<p>A drop of a full letter grade in most subjects is not always necessarily due to senioritis... Take for example, AP Physics C...</p>
<p>My counselor gives all her kids an article about senioritis. A guy got accepted to his topd choice school (lets say NYU for kicks). However, he did pretty badly in his classes that year. Just a week or two before he was supposed to be moving to his dorms, the school called and rescinded its admissions offer. Scary! He went to summer school and eventually got reaccepted the next year, but just goes to show that yes, colleges do look at grades!!</p>
<p>That is why it's not wise to load up with the most APs and then get a C grade in a bunch of them. A kid in my D's class went for the most leadership position for his EC and he got a D in his AP Chem. His parents were so upset. But if a student lobbied for a leadership position, he'd better make sure he can handle it.
As a parent, I'm also watching my D to see if she is performing well in Senior year. I'm not throwing $50K a year so she can slack off in college either. I can understand and see why Senior year grades are important from the Adcom's point of view. Are they willing to take a risk on the studend who does not do well in Senior year where he/she is a little closer to college.
My 99cents</p>
<p>Dumb question to all: What qualifies as not doing well? B's, B+'s. C's??????? or does it depend on student's individual trends?????</p>
<p>I heard B+ average.</p>
<p>Assuming mid-year? Phew....getting nervous there......</p>
<p>I'm usually an A-/A person (through freshman-junior year), but this year, my quarter 1 average is exactly a B+ average... I could hopefully get it up to a B+/A- average by semester, but my retarded school sent out quarter 1 grades to ALL schools (including RD)... How screwed am O?</p>
<p>If a strong student has taken a significant jump in terms of the rigor of their curriculum for their senior year as compared to their junior year, admissions offices still want to see that the student is performing well - meaning getting As and Bs. We understand that some courses <em>might</em> be a little tougher than others for particular students. For example, if a student takes pre-calculus their junior year and gets an A and then elects to take AP Calculus BC in the senior year and pulls a B, they're still doing well. A C would be damaging in any major course at midyear, although a recommendation from the teacher telling us how hard the student is working to get that C would help out! There are plenty of students who get in to top schools every year with C grades, possibly lower depending on the circumstances. However, you shouldn't aim for C and D grades - you should be aiming for A and B grades while still ENJOYING the courses you are taking. </p>
<p>The point is you shouldn't be slacking. If you are a straight-A student and near the top of your class and you're pulling only B and B- grades in your senior year, admissions officers are going to think you're slacking or not up for the challenge of a rigorous coure load. It is that simple. Do your best.</p>
<p>One final note: although we usually have to split hairs at most selective colleges and universities when making our final decisions, I've found that most students who have significant dips in their senior years tend not to have been "in the running," necessarily, in the first place. For students who are academically competitive and personally compelling for admission to these schools, getting a B in one or two courses in the senior year - if taking a most demanding curriculum - wouldn't be the only reason a thin envelope would arrive in April. Students are usually not denied for one simple B grade.</p>
<p>What about at less selective colleges?</p>
<p>I already got into Michigan State ED, and I think I will end up with a C or a D in my Calc class this semester. My previous GPA (the one I was admitted with) was a 3.5, but I could see this semesters dipping as low as a 3.0.</p>
<p>How likely is it that acceptance would be revoked? (If it helps, I wasn't really a borderline accept, it was a pretty solid accept at State with a 3.5 and 29 ACT.)</p>
<p>^^Zero. People get into State with 3.0s</p>
<p>I've definitely answered the question about mid-year and final grades on the forums before. Every year, there are a few cases where the final grades arrive and we see a significant (and going from an A to a B is not significant, IMO) drop in grades or we see all the great courses from first semester dropped. </p>
<p>Some threads:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-virginia/304418-just-wondering.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-virginia/304418-just-wondering.html</a>
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-virginia/306118-anybody-know-stories-senior-hs-students-getting-kicked-out.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/university-virginia/306118-anybody-know-stories-senior-hs-students-getting-kicked-out.html</a></p>
<p>ITS HUGE! Let me tell you a TRUE story. I dont know this kid, but it was in the newspapers. About two years ago. </p>
<p>This kid was a TOP student in his high school. Top 10%. He got accepted in state to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. No small feat. Chapel Hill is EXTREMELY competitive, even for in state kids. I know kids in the top 15% who get ROUTINELY rejected or waitlisted. Well this kid applied early action and decided to slack off, crowing to all his buddies about how he was going to be tarheel! He slacked off so much he started skipping classes. Senior Slack was an understatement. Guess what happened? He failed two courses! Guess what happened next? Even though he did remedial work and graduated, the transcript was tarnished forever. Chapel Hill RESCINDED his offer of admission. He sued, saying it was a "contract" after he accepted their offer. The court threw it out and said, "you deserved the punishment they gave you. Its nobodies fault but your own. Case dismissed."</p>
<p>Be warned! DO NOT SLACK OFF.</p>
<p>And there is a huge difference between senior slack (or being lazy in Junior year for that matter) and having a really tough course, or really poor instructor or an external situation that can be explained. Not all bad grades are the fault of the student. Bad teachers exist. My D had a bad grade in junior honors precalculus. Her teacher was a nightmare. A monster. A vindictive and pinheaded human being. Numerous parents complained and NOTHING was done. She took the high road and tried to explain in her application that she had struggled mightily and did her very best to improve....which she did....but that B in the fourth quarter was NOT strong enough to pull the semester average above a C. I know of one college in particular that just summarily rejected her because of that grade. I know because we called and they made reference to it. Their loss in my view! How shallow! And considering she took the high road and did NOT complain to them about the awful teacher. The real coup de grace was that the next year enough parents complained and he was put on probation, though being a public school nothing will be done. The point is, that grades matter, whether you like it or not and whether you deserve the grade or not. Its what adcoms have to use to gauge your likelihood of success at their school. Some of them are compassionate and give you a full reading and some of them are not....and reject ANY application with a grade below B in a major course. </p>
<p>What happened to my D? She ultimately got accepted at 6 schools, 4 with scholarship money. She took AP Stats senior year to avoid another debacle with calculus and the fact that her monster teacher had spoiled her perspective. She did EXTREMELY well in Stats and scored a 4 on the national AP exam. She is now a freshman in college, very happy and thriving. The school that rejected her missed a real gem of a student, but an even better person. Oh well, life goes on.</p>