Long story short: I ended up with a C in AP Government during the fall semester of 12th grade. My other grades are: AP English, B; AP Art History, A; Web Design/Development, A; Music 161 (Intro. To Electronic Music) at the local community college, A.
The Government class was, in my opinion, intensely ridiculous. My teacher should have retired years ago, for one. She showed us “My Cousin Vinnie,” a comedy, and called it an “accurate representation of the judicial process.” (Sidenote about “My Cousin Vinnie”: she showed us the first hour the day before Winter Break and then we had three weeks to forget everything that happened. This isn’t exactly vital to my story but it’s pretty indicative of something she’d do.). Besides that we’ve seen several fiction movies that have absolutely no educational value but happen to be set in courtrooms which, I suppose, makes them related to government and therefore . Her idea of teaching is putting up a photocopy from the textbook on the overhead and having us copy it exactly and she checks our notes to make certain that we’ve done so. She’ll give bad grades (as in 0/50) for work that was done according to her original assignment but “missed the point” or something equally ridiculous.
Overall, I would call her one of my worst teachers in my entire school career and since I’ve been in LAUSD since kindergarten that’s not exactly a compliment. I’m wondering if I should send a letter to colleges about this, basically. I really don’t want to be kept out of any school I applied to because of this but I don’t want to seem like I’m trying to make up an excuse. This is my 3rd C in high school and the rest of the report is pretty solid (I’ve had a B in English for every semester in High School) so I’m leaning towards not writing a letter at this point but I would appreciate any input. Thanks!
<ol>
<li>What colleges are you applying to?</li>
<li>Whats your drop in rank?</li>
<li>Has everyone in your class done that bad?</li>
<li>Are you just making excuses?</li>
</ol>
<p>If you watched movies, etc, what did you do to get a C? Or not do? Was the C deserved for what you did, or was it like a made up grade the teacher did?</p>
<p>I'm applying to Tufts, UChicago, Bard, Sarah Lawrence, UCSD, UCSC, Skidmore, Haverford, and Macalester. I don't know what my drop in rank was; it was 115/850 (around 13th percentile) previously. I know that several people earned Cs in this class. </p>
<p>I'm "making excuses" if you look only at grades; I could have easily earned an A. That, however, would have involved quite a few pointless assignments that I have absolutely no patience for. I know there are calls of "hur hurr if you don't want 2 learn y r u applying 2 collegez!!!" but this had nothing to do with learning as it was almost entirely busywork. Really, I love government, and I love politics. I will probably be a polisci major in college (if I get into one, LOL!), but I just can't deal with busywork. For most of the semester it felt like the teacher didn't really feel like teaching (and when she did she was not very good at it) so I, coincidentally, didn't feel like learning. I'm not ashamed of the grade by any means, I just don't want colleges to think that I'll "forget how to study" or something along those lines.</p>
<p>Well, just so you know, busy work still needs to get done, so the C is a lesson because you will get other pointless assignments in college. Don't try and explain the C because whatever you say will actually make it look worse. If it was a really hard class with impossible grading, than a C would be okay. I don't think the C will harm your chances though, it may cause the admin people to really look at you so see if the C was a pattern (which it sounds like it was not) and was a fluke. You will be fine and next time, go for the easy A. Imagine, having that extra A to boost the GPA>>>sigh</p>
<p>PS- governent and politics involve a lot of game playing, doing what you don't necessiarily want to do, reading inane reports, etc. And making yourself look good all the time!!!!</p>
<p>I know some schools (UVA is one) ask for student to send a mid-year report themselves, where they enter their grades and there's a section for comments. I would only explain if they college asks like above. And when if do you shouldn't make it sound like it's the teacher's fault like you posted above (it sounds like your making excuses). But you seem to be an overrall good student so you should be okay even though you got a C.</p>
<p>Those schools are competitive enough that a C will stand out, and if left unexplained will make the other Cs on your transcript look less anomalous and more like a pattern. This isn't in the category of a "significant change in your academic standing," but it's worth explaining. (Especially, let's face it, for Tufts and UChicago.)</p>
<p>citygirls mom and NoelB05 have legitimate points, but I think you can make the explanation in such a way that they won't object. Bard, UofC, and Sarah Lawrence might actually like your refusal to waste time on pointless work. Of course, they might not, too, and it wasn't necessarily wise to neglect your homework that much given the caliber of schools you're applying to, but this could be a good opportunity to show your colors.
Good luck to you, whatever you decide to do.</p>
<p>You want to explain it? What do you want to write? "I could have gotten an A, but I didn't want to do the work"?</p>
<p>a high percentage of high school is busy work... but you still have to do it if you want to keep progressing in your education. You can't jump write into a job at the top, you have to work to get there, and some of what you do might be considered busy work, but if you don't do it you'll never progress.</p>
<p>The only way to explain that would in anyway forgive it would be to lie, and that you do not want to do....saying the work was dumb and pointless so you didn't do it will just make you look bad....seriously</p>
<p>And, it seems sad to me that you missed getting what sounds like an easy A because it bored you....that was really silly</p>