<p>You are asking if it’s all going to be okay. It likely is, yes. But if you are asking if her grade in Physics could affect her acceptance to some of the most selective schools in the country, the answer is also yes. She may still get accepted, and she may not even have been accepted with straight A.s, but yes, a drop in grades can be a reason why she gets a WL rather than an “in”. </p>
<p>There was a statement how a counselor at a high school was aghast to find out that a 4 out of 5 he gave in some ratings for a top student was what kept him out of Yale, something he found out from the Yale admissions officer. When there are so many top students to consider, the job comes down for reason to eliminate, any reason, rather than reason to accept, so anything that one can use to discern a student from the group of those being considered, like a B on the midterm report, when it’s all factor even and only so many can be picked, yes, of course anything like this could knock a kid out. </p>
<p>However, if it helps, I do know kids who got into HPYMSC with a B, some Bs, even a C. And I know a whole lot of kids who were not accepted with straight As. So unless you can get the admissions officer to say right out that the B was the reason for rejection, after any such rejection, you never know if it was a factor. Only when accepted can you know it was not.</p>
<p>The B in AP Physics will not be the reason she is rejected from Yale, if she is rejected, as long as she was not marketing herself as someone with a passion for physics and engineering. </p>
<p>I am an Engineer and I took Multi-variable Calculus Sophomore year of college. So it is not surprising that it is challenging. </p>
<p>As far as Physics…this is a learning opportunity. I would say to her: Up until now, your study methods worked for you. As you are taking college level courses, you are finding out that what worked before is not working now. Let’s see what you can change to be more successful in Physics. It is much better that she figured this out now rather than in college.<br>
So what can you do? Get a tutor. Go to “office hours”. Form a study group. Get a different book that has practice problems.</p>
<p>Be glad that she might get one B or C grade among a report card full of A grades, instead of being one of the students posting in the annual wave of “will my admission to ____ get rescinded?” posts (that seem to be starting already) because they are getting sub-3.0 GPAs or D or F grades in senior year.</p>
<p>Thank you all again for your comments! This is really quite reassuring in quite the right ways; if you all had told me that it didn’t matter at all, I would be a little suspicious. But that’s not what I’m hearing; I’m hearing that it’s not the end of the world, but that she should work on it for the more important reasons of establishing good study habits and learning the material well. I very much agree. I’ve reassured my D with all this, and she seems to be putting herself in the right frame of mind–not beating herself up about it, not freaking out, but continuing to try. She’s getting in contact with the teacher (she has complained all year about the way she teaches and how it doesn’t help her at all, but now she’s at least going to him to discuss her tests and whatnot).</p>
<p>Bound4what: Your comment about Facebook being a potentially more detrimental component of the application was one that I jokingly referenced to my daughter, who immediately got incredibly scared, logged onto Facebook “view as,” and scrolled through the images that were visible, asking me, “Is this pun I made too crude? Do you think they’ll look down on me for using the word ‘damn’ in a comment?” Ah, how she freaks out about everything college these days…</p>
<p>A question for you guys: Now that she’s trying to put herself in the right mindset, she’s trying to relax a little bit more and, as so many of you have said, “enjoy herself.” Except now she’s finding that kind of hard. Knowing she has a Physics grade she’d like to try to keep up, knowing she has to work hard to keep her grades in many of her classes, she doesn’t see that this is that much more free than last semester. How can I encourage her to make sure she’s making the most of this last semester in high school, and how can I help her do so without stressing her out about declining performance?</p>
<p>I’ve found it helpful on other threads when those who were worried/worrying posted their results, sort of as reassurance for the worriers. So, just as an update, my daughter got into Williams College, Barnard, and Vassar. There was disappointment, of course, with her top choices rejecting her. But she’s leaning towards Williams at the moment and I know she’ll find somewhere she’ll thrive. </p>
<p>Fabulous choices! She will succeed wherever she goes. All those choice schools are filled with fabulous, smart, accomplished students. Congrats to her!</p>