Hi all,
I am a high school senior looking to apply to UC schools. The problem is that for the first semester of my junior year I was enrolled in distance learning due to the pandemic and got a D grade because of faulty internet for months in my rural area. The next semester in in-person school I got a B. Now I know that UCs have a strict policy on no grades below a C. I wanted to retake this course before submitting my application however the issue is that my school does not offer rigorous courses in the program for credit recovery, only regular ones. I am afraid that the D will not be overwritten. However, I do have a 3 on the AP APUSH exam itself. I emailed the admissions office for UC and they said this:
Keep in mind that taking approved high school (A-G) courses isn’t the only way to satisfy these requirements. You also may meet them by completing college courses or earning certain scores on various acceptable exams.
If I have a D on my transcript for the AP class and retaking the regular level class won’t help, would a 3 on the AP exam itself overwrite the chance of my application not getting looked at all? Or should I still retake the regular year-long us history course to have it mixed in with the grades currently on my transcript for that class (D, B)?
Also, while dealing with bad internet in distance learning in the first semester I also received an F in my art 2 electives, but I already completed two one-semester courses in the same discipline (Art 1 A second semester freshman year and the A from my second semester of junior year, I took drama first semester of freshman year with an A). Would I have to self-report this class or do you recommend retaking it online as well? Another thing is that I retook a course for my F in Dual Enrollment biology, and the recovery course was regular biology so I’m wondering if the UCs would count of out of state Dual Enrollment course as a regular as well. The catch is that the year prior I’ve already taken biology for a full year with straight A’s. Would it be bad to even report the second set of biology my junior year because it would appear if I took the same exact bio courses two years in a row as they are both not UC Honor approved? Thanks if you read through all of my worried rambling. 
I forgot to mention that I am out of state!
Sorry to hear about the Covid issues you faced academically and you are not alone, but the UC’s are highly competitive and very strict on making sure you complete all the a-g course requirements with passing grades.
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An AP score of 3 or above will fulfill the US History requirement but you are still required to report all grades received.
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If you do not retake the exact same class/semester, then the D in AP USH will not be replaced and will be calculated into your UC GPA unfortunately. You can retake the 1st semester of APUSH on-line but the grade needs to be reported by Nov 30th on the UC Application.
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Although you took 2 semesters of art courses in the same discipline, if they are not the exact same courses you received the F’s in, then they will not be replaced and you have to report all the courses with the corresponding grades. Again, they will be calculated into your UC GPA.
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A regular Biology course does not replace the DE Biology course grade so again you have to report the grades for both these courses.
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If you are OOS, then there are no UC approved Honors courses, only AP/IB and UC transferable DE courses.
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You have to report all a-g courses that are listed on your HS and College/DE transcript and you will be required to send all transcripts if accepted and enroll in any of the UC’s.
The issue for you is that even if you retake the exact same classes, the UC’s will admit on grades from 10-11th so even if these courses are in-progress, there are no grades to report by the application deadline.
Before applying, you should calculate your 3 UC GPA’s to make sure you meet the minimum GPA requirement for OOS or at least be competitive and also make sure you meet all the a-g course requirements.
You will not be automatically rejected unless you do not meet the minimum a-g course requirements or UC capped GPA.
https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
Thanks for your response. The two semesters I received in A in are both the only art courses my school offers so they are the same but at different levels (A in art1 one semester, A in art 2 second semester). Does this work out? Also, I plan to retake a class starting tomorrow online and plan to finish it by the app deadline. My counselor said it would fall under 11th-grade coursework on my transcript. Would they be considered, then? Also, how do I know if my DE course is UC-transferable?
If the Art 2 is the class you received the F and you retook Art 2, then it will replace the F grade but you still have to report the original and repeat grades.
If you retake a class and you receive a grade prior to the application deadline, then you would report that grade on the UC application along with the original grade.
Each UC will determine if the DE course is UC transferable but regardless, it still has to be reported and you have to submit a transcript if you enroll so you cannot leave it off.
Since I already have two semesters in visual arts that are A’s which is the A-G requirement, would not retaking the first failed semester of Art 2 still make me automatically rejected because it is an F grade with no passing redo? The credit recovery program my school offers does not contain an Art 2 class, but I could complete a course in visual arts. Would this be able to overwrite the F since my school does not provide anything else and it is the closest equivalent that I have access to?
The F is not an automatic reject but it will be calculated into your UC GPA’s. Since UC’s are test blind, GPA is heavily weighted and it will affect your admission chances.
Grade replacement needs to be the same class. If the other course is very similar, then it could replace the F but up to the UC’s to make that determination.
I would contact UC admissions along with the syllabus from each course to see if they can give you an answer.
https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/contact-us.html
Don’t forget that the UC’s are very expensive for non-residents. Tuition and fees add up to about $67,000 per year. The UC’s are funded by state taxpayers, so there’s no extra money to go around for non-residents. Scholarships do exist but they’re very competitive and they’re for very minimal dollars ($2k-$5k).
I do have a concern, given your history of low grades, and having to repeat courses. Most of the UC‘s are on a quarter system, which means you have 10 weeks to prove yourself within a course. The UC‘s are very competitive schools and have some of the best students in the country. A number of students have perfect grades without having to repeat classes. Some of the general education courses, at the UC’s, have huge numbers of students in their classrooms (200 to 500 in some). The pace of the courses is very rapid covering intense material.
If you’ve been having difficulties, in high school, how will you meet the pace and the competitiveness of a UC school? That’s my concern for you; it’s a lot of money for a nonresident student.