<p>My son was offered admission to a Big Ten school. He immediately accepted and told other schools of his decision. He was struggling in an AP Chemistry class but thought he would pull out a C for the second semester. However, he received his final grade and it turned out to be a D-. It turned out that he was suppose to turn in some labs, that the teacher had previously graded, but wanted them included in a year end binder. The teacher refuses to change the grade.</p>
<p>We are devastated because his high school counselor tells us that the college may revoke their admission offer. He is suppose to write a letter explaining the situation, except he can't explain much except that he was unaware that he had to resubmit labs that were previously graded.</p>
<p>We are looking for parents who had similar problems and what courses of action can we take.</p>
<p>A friend’s daughter went through something similar. He was able to ask daughter’s guidance counselor for help–the counselor talked to some people at the college admissions and worked out something. It ended okay, but if not for the assistance of the GC it might have turned out differently.</p>
<p>Do you have a helpful and well-connected GC?</p>
<p>I don’t think that the son’s GC can speak for the college. In truth, very, very few people get admissions revoked, and it is more likely to be for a serious academic failure across multiple classes, or a serious honor code violation like plagarism, murder, etc.</p>
<p>Why not have your son call the Admissions office, and get the straight scoop from them? It will help if he comes clean with them directly, takes full responsibility for his actions, and asks them what to do, rather than waiting, or having a parent call for him. It will show he can own his mistake, and knows how to seek resolution rather than avoid the issue, and ultimately, that is the kind of thing that goes over big at colleges.</p>
<p>Of course, you might want to coach him on how to explain the situation without blaming the teacher or the policy, and how to explain it in a way that neither minimizes his fault nor maximizes his error.</p>
<p>What is with some of these hs teachers? Why on earth would a teacher want to ruin a kids future over remembering to put previously scored labs in a binder? These people have no business teaching.</p>
<p>If the student is in New York the schools are required to keep the student lab reports for six months as part of the process for getting Regent’s credit for the exam. It may not be entirely the teacher’s fault.</p>
<p>Many NYS parents are unaware of the Regentsk requirement - - and similar requirements may exist in other states. But if the student tendered the labs late, the teacher’s refusal to make any upward modification seems unreasonable. OTOH, the student shouldn’t get full credit since his submission was late - - but half a loaf . . . .</p>
<p>I don’t think the uni will rescing admission. Colleges/unis tend to be far more flexible about late papers, incompletes, etc. But the low grade may mean that the student starts out on academic probation.</p>
<p>Well, the grade will be apparent when the final school report is sent. I’d advise your son to get out in front of he situation by calling the Admissions Office and discussing the situation with an officer, then following up with a thank you letter in which he restates the circumstances around the D- (so that his explanation is available to others in Admissions besides the individual who receives his phone call. If this one grade ia an anomaly on his record, I can’t imagine that the university would want to take any drastic action.</p>
<p>In defense of the teacher the student may have gotten “half a loaf” with the D- instead of an F in the class! I agree with Gadad’s excellent advice. I don’t think admission will be rescinded if the student handles this well.</p>
<p>I agree that merely forgetting to put in some labs in a notebook shouldn’t be such a grade killer, but I have seen some serious senioritis hit kids in that last semester when they have college all sewn up.</p>
<p>What is the final year end grade? Most schools just send the final grade which is the overall grade for the year. If your son got a B or C first semester, he just might squeeze out with a C for the year. Your son should ask to see exactly what will be or was sent to the college.</p>