Hello everyone! I am in great need of advice, but first let me explain my situation. I am a rising senior and will be applying to colleges in the fall/winter. I recognize that GPA is only a portion of the decision made for acceptance, but I have a concern. During my sophomore year, I had a Chemistry teacher that was a poor teacher. I am not one to complain about teachers and I normally excel in my classes, but this teacher was so bad that I ended up getting a C as my final grade in the class and this has never happened to me. This teacher was qualified, (he had a PhD), but just was not good at teaching. He relied on worksheets made by the other chemistry teacher and could not explain them himself, he was uninformative when I visited him for multiple after school and lunch help sessions, he gave no credit when I completed a problem and got the right answer, but did not do it in the way that he wanted even though it was not specified in the directions of the test and so on. Many other students, like myself, did poorly in his class. I tried to appeal my circumstance to guidance counselors and the office, but nothing significant was done. I need advice on how to convey this situation and drop in grades/GPA to colleges without sounding like I am placing all of the blame on the teacher. I felt I did all that I was capable of (asking for clarification, study groups, online help, after school and lunch help sessions, etc.) but did not receive my normal A or B.
Sorry, but you can’t “explain” a bad grade by blaming the teacher. Attempting to do so will unequivocally do more harm than good. Hate to be the bearer of bad news.
Best of luck!
I honestly don’t think that’s a good idea. You can speak with your school’s administration regarding your chemistry teacher, and/or write reviews of your teacher online, but I don’t think you should mention anything on actual college apps. To my knowledge, there’s usually a “explain any extraneous circumstances that have affected your performance in school” section, but that’s kind of reserved for non-academic issues (health problems, financial problems, problems at home. etc.).
Also, were there any students that earned A’s? There must have been at least one A, right?
There’s really no “good” way you can portray this on college apps. I wouldn’t say anything.
The only way possible is if your counselor writes in his/her rec that that particular teacher was very tough, but even that’s a stretch.
Colleges will wonder if you can handle the rigor of college academics as there are plenty of ‘bad’ teachers in college.
I think complaining will portray you as immature but as of right now, check if the counselor is willing to write in his/her rec because if even the counselor thinks the teacher is incompetent, that means the teacher is really really bad and colleges might give you some leeway, but don’t count on it.
This is a clear ‘no go’ area. By raising the subject in your application, you merely highlight a weakness that occurred 2 years ago and imply that you learned nothing from your experience. The take-away here is that sometimes you get a bad teacher (yes, even in college) and have to 1) transfer to a different class or drop the class entirely or 2) teach yourself the material and/or rely on class-mates to teach you. And sometimes you get a C even if you did your best. I assume your junior year GPA was better and your senior year will be better still, so upward trend, right? Go with that instead. Overall, one C isn’t a big deal.
You have to tread lightly with something like this. If the teacher truly was a problem then your GC may be able to mention it in their rec. I actually wrote my common app essay on why I got a C+ in physics (to the recount a time when you experienced failure prompt), which was really because of a poor teacher, but I framed it as how I learned the importance of self-advocacy and that you need to work for your grades, even in subjects that you should be good at (I’m a big STEM person, particularly math, which is what physics really is), and that you won’t always get the grade you want. The dean of admissions at one of my top schools wrote a personal note on my acceptance letter about how he enjoyed my essay.
For me, this was a no brainer for my essay, but I spent weeks on the phrasing so that I could control how it came across. I had a former english teacher, my psychologist (sorta, easiest way to describe her), and my parents all read and edit it. It was a ton of work and extremely risky; I don’t know if I would recommend others try it.
Agree with everyone else. You can’t say anything. And most HS students (including my D) have run across at least one teacher like that in their career. Move on.
Not a good strategy to draw further attention to a negative
First of all, most teachers won’t give any credit if you don’t circle, highlight, round the answer the way they’d like it.
the problem is that there are a lot of teachers like him. He can’t even be considered that horrible, sorry.
those who get your 2 page essays back in a month, or refuse to grade your tests 2 weeks before the AP exam because Game of Thrones is on are sadly considered good teachers.
then there are teachers who are pregnant, and who’s substitutes know nothing and teach nothing.
there are chemistry teachers who have to sit in on other teacher’s classes (not because they are new at teaching) because they honestly don’t know whats going on.
All in all, don’t trust the school to teach you anything. Make some smart friends. Engage in a polygamous marriage to your textbooks. If you can, go to other teachers to ask for help, or upperclassmen if you can.
I also took chemistry this year 
, teacher didn’t teach at all, 75% of material on quizzes later on was not ever taught. We were told to learn by watching online videos and reading our textbooks. Packets were handed out. The school system’s great, isn’t it.
What’s your current GPA and what classes are you taking right now???
@Argonian183 A handful of students cheated and received A’s. There was one student who I knew that received an A without cheating, but he was very smart when it came to the sciences and found chemistry easy. He has told though that our teacher was a very poor teacher and was one to often correct him and explain to class when we were all confused.
@dreamadream I have a 3.5 GPA unweighted and a 4.3 weighted. This year, I took English 11 AP, Statistics AP, Biology AP, World History Honors, French 4 Honors and two medical classes Honors
Blaming a teacher (which, no matter how you spin it, is what you are doing) is never a good idea. Saying that other students got A’s only because they cheated is also never a good idea.
Don’t mention it in your application. Don’t draw attention to it at all because you have no explanation to give (all you can say is you tried but you still got a C). Show that it is a fluke by taking a rigorous course load and by doing very well in all of your other classes.
@MiladyDerin I know it sucks to have a sucky teacher because I had a few in my lifetime. It’s literally nothing you can do about it. Remember not to mention this on college application that don’t care about you explaining academic challenges if you didn’t go through extreme circumstances(illness resulting in hospital stays) they don’t even care if its a death in your family(has to be immediate like a mom or dad or sibling)
@baktrax I agree with you and my intent was not really to blame the teacher but explain my grade. I plan to go into premedical studies which is science heavy so I will most likely be applying to a college of arts and sciences. With a mediocre grade in Chemistry, college admissions may not see me as a good fit for that college which is my biggest concern. I was tentatively thinking about taking a chemistry subject test and aiming to score well on that so that even though my sophomore grade in the class was low, colleges will see that I wanted to and indeed improved. Also it was never my intent to shine light to colleges that individuals in my class got A’s because they cheated…that concerns them, not myself and a few actually got in serious trouble for it.
The real question is what did you learn from the experience that you can apply to your future studies and career? You will inevitably have “difficult” professors and bosses in the future
Your idea of proving competence in another form sounds reasonable to me.
If your concern is really about showing colleges that you have a good understanding of chemistry, then take the SAT subject test or take AP Chemistry. But, if you can’t or would rather spend your time elsewhere, then it is what it is. There may be more important things to focus on. If this is the worst part of your application, you’ll have a number of schools to pick from that will prepare you well for medical school.
A mediocre grade in HS will not color the opinions of your instructors in college. You get graded on how you do then, and how you do on your premed classes will help determine your results in Med school admissions.