I’m in my first semester of my senior year, but it’s coming to an end January 26th. I’ve applied to four UC’s and 5 Cal States. I have far over a 3.0 GPA (average of A’s and B’s, two C’s), am highly involved in and outside of school, and am taking rigorous classes, but as of right now, I have a 70% in AP Calculus AB with the potential of dropping down to a D…my questions are:
If I were to receive a D first semester, but a C or better second semester in AP Calculus AB, will the D be overlooked?
I'm 100% not slacking or a prey of senioritis, math has always been difficult for me; I can't seem to retain the difficult concepts. How do I let my colleges know that?
Would they not care for the D because it's not a required a-g course? (I've taken Geometry, Algebra II, and Pre-Calculus throughout my high school years and Algebra I in eight grade)
Is there a way to take a credit recovery class and still have potential of getting accepted/not have an admission rescinded?
I’m freaking out and need advice. I’m striving really hard to boost my grade before time is too late.
For the UC’s, if you get anything less than a C in an a-g course, you need to contact UC admissions. If you get a D 1st Semester, but a C 2nd Semester, your D is validated by the C. It will depend upon your provisional admission contract and the stated requirements. For most UC’s you need a 3.0 weighted GPA with D’s or F’s Senior year. For UCB/UCLA, you need a 3.0 UW GPA and no more than 2 C’s Senior year.
For the Cal States, some do state that a D in any course Senior year could result in your admission being rescinded (SDSU). This will vary from school to school.
I suggest you contact UC admission as required and find out what kind of options are available. I would also contact the Cal States and let them know of the situation and again what are your options.
From the UC Website:::
Freshmen: If you change schools, add or drop a course, or fail to earn a C or better in a course after you submit your application, you must notify the UC Application Center by email or postal mail. Your correspondence must include your name, UC Application ID number and your signature (if you mail a letter), and will be available to all the campuses to which you applied.
If you receive an offer of admission, be sure to confirm with the campus admission office that they are aware of the deficient grade or schedule changes. Although you must notify the campus of these changes, we cannot guarantee that a campus can go back to review an application after correspondence has been received. Make sure to save a copy of your correspondence just in case.
UC Application Center
P.O. Box 1432
Bakersfield, CA 93302
This situation is why schools have provisional admission. Better to take the initiative and find out what you can do to remedy the situation than waiting until your final transcript is due and face being rescinded.
Let me suggest a different take on this. Rather than “let my colleges know” and assuming this lets you off the hook for these grades, what if you saw this as telling you something about your study skills and habits? It’s how adcoms will see it. Perhaps not a good idea, then, to go to extra effort to call this to their attention
A lot of kids get thru HS on their native smarts and ability to use language. For most classes they can remember enough to pass multiple-choice tests, and a few remembered facts coupled with verbal dexterity turns into essays that work. This approach starts to fray in science and math classes, and I can promise you that at a UC it won’t work in liberal arts classes either. A clue that you aren’t studying effectively is this
For a lot of kids getting the math homework done is sitting with the book and flipping back to find a similar problem in the chapter, massaging it until it works, rinse and repeat. If you can’t sit down with the homework and solve the problems without flipping back to the chapter it is no surprise you can’t do so on closed-book tests either. Reading the chapter a few times before the test and then one last time in class before the test starts gets some concepts in mind, but only temporarily and (as you noted) not the complex ones.
So instead of trying to persuade colleges to accept a lower-performing student, let me advise raising your performance. Over the break you should read the book “Make it Stick” about what research has revealed about effective ways to learn along with advice on how to apply it for HS and college kids. You’ll learn about things like distributed practice and self-testing, 2 things few HS kids know about or do. If you take the time now to begin developing better study habits it will pay off 2nd semester in HS and give you a jump on getting ready for college.
Are you seeing your teacher often after school for help? Can you get a tutor or even a friend who is proficient in the subject to help you? Have you gone through online study help such as the Khan academy?
Thank you so much! I’m not giving up yet, I still have time to raise my grade. Rumors are my teacher will give an extra assignment to help me from earning a D so I’m going to talk to him tomorrow.
