<p>I have earned straight As all through out high school and I have participated in 10 million clubs so that I can get into a good college. My school offers "Credit Flexibility" so that students can take a test and opt out of a class if they pass. (don't judge), I am not physically fit but i decided to take the test since no one has ever failed it. Guess who became the first one? Of course I will re-take the course and get the credit and also have my GPA re-calculated but the "F" will show up on my transcript forever. I am slowly realizing that I might have just ruined my entire life by a silly, impulsive mistake. I am trying to not dwell on the past but I am really scared that thoughts about this might also affect my performance in other classes. So my quetion is, in terms of college admission, how bad will this look?( I am planning to apply to selective colleges). I fully understand that it is an F, but I will attach a note describing the circumstances and what i have learned.</p>
<p>I encourage you to stop stressing over something that is already done. You took a chance and it didn’t work out. Some schools will appreciate that you were willing to take that chance. A note from the guidance counselor explaining your schools policies would probably look better than a note solely from you.</p>
<p>Please don’t think that one “F” ruins anybody’s life. I think you came to the Parents board with this question because you wanted the longer perspective. It sounds like the course you challenged and failed was a phys ed course? And athletics is not your strong suit? Presumably you will not be applying to colleges as a phys ed major? And your many As will show that you are a better match for some of the other programs you might try to enter.</p>
<p>Adults want to see young people come to terms with both success and failure, where it occurs, take responsibility for their part in what goes well or badly, and then move on, better equipped. You can explain it in your essay, as you noted. But get some good guidance on that before doing so (better than I can offer). I say this because the essay is a good opportunity to explain what is special and strong about you as an applicant (and also to show the college that you can adhere to their prompt and craft an essay specifically for them). You don’t want to squander that opportunity, only to focus their attention on a bad grade in a course that is peripheral to your academic strengths and mission. Maybe in a sentence or two you can explain it, without squandering the opportunity that the essay presents. Get guidance on that.</p>
<p>Actually, your experience can be the basis for a very good essay.</p>
<p>One of my sons turned a similar experience into a very strong essay. At our high school, students can 'challenge" to earn a spot on some varsity teams. Our school had freshman, jv and varsity teams in his sport. At tryouts, my son was placed on the jv squad but felt he had the skill to be on varsity. </p>
<p>He was a standout star on the jv squad…and challenged one of the bench players on the varsity squad at the challenge date three weeks in to the season. Yes,he won the challenge…and spent the rest of the season sitting on the varsity bench getting into very few games, and even then with very little playing time.</p>
<p>So, my son had tried to take advantage of something he had thought would work to his advantage,and got burned instead.</p>
<p>And he had learned a lesson…something along the lines of just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should…and that sometimes there are reasons that things are the way they are is because they are that way.</p>
<p>At the end of the season, my son and the coach finally had a real talk. The coach had wanted my (small) son on jv so he could have a chance to play and continue developing…and have a spot on varsity the following year when he would still have the skill but hopefully also the size to be competitive on the field. The fact that he had skills alone hadn’t swayed the coach at all.</p>
<p>He had let the situation go on as it had because he felt it would teach my son a more valuable lesson than just sending him back down to jv.</p>
<p>What have you learned from the way this situation has played out for you?</p>
<p>p.s. out of my own curiousity…what was on the test? Were you aware of what was on the test, and what did you do/not do to prepare for it before you took the exam?</p>
<p>The test had two parts: written and the actual fitness test. The written part consisted of questions about how to play quirky sports such as bocce, croquet, and archery. I cruised through that part with no problem since I had studied for the past two months. The second part was the fitness test. I have done fitness testing for the past 5 years of my life and usually, you take the test at the course and also take it in the end, and if you made any improvements, you could get full points. I thought I would just waste my time training for this when I could be studying for the written test. I was wrong. The fitness test consisted of 20 push ups in under a minute, 40 sit ups in under a minute and running the mile under 10 minutes, which I could not do. The worst part is that I know if I had trained my body, I would have passed with no problem but because of my overestimation, this will be hanging over my shoulder for the next 2 years.</p>
<p>The Common Application has a section for “Anything else you want to share” - you can write pretty much what you wrote here, plus perhaps a sentence about how in retrospect you can see that the district’s attitude that you need to be fit and not just know the rules of sports is a pretty sensible one.</p>
<p>Because no college wants a girl who can’t run a mile in under 10 minutes. </p>
<p>It’s phys ed. No one cares. Get on with life and don’t sweat it. </p>
<p>Some people don’t even have legs. Do you think colleges reject them because they don’t have legs?</p>
<p>I have heard that many of the top schools recalculate gpas using only core academic courses.</p>