college, I have free tuition and 60 credits, so time is not too much of an issue. But because of this grade, I feel like I need to take another year to prove myself before applying.

4

Retaking a B in the hope of an A looks like lunatic-level grade-grubbing. Seriously. Put this B behind you. If it is in a subject area that interests you, take the next course that it was a pre-req for. If it is in a subject area that you don’t care about, move on with your life.

No you don’t need another year to “prove” yourself. If you have 60 transferrable credits then you are finishing up your sophomore year and it is time to either a) settle in where you are, or b) transfer out.