Due to our school database’s method of functioning, my grade 8 report card will appear on my official transcript for when I apply to college in 2020. (current sophomore).
I moved to my new school in the middle of the semester of 8th grade and I started the foreign language class for the first time without knowing a single word, while the others were already quite advanced. I was in the MYP system so my final grade for this class was a 4/7, which is terrible
Will the colleges take into account this 4/7 from 8th grade into my transcript when considering my course rigor and GPA? I have put in lots of effort into my foreign language classes and have received 7/7 in all of 9th grade and the past semester. My GPA since 9th grade has been a perfect 7/7 in all of my other classes as well.
If the colleges take this into account, should I ask my guidance counselor to explain the reason of such a bad grade in her letter of recommendation ?
Your grade 8 grades bear no weight in the college admission, unless it is counted towards high school credit. Even that, many school would still not include it in the HS GPA calculation.
No school is going to reject you because you didn’t do well in an eighth grade class. It will bear no weight, especially considering that you have improved in the area so far in high school. Don’t worry about it.
You should also make sure that what you are saying is correct. It appears you took a high school level language class i in 8th grade. It also appears that the language course, and not everything else you took in 8th grade, will be on the transcript. That is a common practice for high schools in that they include high school level courses, particularly in math, science, or language, taken in 8th grade on your high school transcript sent to colleges, so those courses can be shown for the purposes of establishing that you completed any course requirements needed for high school graduation or entry into college. However, most of those high schools do not actually include the grades you received in those 8th grade courses on the transcript sent to colleges but simply show that the course was completed with a passing grade. Unless you are certain the actual grade will be included in the treanscript provided to colleges, you should check with your high school to determine what it actually does.
To be fair to the OP, a 4/7 is in the C/C+ range, so while it is indeed passing, it is not exactly a high grade. So having a concern about that grade is less disingenuous that students who call an A-/B+ as “terrible” or “bad.”
Anyway, even if the grades appear on the HS transcript, and one can’t unsee anything, AOs are not judging you on your 8th grade performance. Don’t worry.
