Hi, I’m a senior who has been accepted into Macaulay Honors College at one of the CUNYs (I’m not going to say which one because I’m slightly paranoid of people I know recognizing me from this post since the number of Macaulay students is small lol).
So my grades are generally good this year (mostly A-'s, 1 or 2 As, a B). However, AP computer science is the BIG problem for me. Honestly, it’s just not a class I should have taken. I’ve fallen behind because I go to a competitive specialized high school and almost everyone in my class has had experience with coding. I can answer conceptual questions, but I can barely code. There’s only a few more assessments left to pull my grade up, and I’m thinking that I will end the year with a D.
And I understand so many people post these “will I get rescinded???” worries, but I find my situation especially ambiguous. Macaulay is great, but it’s still not as rigorous as Ivies/other top tier schools and I feel like it doesn’t have a reputation for rescinding students. Also, my counselor noted that the fact that I was accepted into Macaulay when I got a C (almost C-) first semester for comp sci is a good sign. Another thing to add is that I am majoring in psychology/therapy, so I’m not interested in taking anything even remotely related to computer science. However, a D is a D. Do you guys think I’d get my admission revoked? If someone could share their thoughts (especially a person familiar with the CUNY system), that would be great.
And for anyone who is curious, I have alot of extracurriculars and a 2200 on the SAT. I think my winning point was the fact that I’m a good writer and spent alot of time on my application essays. I’m also well-spoken so my Macaulay interview went really well. I’ve never gotten lower than a C before so you can imagine my worries. This is not my main concern at the moment, but also, I know a D won’t stop me from graduating, but does it mean I have to go to summer school? I’ve never heard of students going to summer school for computer science lmao
Thanks for taking the time to read this! No weird replies please, I’ve been extremely anxious/depressed because of this whole situation ha X_X
Most likely end of the year grade My teacher is strict, so while there is a possibility that I end the year with a C/C-, I think he will grade quite harshly.
Then I disagree with your GC and you should contact the college now. Ask what the impact would be. Then if necessary get your parents involved with your school about a way ahead.
I wonder why your counselor said not to contact them. Most colleges want to work with students facing some problems. For example Davis wrote
I don’t see why CUNY would be any different.
That said, this class may be giving you a signal that you can ignore or use. If your teacher is giving closed-book exams where you need to have memorized arcane syntax rules that’s one thing, but since you write " I can answer conceptual questions, but I can barely code." my guess is it’s something different. You don’t really understand the material. At a hand-waving level it’s easy to talk about the concepts such as recursion or operator overloading, but the thing about CS is that writing programs forces you to prove that you really understand. You need to break the concept down into a series of steps. If you can’t do it then you don’t really know the material.
Even though it sounds like you plan on staying as far away from CS as possible in college, expect that classes even in subjects like psychology is going to go into much more depth than you have seen in HS. It isn’t exactly CS, but you will need similar levels of attention to detail and the ability to move from the big picture to the small and back. Given your SAT learning the CS material should have been well within your capabilities. So there are probably areas you can/need to improve in study skills or time spent studying.
For 2015, the mean GPA/SAT/ACT for CUNY Macaulay Honors College (MCH) were:
GPA: 94
SAT: 1410 (M+CR)
ACT: 32 (COMP)
I don’t think one D would result in a significant drop in your GPA that would trigger your acceptance being rescind.
Is CUNY Macaulay Honors College your top choice? Why are you overly worried about one school? BTW, the fact that you mentioned a Macaulay interview, doesn’t that tipped your hand as to the college (psychology happens to be the number one major at this institution also).?
I’m not entirely sure why my counselor advised on that as well. I think she was implying that my situation is not urgent enough to warrant a phone call/email as of now. Maybe I will send an email, though.
Edit: To note, this college doesn’t have a senior year grade requirement, so maybe this is another reason my GC said that. But again, not sure.
I get your point. Not to make excuses, but I did start off the year on the wrong foot. As it was the one class I had no prior knowledge of, I needed to discipline myself and study extra harder (not that I didn’t try) but things happened in my personal life so I kind of just spiraled down. I assure you that normally, I have always put extra effort into classes I found harder and managed to pull up my grades.
(My previous comment is my thoughts on why my GC might have said that)
Mostly worried because I’m almost completely set on committing there :-S I like the programs offered at the college and the fact that many things like tuition are free (out of the colleges I was accepted into, I like NYU and MHC at this college the most, but I can’t afford NYU at all).
Thanks for your input! And sorry, can you explain what you meant by “the fact that you mentioned a Macaulay interview, doesn’t that tipped your hand as to the college”?
See if there is someone in the class who would be willing to tutor you. Maybe someone could devote many hours over a weekend to helping you catch up before the final. They could either charge a fee or count it as volunteer hours.
My teacher is strict, so while there is a possibility that I end the year with a C/C-, I think he will grade quite harshly.