Sigh….I got a C+ (first semester senior)

Applying to College
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I’m just going to keep this short. I have a lot of work to do, so I’m not going to spend too much time writing this. Apologies for the horrendous writing style.

The Situation: I just did horrendous on a precalc midterm, leaving me with a 79.4 for first semester. Our midterms count for 20% of our semester grade…I had a B+ in this class before the midterm…so yeah. It was bad. I don’t know if I want to get into what happened…unless a poster needs that information.

The Situation (continued): I have 4 EA acceptances so far, including one to a T75 school w/ a 45% acceptance rate. On top of that, I have various RD applications, with schools ranging from 25-60% acceptance rates.

The Context: I’m looking at a 3.5-ish unweighted GPA for this semester (1 C, 1 B, 3 A’s). For comparison, I have a 3.58 cumulative unweighted…and to make it worse, I had a 3.9 last year.

The Three Good Things: A 79 isn’t a super hard grade to bring up to a B. Plus, it’s senior year, so while this is a somewhat awful situation, I have junior year going for me. I also jumped in course rigor since junior year.

A Random Anecdote: I got a C- in freshman year Algebra, a C in sophomore year Algebra II, and an A- in Geometry junior year.

Possible Solutions: Live with it. Can’t do much of anything now. Try to get the precalc grade back up to a B by the end of the year. See what happens admissions wise, and worst-case, I have a decent school to fall back upon. Maybe try to actually work with my parents to get the healthcare treatment I need? (spend five minutes in my post history and you’ll see what I mean).

Other solutions: switch an RD app to ED II. Also, maybe contact my schools with acceptances to ease any of their worries?

Thanks.

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Live with it. You already have four acceptances.

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High school seniors commonly worry about admission offers being rescinded for falling grades.

However, it seems extremely unlikely that one C grade and a GPA drop from 3.58 to 3.50 will trigger rescission. Students who really need to worry are those who earn D or F grades, or see a large GPA drop, like 3.high to 2.low or some such.

But check the conditions of admission in each admission offer if you want to be sure. If it says “no grade lower than B in senior year”, then there may be a risk. But a college having that condition seems extremely unlikely (more common is “no grade lower than C in senior year”).

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Thank you. I forgot to clarify…

My cumulative GPA will only drop to a 3.56UW, and that’s assuming that I have the same grades for the rest of the year.

However, the issue I see is that I had a 3.94 last year, so a 3.5 is a much bigger drop.

In terms of a possibly rescinded application, I’ll double-check the conditions. I’m just not sure what to do admissions-wise for the RD apps.

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Students are rescinded for D and F grades, not C’s.

Your bigger problem is probably your GPA as it stands. But you have four acceptances already. You are going to college. Any other acceptances beyond this are icing on the cake.

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Are you going to need to take calculus in university? This is likely to depend upon your intended major or likely majors.

My primary concern is that you might not be well prepared to take calculus. If you do not need to take it then I would not worry about it – although I would try hard to pull up your grade for the rest of the year.

If you will need to take calculus, then I would look into options to improve your preparation before taking calculus. Algebra is just as important as precalculus in this respect.

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While the majors I applied to (at most of my schools) don’t require calculus to graduate, I would like to take at least a semester of calculus (in case I desire to attend a graduate school that prefers calculus).

So, yes, I’ll be trying to pull my grade up. And I’ll consider either:

  • Taking precalculus or another prep course over the summer at a local CC.
  • Seeing if I can take a Survey of Calculus or a Calculus with Precalcus course.
  • Taking precalculus again in my fall semester (only if this will work with my academic plans).

With that being said, math is one of the only subjects that doesn’t come "naturally* to me, so I while I desire to get my grade up and reinforce my learning, I am OK with putting in a little extra time to solidify my skills.

To be honest, I could have chosen to taken a stats course instead of precalculus (and I would’ve likely gotten an A- or higher), but if I did that, I would’ve reduced my chances at continuing math in college (beyond a research methodology course).

TL;DR: The grade hurts, but I still think it was a better decision over taking the “easy way” out.

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i agree.

One more question: How are you feeling now about algebra and algebra 2? Do you feel that you have a better mastery of these now than you did when you first took them? Algebra is the basis for a lot of mathematics. I would expect that this is a subject that you could review over the summer.

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Definitely feeling better, as Algebra hasn’t gone away (and won’t).

But I’ll consider reviewing Algebra on top of the Precalc/Calc work this summer. Maybe I’ll take College Algebra.

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As the old joke about how you get to Carnegie Hall goes, “practice, practice, practice”. Math and science courses are different from the humanities; in the latter you can read the material in a pass or two and retain it. In math and science it takes doing problem after problem before you can really master the material. In that sense its more like learning to play an instrument or a sport.

Take a look at the “Calculus Problem Solver” books you can find at Amazon and others. These are like SAT review books but for calculus, with thousands of worked problems. You go to the chapter matching what you are doing in class and start working. These books exist for many classes, BTW

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I looked back at one of your old posts. You have gone through and overcome some real issues. One C+ is immaterial to your life. You have 4 EA acceptances so you already have college choices (assuming affordability) which is fantastic. My best advice is to just continue to move forward in a positive manner.

I would only switch an RD application to EDII if both are true: 1) that school is your absolute, positive top choice AND 2) that school appears affordable given the net price calculator.

If you need some additional help in precalc then see your teacher after school, get a tutor (if possible), use online resources (ex. Khan Academy) etc.

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I don’t agree with this at all. If it was as simple as that people wouldn’t need to make notes, study, or reread things again. It’s not a piece of cake to retain humanities knowledge any more than it’s a piece of cake to retain any other kind of knowledge. This is why the students I work with sometimes can’t understand a relatively simple (in my opinion) piece of writing, or why they can’t remember anything about the Civil War, or why they can’t remember how to use semicolons.

Practice can apply to all disciplines: practice with notetaking, practice using commas, practice reading novels and textbooks, and practice learning a foreign language. Back to the OP though…

You can take all kinds of math in college. It’s a myth that students can’t get into competitive colleges if they don’t take higher level mathematics. As long as you take the courses indicated for the major, you can major in math if you like.

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