<p>Need your help! This is for my daughter. She (CA resident) is applying for UC systems (looking for tier 2 schools, like Irvine, San Barbara, Davis ) and Cal Poly. Her GAP is 4.08 (weighted), but SAT/ACT is not good (1800+/27), looking for a business major. She took 2 AP classes since grade 10.</p>
<p>Her situation is she is taking AP Calculus this semester, and doing not good (current class grade is C-), she may get a D for this semester. She has taken all math classes prior to Calculus. How to handle this situation? She cannot drop off this class at this point when I asked counselor. Below are several options if she gets a D this semester:</p>
<p>(1) Drop off the class for next semester
(2) Continue this class for next semester, she may get a D or C (getting a C is good, showing progress)
(3) Report to the colleges she has applied to (late Dec when we get the grade report). Typically colleges ask students to report any class with D or below, but we may lose some competition.
(4) Dont report to the college until March when we get admissions from a couple of colleges, and then have a conference with each, tell them the challenge, and find which college might be OK, then take that colleges admission. At that time, her status of this class may not be good
(5) Dont report the D until the college (which we choose) finds it in June when they verify the official transcript (my daughter may get a chance to get a C for the second semester, which shows progress, or she may pass the AP exam even if she gets two D). There were students before (took the same class, they got C, but the AP exam was 5). The math teacher is really making the class harder, and the average grade for the class used to be C, and but 90% of students passed AP class. For this option, we also have risk to be turned down by the ONLY college that we have chosen (if they consider you didnt report it ), so we may lost all. </p>
<p>Does your high school allow you to Withdraw with a W on the transcript? An alternative could be to talk to your teacher and have her personally transfer your daughter into an easier math class (if available)</p>
<p>Withdrawing from the class if allowed would be one option. Make sure her UC application reflects the change in course status. Getting a tutor and devoting herself to calculus from now until the end of the semester is even better. The GPA for the UCs does not include senior year grades. However, a D (but not a C-) may well get her rescinded in the late spring, and you are right to fear that possibility. If she is not applying to any schools that will evaluate her first semester grades (like private schools would), her strategy should be to intensively study calculus now (with help) even if this detracts from other subjects and bring up her grade. Since honest self-reporting of intended courses for second semester is part of the UC application process, she will have to decide if she is continuing with calculus second semester prior to submission by November 30th. What does her math teacher suggest? It sounds like she cannot drop down to an easier math because she has taken all the prior classes. Do any of the UCs require 4 years of math or is that just recommended?
Based on my son’s peer group experiences with UC admissions last year, your daughter’s chances of admission to the schools you named is uncertain. I would urge her to apply to some of the Cal States besides SLO in order to have a real safety or two. Good luck!</p>
<p>Has it occurred to anyone that UCs don’t look at transcripts till May? I only think if you get several Ds in a single semester and show an obvious trend of descending grades that they would dare rescind your acceptance from a school.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, push your daughter to try to get those grades up. You never know what other classes could go down as well.</p>
<p>Calgal, I agree with you that tutoring up and working on that class intensively is the best next step. It’s mid-November…there is still plenty of time left in the semester.
Has your daughter met with the teacher yet to talk about what’s going wrong?</p>
<p>If she gets a D I am sorry to say that is not going to cut it. They will probably look down upon a C. I have friends who have been denied from schools in Cali with amazing SAT scores and nothing but A’s. I attend UPenn for business and business calculus is important…especially when analyzing financial trends.</p>
<p>But also remember with her credentials she can still get into a great school. There is no need to panick, not everybody is perfect. So my adivce is take reality on the chin and apply to another school. And stop saying “we”…this about her, not you.</p>
<p>Yes, we are trying everything we could for my daughter at this point, hired a tutor (recommended by the teacher). Cannot drop off this course per schoole policy. Besides the turtoring, the teacher also asked her to come to see him with questions, and she did. But I think she just has challenges to handle this tough topic. </p>
<p>Calgal:
You mentioned "even UCSC will rescind for a single D on the final transcript senior year. " We also want to apply for UCSC, did you see that happned before to somebody?</p>
<p>I need to prepare for the worst case (she stills get a D), any comments on my options (2) - (5)</p>
<p>if she earns a D this semester, then drop the class and retake at a community college. Struggling through second semester will not help her learn the material.<br>
Unless the colleges ask for senior grades or any grade drop, wait until the acceptances come in and be proactive with a letter explaining what happened and that she’s retaking. Sometimes groveling is rewarded. Do NOT wait until June. If the teacher really is that hard (C students earn a 5’s on the AP test), then a letter from the GC could support your case to stave off recision.</p>
<p>btw: yes, calc is essentially required for undergrad biz.</p>
<p>it may be that she has problems with the fundamentals more than the calculus. I’m a 4.0 student in BC calc…and but some things still get me flustered. Inverse function derivatives? When I never learned what an inverse function was…lol that did not work out too well. I think a peer tutor (does your daughter’s school have a program like that?) might be very helpful (and free if in school, very affordable if out of school) for catching up on the fundamental aspects. Calculus is easy. Everything that lead up to it, being mixed and matched in crazy ways, is hard.</p>
<p>Do the colleges know that your school’s calc class is very difficult, grade-wise? It is unfortunate that this is not her junior year. If she had done poorly in the class but gotten a 4 or 5 on the AP exam, it may have forgiven the grade, since it appears that she knew the material well enough on a standardized test.</p>
<p>Do NOT drop the class. The only thing worse than a D is dropping after a D for a potential business major, imho.
I think you should conference with your daughter’s teacher to find out what’s wrong - careless errors? Confusing material? Maybe the teacher can offer her some extra credit?</p>
<p>The college counselor at my son’s HS relayed anecdotes of 10-20 students/yr rescinded from UCSC for not meeting the second semester senior year requirements. The example given was a D on the final report card. Other ways to get rescinded would be senior year GPA under 3.0 (unweighted for UCLA and UCB, I think weighted for most other campuses). If you call the admissions office for each UC she is considering, they can give you their precise requirements.
I don’t think doing well on the AP test will be a factor, as the decision will be made before that score returns.
The suggestion to retake at a cc if she does get a D first semester is a good one. Just be sure to send an update right away to the colleges she is applying to. The whole premise of self-reporting grades is based upon complete accuracy and to wait and not report a substantive change in schedule would be a big mistake.
Hopefully with extra effort and a good tutor she will maintain her C level grade or improve.</p>
<p>You mentioned “The college counselor at my son’s HS relayed anecdotes of 10-20 students/yr rescinded from UCSC for not meeting the second semester senior year requirements. The example given was a D on the final report card.”</p>
<p>Did they mention if the D was an AP or non-AP class? Not sure if they would treat AP calculus (a tough class differently).</p>
<p>Also, why did they just say “not meeting the second semester sr.year requirements”? Does this imply a D from the first semester (this semester) might be OK? If my daughter gets a D this semester, she should drop off it for next semester?</p>
<p>iuw, this detail is of such import to your daughter’s admission that I think you should call each school and clarify exactly how they apply the requirement that the student maintain the academic performance under which they were admitted (wording similar to this was in each of my son’s admissions letters, public and private). Ask exactly how they would view a D first semester with a C second semester, a D first semester with a retake at cc and an improved grade, and a D first semester and no second semester enrollment. The schools may vary in their response. As for whether the Ds in prior rescinded students were in AP courses, I don’t know, but assume that would not make a difference to the admissions committee. It is very competitive to get into Irvine, Santa Barbara, and Davis these days, and, unfortunately, your concern about the effect of a D (which I sincerely hope she can avoid) on the final transcript is justified.</p>
<p>The people who are saying that one C will kill her chances are wrong; and the people who are saying one D will kill her chances are also wrong.</p>
<p>It is ONE grade. I know several admits to very prestigious universities (and I am at Columbia now) who had one or two low grades on their transcripts. I myself had a C on my high school transcript and got full ride scholarships to tier 2 schools and got into some tier 1 schools as well. Colleges and universities are not expecting you to be perfect; they understand if you flub up in one class.</p>
<p>Also, it’s somewhat unlikely that a school would rescind admissions for one D. The UC system may be different, I don’t know. If your daughter showed a growing downward trend, like she just stopped caring about school altogether, that would be different. But if she’s doing well in all her other courses and this one D is obviously an anomaly, I don’t think they would rescind based on that.</p>
<p>I second the advice to wait until admissions decisions come in, and then proactively explain that she got a D in this one class (or a C-, or whatever she has at that time) but have a letter explaining it and maybe a letter from her counselor reaffirming her counselor’s belief that she belongs at that school. I also second calling the schools’ admissions offices and seeing what grounds for rescinding admissions is.</p>
<p>One of the suggestions is to retake this course in community college next semester (if my D gets a D this semester). I just checked with our local CC. For Advanced Education (like Calculus), “high school students are not allowed to take courses (which are available in your school) due to an unsatisfactory grade received in your school”. The CC course is Calculus I, which is equivalent to the high school’s AP Calculus based on the description. Maybe we can get help from school counselor’s help to get in? But we may not be able to get in because my D does have an unsatisfactory grade. Any thoughts on this?</p>
<p>you should be able to appeal to both your GC and the community college, since technically, beg Calc 1 is not offered second semester at your HS. (Only the second semester of Calc 1 is offered.)</p>