Please Help! I got two C's.....

Do I still have a shot at top colleges?

Stats:
SAT- 1410 (680 CR/730 M)
PSAT 10 - 1430
UW GPA: 3.75
W GPA: 4.3

I’m a sophomore in HS, and decided to take very rigorous courses. I got C’s in both Pre-Calc and AP Calc AB

These are my classes:

Freshman Year

  • AP Psychology A/A
  • Chemistry I Honors A/A
  • Computer Program I Honors A/A
  • EARTH & ENVIRON SCIENCE HONORS A/A
  • English II Honors A/A
  • Mandarin Chinese II A/A
  • Pre-Calculus Honors C/C
  • World History Honors A/A

Summer:
Civics and Economics Honors A/A
Pre Calc Honors A/A (I retook it)

Sophomore Year

-Adv Biology Topics Honors B/B
-AP Calculus AB C/C
-Advanced Inquiry Honors A/A

Do I still have a shot?

This certainly impairs your chances. If by top schools you mean HYPSM, then no you do not have a good chance.

My kid had straight As her entire life. She took two dual classes this year and got a C+ and an A. It is my understanding that they want to see you taking more rigorous curriculum despite the fact that you may get lower grades. We were told this specifically at some top colleges. Half of the colleges she applied to will make a decision before they see these grades. Are you persuing a STEM major?

What else are you taking soph year? You have to be in more courses than what you’ve listed.

Yes I am pursuing a STEM major

AP Bio, AP World History

What about Duke?

The math and bio grades can be seen as an issue for stem at a highly competitive college. As a sophomore, you have miles to go and a lot left to do.

No, I would not say you have a chance at Duke to be honest. Especially with a STEM major. From your transcript, since they don’t know who you are, it looks like your weakness is STEM. What I am confused about is that even after you got a C in Precalculus, you took AP Calc. Besides the point. If you stall at a 1410 on the SAT, that makes your chances even worse. At this point, I would say absolutely not, because they have such a qualified applicant pool. To be honest, I would pretty much eliminate all top 20 schools out of your list of possibilities. The only way that I could see any top 20 school happening is if you get a 1520+ on the SAT and have great ECs.

May I ask what happened in these math classes? I’d not list a STEM major on my apps because of those crucial math subjects. Are you interested in anything else?

I mean as a sophomore, don’t I have opportunities to redeem myself?

My teachers didn’t really like me, I was the youngest kid in the class and a minority in an all-white school.

It’s a sort of ‘no excuses’ situation. If you’re truly interested, learn what they want besides stats and work on the ECs…

I think what everyone is telling you is don’t make anymore grades below A, work your butt off, write a kick A application and then just see what happens. There are certainly serious deficiencies you must work around now, and those have probably already closed the deal for most of these places, doubly so if you stick with STEM. It’s up to you how bad you want to try to make this happen though, but if it keeps on like this then there’s no way. And I think everyone on here has had a teacher they didn’t particularly like or who didn’t care for them. (That’s life!) Admissions won’t care unfortunately. I don’t see Duke happening after those math grades. It’s too important of an area to fudge up in and the competition is fierce.

Will it make a difference if I retake these classes online and get an A? I actually already retook Pre-Calculus Online and got an A, so I might do the same for AP Calc AB

I disagree with most of the people you see here. Getting a bad grade doesn’t immediately merit disqualification from top schools. Try to take a more rigorous schedule in 11th and 12th grades (5+ AP a year) and get As/5s. This shows you improve over time, something colleges will like to see. However, if a downward trend starts as you take more APs, you probably won’t get in.

Hope this helped

What online class does AP and is it free?

Calculus is normally either a senior year high school class or a freshman university class. You are taking it as a high school sophomore. Worse still, you are taking it as a sophomore after getting a C in pre-calculus as a freshman in high school.

The problem is that you have jumped too far ahead in math. Math probably more than anything else is a subject where what you learn today is based on what you learned last week and last month and last year and the year before. What you are going to learn next year is going to be based on what you are learning this year and what you learned last year.

I think that you are learning a very important lesson here which will be valuable for the rest of your life: It is not a big gain to jump ahead in super rigorous subjects before you are ready.

I was a math major at a well known top US university. There really are subjects in math that are a LOT more difficult than calculus. Take them when you are ready, and not earlier.

For now you may need to either drop calculus and take it next year, or get a tutor and do extra work after school.

Yeah… do you think I still have a shot?

You’ve got C grades in precalc and AP calc, B grades in bio, but despite this STEM blip, you say you want a STEM major at a top college or tippy top. You seem to have limited ECs, I’m not sure any are in STEM. These are all issues top adcoms will see.

We’ve been saying that makes any top shot uncertain, at best. Maybe unlikely. You need realistic safeties and matches.

You need to stop asking for assurances, as a mid year soph snd learn what various targets look for.