I have a high GPA and test scores, and will be going to Alabama with a Presidential Scholarship. I’m failing a bunch of classes right now, will likely finish this semester with two D’s, two C’s, and two B’s.
I’ve gotten straight A’s with a heavy courseload in my last two semesters and most of high school. As such, my grades have been in free fall since the semester started. I have no excuses to make, and admit that I became lazy this semester since it doesn’t affect college admissions. My question is, is my Presidential scholarship or offer of admission at risk?
I can’t answer the question because I don’t know the university’s policy, but isn’t there time in the next month to bring those Ds up to Cs and the Cs up to Bs? Rather than worry about getting rescinded, perhaps your energy should go into fixing the problem rather than just settling for low grades. If you have to fight for yourself with the college, this approach to trying to fix the problem will likely go further than giving up.
Then you need to find out what the college’s policies are for keeping a scholarship. There are some people on this site familiar with University of Alabama such as @mom2collegekids, she might know the answer.
Probably not going to affect your scholarship unless it affected your graduation, which clearly this will not. I’m continually baffled by the level of senioritis I’m seeing, not just you but my daughter and her friends too. We also were afflicted with it but still coasted with c’s, which based on the numbers needed for a presidential you could have easily done with just a little effort. Back in my time I did see someone get rescinded on an offer from Michigan, but I dont think youll have the same problem.
Wow. It would be a shame to give a scholarship of that worth to a student who hasn’t the motivation to finish what he started. Doesn’t say much for your ambition or foresight. I hope just the “waiting to see” is enough of a lesson to you that you can take a look at the risk and not put yourself in the same position again going forward.
I understand that senioritis is a “real” thing but its just mid-April and most northeast high schools still have at least another 6-7 weeks before graduation. Seems like it shouldn’t include the entire spring semester lol. In my D’s case, there was no room for senioritis, they were too busy writing their Extended Essays and studying for their IB exams.
I get the whole senioritis thing. I do not remember much from HS but clearly remembering having accepted a job at the start of spring semester Senior year in college (engineering). I pretty much put the semester on auto pilot but likely had some easier electives saved to make my grades tolerable.
My twins have a serious case. I think the feeling is like a marathon where you go hard almost the whole way and when the end is in sight, you just want to finish. They are in cost mode with only four weeks left to go, IL starts mid-August.
I told them to get it out of their system now because when they start t UA in engineering the going will be tough and they need to be on their “A” game
To be honest, I have to echo some of the concerns here about motivation and drive. While senioritis might be a “thing”, it didn’t have have to be your “thing”, unless you wanted it to. Students can usually opt for a lighter academic load in their senior year of high school, if all required classes are completed or even take regular (non-honors) versions of classes.
Did you start out with too heavy a load? Is there any opportunity to drop unnecessary spring semester classes? Have you spoken to your teachers, gone for extra help or asked for extra credit projects to boost your grades. Have you spoken with your guidance counselor? Are you in any jeopardy of not graduating? You need to quickly remedy your situation by reaching out for help and getting to work on your study habits and grades. It is not too late -if you have about eight weeks left.
I really don’t know how this will affect your scholarship, since I don’t know where your grades will end up.
Perhaps more importantly, are there any underlying issues at play here? You mention being “lazy”, but is that the real problem? Have you spoken with your parents or a counselor? If you were my student, I would want to know your feelings, concerns, and worries.
A word of advice to other students about to embark on their senior year. Students going into senior year have to be careful to keep their grades up. The school is required to send a senior year transcript to UA.
I’m quite sure my final GPA graduating HS will be 3.6, and GPA for this semester specifically will be 1-1.5; my straight A’s from previous semesters will make up for my terrible performance and I’ll still end up with a reasonably decent GPA. I am NOT at risk of not graduating, that’s already in the bag. I took 12 AP classes in HS, so my courseload has been quite rigorous.
So based off everyone’s comments, I should be fine?
The honest reason for my plummeting performance was that the only reason I was getting straight A’s previously was to look good to colleges. Since second semester senior year isn’t part of the admissions process, I let my academics lapse.
I think F’s can result in not only the loss of your scholarship, but may get your acceptance rescinded. I don’t think your final GPA will matter much if you have D’s and F’s. You need to get those grades up.
My advice is call the office of admissions, anonymously, and give them your situation. They are the only ones who can give you an accurate answer. We can all speculate on the outcome but your fate is in the hands of admissions. No matter what the response, you will then know and be able to move forward. Good luck.
@gearsstudio What is done, is done. You should try to improve your grades as much as possible before the end of tern so you do not look completely “lazy”.
As for not trying as hard because second semester senior year does not impact admissions, I understand that to a degree but your level looks like you just stopped working. I would say that you should not let this happen again.
You will, hopefully, be in this position at least one more time when you graduate UG. Please do not drop this much in your performance because it will show lack of maturity.
After college, you will never have a chance to be “lazy”. In the working world, you are expected to bring your best effort everyday. Enjoy these momentary lapses now because you will not get them later! :))
Post #10…hmmmm…underlying your response is an attitude that “it doesn’t matter, so I’m fine.” There are many students who struggle to earn good grades…and there are other students who are super bright and don’t have to work very hard to earn good grades. BUT, to be a bright student such as yourself, who doesn’t work at all (or very little), and still earns not even what can be considered mediocre grades, is pretty shameful, actually.
On top of that, you admit you were ONLY (your emphasis!) doing the work to get straight As to look good on applications or resumes. Your method this past semester probably will not be very successful for you in the future. Doing things only to look good is not a very joyful way to approach life, nor, further downstream, land yourself a job that you truly love.
Further to Post #6, the University of Alabama and its many donors who fund scholarships have extended a very generous offer to you. The very least you could do is make every effort to demonstrate why you are STILL worthy of such an offer. Trust me, it matters to donors. Even if 8th semester isn’t part of the admissions process, it IS part of your body of work that defines who you are and speaks volumes about your personality. I have some scorn for this lack of personal pride.
I have no idea what you will be studying, but I can ASSURE you that you WILL have to work in university. The behaviours that you have exhibited in senior year have no place in college if you want to be successful. If you do not change your lazy habits, your entire scholarship WILL be in jeopardy again once you start. Ask yourself what you would do if you lost your scholarship. Think seriously about the consequences of your behaviour each and every time you are tempted to blow off the school work and do other things. Unless your parents have spare funds or you have your own funds to take the place of your scholarship, don’t plan on getting in this situation again.
And, I’ll go even further and say that if you graduate from UA on this full-tuition scholarship, please come back here and pay it forward to someone else. It’s my personal challenge to you, @gearsstudio! Good luck with your future decisions!
Take it from someone who flunked out of college after skating by in high school—this sort of attitude does not bode well if you don’t snap out of it fast.
@aeromom@gearsstudio I have to agree with @aeromom. I still think there’s a problem underlying this student’s attitude more than just laziness. I am more concerned after reading @gearstudio last post about his/her academic attitude. Many students take AP and Honors classes and still continue to do well academically in their senior year. The fact that this student mentions that the Only reason to get A’s was to would look good to colleges does indeed speak volumes.
The University of Alabama is no cakewalk and students who are privileged to receive scholarships try very hard to do honor to that scholarship and live up to the amazing opportunities that they are afforded.
@gearsstudio I don’t know if your senior academic performance and possibly failing grades will impact your scholarship status, but unless you change your academic attitude, it will certainly affect your college career.
I would think very hard about the amazing scholarship you have been given. I hope you realize that it is the dream of many high school seniors to go to college and yet many will not be going because of finances.
I appreciate everyone’s comments and 100% agree with @aeromom. I took a hard look at my grades and I think I’ll be able to finish this semester with mostly C’s and two B’s. I should be able to raise my D’s or F’s by the end of this semester.
Others have said that I may have underlying issues, and I know what that issue is. The only reason I did anything in high school is to look good on paper (i.e make a good college application). I had no intrinsic motivation whatsoever to actually learn anything. I would just get straight A’s by any means necessary, caring about little else when it comes to academics. After last semester, I knew that colleges wouldn’t be able to see my grades, so I found no reason to continue working. I thus stopped doing all assignments, stopped studying, and let my grades fall to D’s and F’s.
I know UA has been very generous with me, so the least I could do to reciprocate is to maintain my own academic standing. I’ll have to resume my good academic performance in college just so that I can keep my scholarship, get good internships and recommendations, etc.
I had good reason to work hard during the first seven semesters of high school, and I’ll have good reason to work hard in college. But I can’t think of any reason to work in my last semester of high school because I won’t gain anything in return
