<p>My Daughter goes to a school with the following grading scale:</p>
<p>A + 99-100
A 95-98
A- 93-94
B+ 91-92
B 87-90
B- 85-86
C+ 83-84
C 79-82
As a freshman she took Algebra II, Honors English, Honors Bio, Honers chemistry, Honors world history, and Spanish. Her final grade for the year in Chemistry and in
Spanish was a C. In English and Biology she had an A- which resulted in an unweighted GPA of 2.78 and Weighted GPA of 3.63.</p>
<p>As a Sophomore she took Precalculas, Honors English II, Spanish II, Healthful living, AP Bio and AP world history. Her final grade in precalculas and Spanish was a C .In AP Bio and English she had a B and in Healthful Living she had an A- This resulted in an unweighted GPA is around 2.83 and a weighted GPA of 4.</p>
<p>I know these grades are quite bad but now her Junior year Class selections are
1. AP English
2. Ap Statistics
3. AP Physics
4. AP US history
5. Spanish 3
6. Honors Calculus</p>
<p>Keeping this course selection in mind, do you believe there is any chance to get into a decent college for science if she receives a C in Spanish and a B in every other class? She is very involved with extracurricular activities, participating in more than 3 science competition teams and in 2 varsity sports teams- but we are not quite sure whether or not these extracurricular will help to weigh out the bad grades. Also, we are on the fence on whether or not she should take all of the courses above, especially Spanish.</p>
<p>I think she’s taking too many APs. And how (or why) is she taking honors calculus if she got a C in precalc? Why would she take more Spanish after getting two Cs in it?</p>
<p>Yea I think doing less APs but getting A’s in them is better than doing mediocre/poorly in a ton of them (depending on grade inflation at your school).</p>
<p>Depends on what you mean by ‘science’ and ‘decent.’ I think the trick is to go to a large state flagship where they can utilize their size to afford large labs in whatever field she is shooting for. Science is a very academic field, so low grades in pre calc and AP bio are worrisome for her continued success.</p>
<p>What is she doing on the AP exams? If shes getting 4s/5s, she gets the material its just the busywork of the AP class is weighing her down, an issue i ran into with AP Calc. I should’ve been less stubborn and done the arts and crafts, but live and learn. If she is not performing on the AP exams either, I think its time to take regular classes for Junior year and really improve that GPA.</p>
<p>Neither of my kids took calculus in high school & they both have( or finishing up) STEM degrees, at very good schools.
Is the AP Physics calculus based?
What were her scores on AP tests?
I think an algebra based physics class would be preferable for junior year.
What other science courses are available?</p>
<p>If this student is going to major in a science, she needs a thorough understanding of high school math.</p>
<p>I am concerned about her C in precalculus. It suggests that she may not thoroughly understand some of the concepts taught in that course. That may cause problems for her in calculus and in college math courses.</p>
<p>Does the daughter want to do science, or does the parent want the daughter to do science? And, if the daughter does want to do science, with what goal in mind? If she wants to do science and end up teaching elementary school/high school? Maybe. But she doesn’t seem to be having an easy time of these classes in high school, and the competition will be much keener at the college level. If she is thinking of engineering, or med school, she might want to also consider other interests.</p>
<p>There is no way to tell if the student is doing well or not without some kind of ranking. For all we know everyone in the pre-calc class got a C or lower. On the face of it I would be worried about a student with <3.0 UW GPA taking all those APs and Honors classes. And ECs will not weigh out bad grades except for those hook activities (recruitable sports, male ballet dancers, etc).</p>
<p>Come on people!
Her C is a B on most grading school scales. And AP courses get weighted a full point usually. The main question is what does your D think about her schedule? Does SHE think it’s too hard or way too much work?<br>
AP USH is probably the hardest on that list work-wise.
But I can’t speak for AP Physics–but she obviously likes science to compete in fairs.
AP English means you get to read decent books usually and the added weight is good for the GPA.
Spanish 3 covers those “three years of a language” requirements–it would be very hard to start over now and usually year three is easier for many.
Colleges do their own GPA conversions–how does your school usually do with college placements? Her weighted GPA could be even higher.</p>
<p>OP- I would look at the colleges she is thinking about. Not all colleges give credit for AP Statistics or if they do sometimes it’s just general credit because it’s not one of the gen ed requirements.</p>
<p>I wrote this on the duplicate thread in the cafe…and I will try and remember all I wrote.</p>
<p>First…I agree with Happymom who also posted on that other thread. I would,want to know why this kiddo had difficulty in precalc. Was it because she didn’t do or turn in assignments, or was it because she didn’t master the material presented. Two very different things!</p>
<p>Why is this student taking AP stats and honors calculus when math does not appear to be her forte? It looks like this student was accelerated in math and perhaps,the foundations are not,as solid as they need to be.</p>
<p>Re: colleges…some actually recalculate GPA. And in some cases they do NOT weigh AP grades…so the weighted GPA won’t matter. Others do weigh AP grades…ymmv depending on the college.</p>
<p>There is a college for every student. If it were me…and I was looking for this student, I would be looking someplace where tutorial support is readily available if needed.</p>
<p>What kind of sciences does this student want to major in when in college? Some require more math than others. </p>
<p>Of course, it is possible that this student is a late bloomer who will thrive in higher level college math. But I’m going to venture that without a solid, firm foundation, she is going to find upper level applied math very difficult.</p>
<p>Thumper makes some good points. There are some kids (including one of mine a few years ago) that loose points by not doing homework or neglecting to hand it in. </p>
<p>To me the junior year schedule sounds too aggressive. But the GC who knows the school and (hopefully) knows the student would have the best advise. </p>
<p>“do you believe there is any chance to get into a decent college for science?” - The profile does not jump out at me as a science kid. For now, concentrate on getting an appropriate junior year schedule. Then next year watch for more clues.</p>
So after sophomore grades that were in your words “quite bad,” the plan is to take 5 AP and honors courses with expected grades of entirely B’s and C’s? </p>
<p>I think the more important focus should be why the grades were “quite bad” and what can be done to improve them. Increasing the course difficulty is unlikely to fix the problem.</p>