Hi I’m a senior who applied ED.
Here are the classes I’m taking:
-AP Physics
-AP Calc BC
-AP US Gov
-AP French
-IB History 2 HL
-Science Research (H)
-AP Literature and Composition
-AP Computer Science A
AP Computer Science and AP US Government are online classes–I definitely think I underestimated the work load that comes with them. AP US Gov hasn’t been bad, but AP Computer Science is driving me crazy. I spend my entire weekend on it, whenever I have a new project I have to go back and reread everything and do it all over again. There isn’t really a teacher–he just assigns us pages to read in a textbook. It all makes no sense to me. To make things worse, two weeks ago we had this huge wind storm in Maine that caused power outages all over the state. My power was out and I had no Wifi so I couldn’t post on the discussion forum or hand in a project. I told my teacher this, and he basically said that if I was a better student than I would have found a way to do the work. There were power outages all over the state! Plus my project was on my home desktop computer, not a laptop. I told him this, and he still lowered my grade because he said it was late. This class is literally draining my sanity. My grade is subpar and I know it will only get worse as the year progresses. Since it is an online class, I think I can drop it fairly easily before my first quarter ends this week, but is this a good idea? I already submitted my application and it says that I am taking it. If I drop it, I will have to contact admissions. Will this hurt me? I regret taking this class so much, I am not the type of person who can do online learning. I really need a teacher. If I drop it I feel like I will be much happier and less stressed.
OK guys what if I found a similar class at a local University that I can take next semester instead. Does that look better then just flat-out dropping it, because I’m not dropping because of the material necessarily, mostly the teacher and the online learning environment.
You can PM me if you like about specifics. One of my kids took AP US History online and had the same problem with no teacher, and the exam questions were out of left field. We complained and the teacher called her every weekend. That does NOT sound like a solution for you.
The teacher’s response about the power outage is not reasonable. No power, no wifi, there should have been an extension.
Computer science is not required by any schools that I know of. Are you hoping to major in CS? Why do you feel obliged to take this at all?
I would definitely drop it. Your guidance counselor can explain that you had a power outage and had to drop out of the CS class (though how did you stay in the Gov. class?). Or you can write a note the GC can include with your transcript that you dropped the class due to power outage and in addition there was no teaching, only a textbook.
Do you know any programming languages? Check out Khan Academy or EdX. Find a mentor. Take a community college or university class but ONLY if you have a good reason to. There are many ways to learn CS if you have a strong desire to do so, but don’t do it for admissions sake.
If you don’t expect to major in CS dropping it should be absolutely fine and it is probably fine even if you do want to major in it, if you are strong in math.
@compmom the gov teacher has been much more flexible, and he uploads a 2 hour lecture to go with each unit. I didn’t have anything due for gov the week of the power-outage, so that was no problem. I’m not planning on majoring in comp sci. On my application I put biomedical engineering & public health. I am not taking the class as a requirement, I just wanted to learn more about computer science. I am also not taking AP Gov because of a requirement (we only have to do 2.5 credits of social studies at my school and I am already exceeding that with IB History). I was hoping to have fun in the class and just learn, and I expected it to be pretty chill because it’s an online class but it has been awful. I was under the impression that it wasn’t a good idea to drop a class after submitting your application, but if I tell them what I told you guys and take the comp sci class at the community college next semester then I figured it would be OK. I didn’t think it was a huge deal, especially with the rest of my course load, but I’m stressing out about it.
Imo, you can drop CS and note in Addl Info (and in the 2nd semester course list) that you’re hoping to restart. A lot of kids have good stories about taking CS, but it’s still relatively new and not taught consistently. That can make it less critical than some others.
You can send an email, short and positive. I do think maybe it can be good to mention you’ve started Khan or EdX, show the curiosity is there. Be careful any mention of the power outages isn’t too excuse-y. It’s real (friends in Maine were out for days, other New England places, too,) but the point is your curiosity and that impression.
I don’t think you have to take it next semester either. Since your application is already in, talk to your guidance counselor and let the college(s) know you dropped the class because the online version of CS was unsatisfactory and a power outage affected its delivery as well.
Just make sure you notify Brown (and any other colleges where you’ve sent applications) as soon as you drop the class. If you were already accepted this would be an issue, but you just need to amend your application so that when they review it, that class is no longer on there.