So the 1st semester of my school just ended and I think I’m going to end the semester with 1 or 2 D’s. One of them is AP Gov the other is AP Calc. Now I’m not going to sit here and complain since I think part of it was my fault, but being at home for the past year in a distracting environment with my parents constantly yelling completely killed my mental health and motivation. Normally I would be able to escape that by going to school and being at after school clubs, but not this year.
As far as I’m concerned I’ve met all my A-G requirements and getting a D in gov will at least allow me to graduate high school. Either way though how screwed am I? From what I’ve read I need to contact admissions to let them know, but I don’t know how. I’ve also heard that CSU are more lenient if you already met your A-G requirements, so I don’t know if it will be mean an immediate rescind. For UCs I’ve heard that you need to contact admissions and hope for the best. The rest of my grades for Q1 aren’t that good either having the rest of my grades be C’s with like 1 A or B. Is improving my grades greatly 2nd semester an option?
I’ve applied to SJSU, SDSU, Cal Poly SLO, and Cal Poly Pomona
I’ve also applied to every UC except Merced and Riverside. My major was also pretty competitive applying for either math or CS.
Normally I would considering going to community college, but my parent explicitly said they’d make my life hell and I don’t really want to spend another year in my parent’s house. This is especially due to me performing really well in school up until when covid happened and the same thing happening to my sibling causing her to have to go to CC.
Awwww, I’m so sorry to hear about this.
Usually calling admissions, writing a letter, or writing an email could work. Just simply explain that you got two Ds in your AP courses along with the simple explanation.
All college admissions are provisional meaning you need to pass all a-g courses Senior year regardless if you meet the minimum a-g requirements and your HS graduation requirements.
For the UC’s:
If there are changes to your academic record:
If you change schools, add or drop a course, or fail to earn a C or better in a course after you submit your application, you must notify the campuses you’ve applied to (all campuses except UC Berkeley). If you receive an offer of admission, be sure to confirm with the campus admission office that they are aware of the deficient grade or schedule changes.
Keep in mind: We cannot guarantee that a campus can go back to review an application after correspondence has been received. Make sure to save a copy of your correspondence just in case.
Campus instructions & websites for reporting changes:
- Berkeley will not accept post-submission updates. Any updates that are sent will not be considered in the application reading process.
- Davis
- Irvine
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Merced - click on “myCourseUpdate” link
- UCLA
- Riverside
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San Diego - Updates accepted starting in mid-December. Please wait until you receive your Applicant Portal login instructions.
- Santa Barbara will not accept post-submission updates. Any updates that are sent to our office will not be considered in the application reading process.
- Santa Cruz
https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/how-to-apply/applying-as-a-freshman/after-you-apply/
For the Cal states, you need to contact/email each campus and notify them of your grades.
Please be proactive and work with the admissions office to see what you can do to keep any acceptances, once decisions are out. Explain about your difficult home life. One D might be overlooked due to these difficult times but 2 might be a huge issue.
Best of luck and hopefully the schools will wait to see your final year end grade and be lenient considering your situation. Regardless of how your family feels about community college, you need a backup just in case.
It might also matter what courses these were, how related to the possible major.
I agree a difficult home life adds a challenge to home learning. But think through how you’ll present this in a way that shows you’re capable, your strengths. There will be lots of distractions on campus, too.
Possible AP Calculus AB and AP Government. I plan on majoring in math or CS so a D in calculus obviously doesn’t look good. I was hoping on explaining that I plan on improving those grades in my second semester.
Sorry, I missed that you did name the classes.
Right, calc is a problem. We know the covid situation has been a head shaker, a dang shame. But what we can’t know is adcoms’ reactions to a low grade.
It’s usually not enough to “plan on” improvements. How can you show positive steps you did take, what you’ve actually done, so far? In your case, it may be small things, but none of us know until you look back.
Since grades, at least in theory, represent learning, it may also help to show you tried some online side learning or got some sort of support to go forward.
This can also be an issue. UCs commonly say that admission is conditional on a 3.0 GPA in in-progress courses as well as no D or F grades.