<p>D will now have an F on her transcript for this quarter. We plan to have her take it online through an approved program so that at least she can get credit recovery to fulfill the mandatory graduation requirements. She is an A/B student in her other classes apart from Adv. Alg2 , she is in all honors classes with 2 APs, as well as an Art elective. We don't have her PSAT yet but suspect she'll do extremely well in CR, and decently in the math. She has decent ECs, strong volunteer creds in a field she is interested in, and has regular summer employment. What to do about this F for Driver's Ed? She is very disheartened and is convinced she can no longer get into any college, let alone a decent one. Any advice?</p>
<p>I doubt that too many colleges pay a lot of attention to driver’s ed - or phys ed either, for that matter.</p>
<p>eco-
How did she fail driver’s ed?
Ask the gc to have her drop/withdraw the course today.</p>
<p>I don’t think my school even counts Driver’s Ed. In fact, the school stopped offering it due to budget issues and now you have to pay for your child to take it. It’s run through school, but not for credit. Very few sophs take DE here because the permit age is 16.</p>
<p>In my state, I don’t believe they count gym in the transcript, which was great for me because I barely passed it but not so great for my son who actually gets A+ in outdoor gym.</p>
<p>To respond to you, Eco, I would either have your D drop the course if she can and tell her that any college that would not take her because she failed DE is not a college worth going to. Some kids are just not physically ready to drive, maybe having her wait a year and practice privately before she takes it again might help.</p>
<p>All these years later, I still remember my one D and not which classes were A’s or B’s. I highly doubt flunking Drivers Ed will harm her in admissions.<br>
It’s better, of course, if she didn’t pay attention because some far more challenging classes, projects or experiences conflicted, that semester. Sometimes, it makes sense to explain this in a few lines (if nothing will erase it from the transcript.)</p>
<p>More important is that she truly get the lessons Drivers Ed is supposed to offer- a real sense of her responsibilities on the road and the risks of overconfidence. We sent one to an outside class that emphasized what can go wrong- worth every penny.</p>
<p>She failed because she probably didn’t hand in most of the hw assignments and left studying to the last minute. She narrowly failed the state test too. I think in the balance of whether to do APUS hw or Alg2 hw, Driver’s Ed got pushed aside. Still no excuse for failing the class. I don’t think she can withdraw, the marking period ended this week and we won’t be able to reach guidance until Monday. Driver’s Ed won’t count in her weighted GPA of course, but it screws her unweighted GPA where it will be included. We hope she’s learned a lesson from this experience…she’s not great at keeping on track with hw which is why she has some Bs. Like many kids, she works at what interests her…and Driver’s Ed didn’t make the cut. So frustrating! Thanks for all the advice.</p>
<p>In this situation I would be a lot more worried about her personal safety than college admissions prospects. Motor vehicle accidents are by far the leading cause of death for teenagers. Your daughter may be like my younger son who just does not seem to have much of an aptitude for driving although his SAT scores show he is highly intelligent. </p>
<p>If she has her learner’s permit you need to take her out on the road and let her drive as much as possible. You will definitely have moments of abject terror riding with her but gaining experience driving is the only way she is going to get to the level where she is going to be safe on the road.</p>
<p>No fears! She just turned 15. She won’t be driving for quite some time. And this the written part of the test. She won’t take lessons until next summer.</p>
<p>Some colleges calculate the HS GPA themselves and don’t include non-academic courses like PE and driver’s ed in the calculation. I imagine some other colleges would simply ignore it. However, her poor grade in it is actually telling - it shows she doesn’t put in effort in all the areas she should. You D needs to realize that in college there’s a good chance she’ll have to take some courses she’s not crazy about but still needs to do well in. Of course, she just turned 15 so there’s a good chance she’ll become more responsible in this area in the next few years.</p>
<p>It seems strange to me that driver’s ed is a mandatory course. My kids’ HS didn’t even offer it.</p>
<p>I don’t think this grade will derail her college plans and hopefully will help her realize she needs to do the work in all her classes in order to do well.</p>
<p>Maybe she can write her application essay on what she learned by failing a course?</p>
<p>Our school district is like yours in that drivers’ ed is a requirement for graduation, and taught sophomore year. My youngest was 15 then too, and it’s hard to apply yourself to driver’s ed when you’re almost a year from being able to get a permit.</p>
<p>Gym is also on the transcript and figured into the GPA here. That stood between my youngest and a 4.0. But such is life.</p>
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<p>In some states (Illinois is one), the classroom portion of driver’s ed is a state requirement for graduation; the on-the-road portion is optional.</p>
<p>Yikes! Driver’s ed is a graduation requirement? And it’s on the transcript? Geez. That’s is just too weird for me. You must not be living anywhere near a city. Colleges couldn’t care less about driver’s ed, but they do want to see your daughter graduate.</p>
<p>One of the smartest people I know failed the written portion of her driving test…because she didn’t bother to study. Sounds like a good opportunity for a life lesson to me. </p>
<p>While I agree with the people who believe colleges won’t look too closely at this one, it also raises some concerns. Is she likely to slide by when she thinks “it doesn’t count” or “no one’s looking”? If so, this attitude could come back to bite her in college (which she WILL get into!).</p>
<p>She’s only a sophomore. Lesson learned. Improved junior grades will more than make up for this. Also- colleges do their own gpa calculation and omit nonacademic courses as they define them. She needs the drivers ed knowledge so it is good you are making sure she gets it. It also puts a damper on any hopes of that license soon- another lesson learned. btw- colleges look at final grades only, never see the intermediate quarter grades. The final grade for a course/semester will be the only one on the official transcript sent to colleges, not the report card information.</p>
<p>I went to high school in one of those Midwestern states that taught Drivers Ed as a course during sophomore year. We all learned how to change a tire, check the oil, and change the fluids. We also spent a decent amount of time actually talking about the rules of the road. The Drivers Ed teacher also ran the on the road practical required practice hours. </p>
<p>It was a much better process than the one we have now, in a state where the roads are much more dangerous and crowded. This state requires a course that runs a few hours for a few days, and a few hours of practical driving with a licensed instructor, neither of which is connected to the public schools at all. Plus another million hours of documented driving time with a parent. OK, it only feels like a million hours… All that to take a written multiple choice exam at the MVA, and a 5 minute practical test on a course that covers those all-important maneuvers: parallel parking, coming to a complete stop at a stop sign, backing up in a straight line, and completing a Y turn in a small space. You could pass the test without ever really driving on a road (a kid could have spent 40 hours just practicing the parallel parking with a parent, and only drive on an actual road for the 6 hours with the driving instructor). And, you could fail the test simply by ending up 8 inches as opposed to 6 inches or less from the curb. Or by nudging the curb during the parking maneuver… </p>
<p>I understand that the state is gradually moving towards an actual on the road test, but they also keep increasing the amount of time a kid has to have a learners permit. I think at this point, the earliest a child can get a license here is sixteen and six months.</p>
<p>My niece in Iowa had a license that allows a student to drive only between home and school at (I think I’m right about this, but it really sounds weird even as I’m typing it) age 15. The laws go back to the days when kids drove tractors and farm trucks as kids and were experienced drivers by age 15. My niece, however, lived in a suburb of Des Moines.</p>
<p>I agree with the above poster who said that any college that would base an admissions decision on how well your daughter did in a Drivers Ed course isn’t a college I’d really want my daughter to attend.</p>
<p>Sounds to me like a wonderful application essay topic. I wouldn’t worry about the grade at all. I’d worry about it as a symptom of other time management issues.</p>
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<p>Right…I think the impact of the grade will be a huge unknown. Some schools will barely notice and will not count it. Others might even be amused by it. But others could wonder why she failed such an “easy” course. Same way with gym grades. Lots of colleges don’t count the grade for admissions. However, in many high schools, the only way a person fails gym is if they cut class, refuse to dress out, or are otherwise a behavior problem. That could be a red flag to a school.</p>
<p>Conservatively, if she makes the final cuts in the application process, the F in driver’s ed will be a head scratcher by the adcoms at tippy top schools.
I think this F will haunt her, if anything she will be having to explain it.</p>
<p>You say she received an F for the course for the transcript ‘this quarter’. How long is the course? It it’s longer than a quarter it seems that if she applies herself to what is considered by most to be a very easy course she could manage to receive a final grade that won’t be an ‘F’. I don’t think most colleges are going to look much past the final grades in the courses even if they happen to be one that pays attention to this non-academic course.</p>
<p>If this is the final grade and it’s a required course then I assume she has to take the course over again in which case she needs to try to pull down an ‘A’ to show she can actually apply herself and handle it.</p>
<p>If she has her drivers license when she is applies to colleges, I’m not sure this F will matter to anyone, including your daughter. </p>
<p>Agree with others…it is a lesson learned about time management and the importance of doing assignments on time and turning them in on time. Better to learn in in Driver’s ed than in English.</p>