<p>How about offering to take the same general type of class at a community college this summer? That might help show ability and motivation.</p>
<p>AP English? I don’t think they have that kind of class at community college. Again, it is pretty much a one-off event. I would bet heavily he will be fine.</p>
<p>fallenchemist - you are right, but unfortunately you have the F elephant in the room. If it were not for that big red flag, the B- would not be a problem. Unfortunately it is a cummulation of items that causes a potential problem. Not that it can not be solved, but one must take care in how to solve it. I would reccomend that the OP give the situation a lot of thought and prepare answers prior to taking the next step. Everything has an answer and solution, it is just best if one has the answers for the obvious questions.</p>
<p>AP English is like English 101 in colleges. Might be worth a try.
Or, for a direct match, consider an Online AP English class such as from Indiana University high school.</p>
<p>kollegkid - That all might be, but you are missing the point as to why a red flag was raised. It is not a question of passing a specific class (or equivilant) - it is a point of why there was an F to begin with. This along with the multiple B- grades is the question that must be answered for the admissions people. Is this a projection for freshman year in college or is it just an aborition - that is the question. Answer it in an acceptable way and everything will be OK - answer it without a good explantion - and there will be a problem. If you believe it or not is your choice - but you will find that my posts have been quite spot on in the past.</p>
<p>kollegkid- there is no equivalent to AP English, since you can’t use it to pass out of Writing 1 (engineering being the exception).</p>
<p>Will the teacher change the grade if OP scores a 4 or a 5 on the AP test?</p>
<p>nah no way. i’m pretty sure i will get a 4 or 5 though.</p>
<p>Well, I would think surely if you get a 4 or 5 on the exam, the F becomes even more of an abberation. Then you are in the position (possibly) of having to explain why you were so late with the assignments. I am sure you will work it out.</p>
<p>What people seem to be missing, is the crux of the problem. The problem being, that there was an F to begin with. Getting a 4 or 5 on the AP exam does not make that fact go away. Combine that with 4 B- grades and there are absolute red flags for admissions. Is it a lack of focus, is it a trend that will continue, is there a good explanation, is the OP willing to accept responsibility? These are all questions that are possible areas of concern and the OP should be ready to provide suitable answers and possible solutions. Once again, aberration or not - it is still the “elephant in the room”.</p>
<p>I think you are scaring the kid. He gets it that he has to explain it. No one is missing the crux, but I think you might be overblowing it too. I cannot believe Wash U is so unforgiving of one mistake, and I don’t think the B-'s are that big a deal. Lots of second semester seniors slack off some. I know kids that have gotten a couple of C’s and no one said a word, even at schools like Duke and Harvard. True, they did not have F’s. But if (and it is still an if) he were to get a 4 or 5 on the AP, and this F is essentially the only blemish on his record (B-'s for 2nd semester seniors are not that bad, and he did get an A-), then making a major issue of this would be a pretty hardass attitude on Wash U’s part. He did graduate, after all, and he is an 18 year old that has worked hard to get to a point that he got into a school as selective as Wash U. Lots of people would relax some at that point. OK, he went a little overboard, apparently, but who said 18 year olds were supposed to show great judgement all the time? If he did something equivalent to this at 30 I would worry more about his maturity level.</p>
<p>Assuming we have all the facts, I would be very disappointed if Wash U did something as drastic as rescinding an offer. That would be quite extreme.</p>
<p>Anyway, we can speculate all we want. The only thing now is for him to find out.</p>
<p>You know, it also strikes me as odd that when a person has a bad semester at the very start of high school but then does well the rest of the way, they will often ignore that first semester. Sure, I know they like to see trends heading the right way. But I would say that there are equally understandable reasons a person might take their foot off the gas when there really isn’t much reason to try for the straight A’s any longer. Given that, it also seems to me to be just as valid not to read too much into one bad semester at the very end. Given the practicality of the circumstances at that point (i.e. barring not graduating the grades mean almost nothing, unless there are scholarships riding on maintaining them), how does it necessarily raise red flags that a person acts like an 18 year old kid, and if this were an economics problem, one could even say behaving rationally?</p>
<p>Scaring - I don’t believe so - presenting scenarios - yes I believe so. With a proactive approach and a well laid out plan of action, the OP should be able to solve the problem. In cases like these it is better to be proactive instead of reactive. Worst case scenario I would immagine would be probation to start freshman year. You might be amazed at what a red flag an F in a core subject throws up.</p>
<p>Well, probation is not rescision. And I don’t know, but is AP English really a “core subject”? I guess for Wash U maybe it is. So he takes freshman English no matter what his AP score or whatever. And I am asumming he did not get an F first semester. Actually, it would be interesting to know what that grade was. Anyway, no sense speculating more. My point was that I thought rescision would have been quite extreme based on the facts presented, and now you seem to agree. I am not amazed an F throws up a flag, I just would be amazed if they said “You can’t come here”. And that was his fear.</p>
<p>From an adult perspective - I agree totally with fallenchemist. There is a “fear of success” factor though that the original poster needs to be aware of in college. I had an anxiety attack senior year in college and didn’t finish one class my final year in a class I could have easily made an A in. I was ashamed and went back to the school eight years later after getting the Dean’s permission to make it up and get my degree. I had close to a 4.0 before this crazy depression. It seemed the story was common enough and even my big university bent over backwards to help me finish.
Take the words of encouragement you hear to heart. Admissions people want students to succeed and with this lesson behind you and owning up to your mistakes… you will probably work very hard to deserve that second chance.</p>
<p>fallenchemist - I think you and I are on the same page. I just wanted to make sure that the OP was aware of how important damage control was at this point in the process. Just ignoring it could have had very severe consequences - being proactive gives OP a good shot at fixing the situation. Fs are a much bigger flag than most people realize - it is more about the why than the original event. My point was to get the OP to realize how serious a situation they might be facing.</p>
<p>Are you full pay?</p>
<p>I think it is dependent on your “normal grades” also. Are B’s consistent with your normal grades, or do you usually get straight A’s and this entire semester is lower than average. Either way I doubt you will have any trouble if you explain yourself.</p>
<p>I have to say that for those still on the waitlist who will never have a chance to attend Wash U. I wish you the best, but wonder what admissions found so appealing in the first place. For those of us who didn’t hand in late papers, who kept working as hard as possible, who improved our GPA and continued to participate in sports, school government, etc, etc, etc, I wonder ‘what about us?’ Clearly you are smart and have the ability to do amazing things. I’m not sure you have the integrity, maturity, or determination to make the most of the incredible opportunity you seem willing to throw away.</p>
<p>It’s fine. don’t even worry about it.</p>