<p>This disqualifies me from a ton of merit aid which set their minimum GPA at a 3.5. Money is one of the most important factors - and although my test score is decent (33 ACT), my GPA will hinder my merit aid to the point of settling on a much poorer college.</p>
<p>Should I just resign to my fate? I was told by one of my teachers Junior year that teachers can actually change grades from any year as long as they had you.</p>
<p>There is much leeway for me- I have a few teachers that like me and might reconsider a grade or two to add a potential point if I ask. Has this been done in the past? Any success? I feel like an essay that I bombed, if I could persuade them to reconsider- the .21 GPA would make a huge difference. </p>
<p>On the other hand, I'd be burning a lot of bridges because it's a fairly uncommon practice (asking teachers to reconsider grades 1-2 years after the class)</p>
<p>Not only would this be unfair to the rest of your classmates who would not get this perk, it is unethical. If you thought that there were grading issues, then you should have addressed them 2 years ago. Sorry, but why should someone else who worked just as hard be at risk for not getting merit aid just because they lost out to one student whose grades were changed in order to get a better chance at merit aid?</p>
<p>My teacher who I respect very much is writing me a letter of recommendation. I ended his class with a 91, but the first marking period was a lot lower- a B or a B-. Because of one essay, which I ended up scoring a 50% on. I stayed after and talked to him about it, and he agreed that the essay warranted a much higher score. I asked him if he would reconsider the grade, and he smiled and said “you could debate anything, marcusgarvey!”. That was that.</p>
<p>The grade was never changed, and I didn’t want to come across as an ass so I left it at that.</p>
<p>I didn’t realize the direness of my situation. A grade like that one essay, or a project in math class, something that would bump my GPA by more than 2 tenths of a point could potentially save me thousands of dollars in the long run. I didn’t realize that two years ago. I didn’t think it would be a problem.</p>
<p>Now, it’s a problem.</p>
<p>Kids have bumped their grades up in classes before- just never a year or two after the fact, but I am relatively poor in a rich town. I don’t think kids have ever done it to get better merit aid.</p>
<p>You should work like crazy this term, and allow your hard work to raise your GPA. I have never heard of grades being changed retroactively for this reason.</p>
<p>I think the circumstances have drastically changed. I’ve never been one to fight tooth and nail for a few extra points on an assignment when many others have, but now when it is all said and done those extra points would have been the difference between being able to afford a college and not being able to afford that college. </p>
<p>I would obviously explain my situation. These few points could literally rob me of a few thousand dollars in the long run. If my GPA was a 90.01, I wouldn’t even consider it- as the tenths of a point wouldn’t really matter.</p>
<p>Furthermore, I’m a senior now- and most scholarships don’t factor in your senior year grades. I have straight As so far (unweighted), but it won’t help my HS gpa. My performance this year is solely for admissions purposes</p>
<p>Just like I can’t go back two years and ask for a retroactive increase in pay to help pay for my son’s tuition, you can’t go back two years and ask for higher grades so that you can get a merit scholarship. You had plenty of time to try to get the grade changed (in the few days or weeks post essay). Now is the time to realize what happened and move on. Perhaps you may need to look at different colleges, which isn’t to say that you won’t find a college that fits your needs. Perhaps another subset of colleges will have the merit aid or adequate FA that you seek.</p>
<p>If you truly are at the borderline for really good aid, plan now to take a Gap Year. That way your final HS GPA will be what the colleges/universities see in your applications.</p>
<p>Even if you may push very hard to get a teacher to change a grade slightly, which at the end may not affect the overall GPA too much. However, don’t expect to get a good recommendation from that teacher afterward.</p>
<p>…and be aware that teachers talk to each other.</p>
<p>And an unusual request that strikesbus as chutzpah is exactly the kind of thing we talk about.</p>
<p>I really think this is not a good idea. I think it will not succeed, and I think it will damage your reputation among the teachers in your school.</p>
<p>This is clearly not the answer you were hoping for. But you asked for people’s thoughts, and those are the only thoughts I have on this subject.</p>
<p>I’m going to disagree with Sikorsky. Go ahead and ask if your teachers will raise your GPA. What the heck, you can’t be faulted for asking, even if you come across as an ass. Any teacher worth their salt though is going to chuckle and say “Nice try Marcus, you got what you deserved.” And then, the teachers will talk about you behind your back . . . and possibly note your chutzpah in their recommendation letters – which may or may not help you get into college. On second thought, Sikorsky and I are saying the same thing!</p>
<p>I disagree with what others are saying. I say it’s worth a try, the worst thing is they could say no. But if they do change it you will save thousands of dollars so why not give it a try? I’ve asked my teachers to change my grade before and they were more than willing to do it, they were even apologetic for screwing up in the first place. It all depends on how you word it. Good luck</p>
<p>^There’s a major difference between changing a grade at the time due to a ‘screw up’ by the teacher and asking for an upgrade two years later because of external reasons. The OP needed to ask at the time of the essay/test based on academics, not later due to possible merit aid.</p>
<p>And yes, as stated by gibby and Sikorsky, there is a downside to asking, the worst thing that can happen is that the OPs reputation and subsequent LORs could suffer as a result. Believe me, there’s no good way to word this request.</p>
<p>The issue isn’t changing the grade- the issue us asking for it to be changed years later. I am a physician and got a B in Chem lab first semester of college. Would it have been fair for me to ask the professor to change this to an A- just to improve my chances for getting in to medical school? Better yet, would it have been fair for me to do the same thing to improve my chances of getting into my state medical school (and thus pay less tuition?) Yes, I could have done the same thing, as could all of us.</p>
<p>Are you even sure that an 89.7 will exclude you from scholarships that require a 3.5 or higher? I Googled for a couple of conversion charts and some of them place a 3.5 as beginning at an 89. Others place it as beginning at a 90. I would imagine this is very individual per school, so rather than going the probably futile route of beginning teachers to raise your grades from 2 years ago I would get to calling some of these admissions offices and asking what their scholarship cut offs are on the 100-point scale.</p>