<p>They saw my child's final transcript and want a letter explaining the downturn. (About a .3 drop in overall GPA.)</p>
<p>I guess they want to know about the 3 Cs. Kid was sick twice, missed over a week of class mid Spring, but obviously that is not the reason. I don't know the reason. Kid thinks it was senioritis and an overly difficult math course.</p>
<p>What should the letter say.</p>
<p>Pls help.</p>
<p>The letter should tell the truth, and what the student learned from any mistakes that resulted in the grade drop. Taking responsibility for the grade drop is important as is providing specific actions the student will take so as not to have such a grade decline again. The more your kid takes responsibility for their actions, the better. Not a good idea to blame course difficulty for the drop.</p>
<p>The illness may have been a contributor - this past winter was brutal on the illness front at both our kids’ schools. Figure out what happened and let them know. For you, knowing might help prevent something similar in their Freshman year.</p>
<p>Well DON’T use my excuse: “Well Sir I live in a fabulously beautiful part of the country, and when Spring arrives with warm sunshine …” And obviously don’t blame Senioritis either.</p>
<p>For an excellent student to get three C’s there must have been contributing factors other than the above … you know, legitimate ones. Identify them and be sure they get get into that letter.</p>
<p>Oh, and make sure your S takes the matter seriously – because this sort of letter is VERY unusual.</p>
<p>Newhope, I don’t know why you say there must have been some other factors. It is entirely possible it is senioritis. How many posts have we seen in the forums asking if someone will be rescinded?</p>
<p>In fact a .3 drop in overall GPA does not sound that significant–it would be the difference between an A- and a B+, or a B- to C+ (3.7/3.3; 2.7/2.3. (Probably more like the latter if there were three Cs this semester?) Not sure I see why the school would be unduly concerned by a 0.3 overall drop at the end of senior year when grades do generally drop somewhat–but I agree that a careful response is needed and that citing illness if true is at least marginally legitimate.</p>
<p>^^ Sorry Erin’s Dad, I’m guilty of doing this a lot – doing the mental math and then providing only the inference.</p>
<p>I’ll use unweighted numbers to keep it simple. Five courses a year, four years is twenty courses. Three C’s drop the overall GPA by .3 which means the GPA for the other 17 courses must be 3.8 or higher. So the issue is three years of (nearly) straight A’s followed by the final year of mostly C’s. I can see why the college is concerned.</p>
<p>The issue might be really a bad one. My sons’ schools only sends out the final year end average grades. If the first term grades that the school received are mostly A’s along with great grades from the past 3 years, a .3 difference with several C’s means that those A’s at the beginning of the year, possibly even the mid of the year have dropped to C’s as a year’s average. Not good at all.</p>
<p>My son flunked his calculus final senior year. Just blew it off. But even that disaster kept his grade at B level for that course. Even if he had gotten a C for that final quarter, he would have still had a B for the year. It would have taken some real doing to bring his grade below that B as he had an A at the mid year point.</p>
<p>Overly difficult math course? Err, don’t blame it on that. Colleges don’t like to hear that their students find HS classes too difficult. And certainly do not blame it on senioritis. If laziness lands you three Cs… college will likely be even harsher.</p>
<p>Just say you’ve learned your lesson and you will never commit the same mistakes, etc etc.</p>
<p>I agree with Ray192, college does not like excuse. You know that as a parent, you don’t like to hear excuse from your kids too. Just have you child call the school or write them a nice written letter, tell them it will not happen again.</p>
<p>you know, if a student had mostly As and then got mostly C’s final semester, unless there really were extenuating circumstances - illness/surgery/death in the family/ - then it is clear it was just “slacking off”.</p>
<p>I am not sure, but I would think it would be best to come clean and admit to slacking off. To stress that you are very capable of high performance as evidenced by your grades prior, and that you fully intend to apply yourself at college just like you did for 99% of your high school career. That slacking off was a mistake, that once made could not be fixed, but you do not intend to let it happen again.</p>
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<p>In a prior post, the O.P. had her daughter with a 3.1. So, if that was correct, it took her from a 3.1 to a 2.8. Perhaps the O.P. can clarify. Either way, the only thing that matters is the path forward and I would certainly agree that #theorymom’s suggestions should be fully adopted. This too shall pass.</p>
<p>What college is this? Is it a top tier, highly selective school?</p>
<p>Every year there are a few of these posts. I think Theory’s suggestion is correct. I also know that almost all colleges send the message to kids not to slack off their senior year. I know that our school is constantly stressing that with the seniors. It’s tough lesson to stay focused and on-point senior year, but it’s no more stressful than what happens when a student goes off to college and has to focus through all the (fun) distractions of freshman year. It don’t think it matters one bit whether it is a top tier or the regional public college that sent this letter to the OP’s kid.</p>
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<p>cpt, how does that work at your son’s hs?</p>
<p>In our hs if he had As for 3 quarters (you did not specify if he did), a C the last quarter (as you suggested), and an F on the final, the year end grade would have been a 2.8 (C+ I think) for the year. The final would count for 20%, and each quarter would be 20% of the final grade.</p>
<p>I was thinking the same thing. There’s no way a student could flunk a final at our school and end up with anything higher than a C.</p>
<p>At our schools, semester grades are calculated based on the two quarters plus semester final (which counts 25%). Second semester grades have nothing to do with first semester grades. Therefore, a student with As for first and second quarters only needs to make a C or better on the final to keep the A for the semester grade, which is what shows up on the transcript. (We don’t do +/- grades here.)</p>
<p>For a yearlong class, then, the college would see two grades: first semester and second semester.</p>
<p>our school reports all term grades and the final on the transcript sent to colleges. We are on a trimester schedule, and each trimester counts as 2/7 of the final grade with the final being 1/7.</p>
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<p>Thus the reason why most kids in our school system don’t study for finals or care about them – unless they have an A for one marking period and a B for the other.</p>
<p>Each of my kids got a C on a final in a course where he or she had As for both marking periods. In both cases, the student considered it a matter of no importance.</p>
<p>Finals are even less important if you have a B in both marking periods. In that case, any grade from A to D on the final gets you a B in the course. Only an outright failure would bring you down to a C.</p>
<p>I agree that it should tell the truth and what has been learned from it. They are just concerned and want to make sure that the student has turned around from whatever has caused the GPA slip so it won’t continue to be a problem if the student is accepted. If you just explain what happened and that it won’t continue, there shouldn’t be any problems.</p>