Stay or drop?

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>So I'm done with finals and my grades are out. I've ended up with 3 Bs in weighted classes*, 1 C, 1 D and 2 As (one in weighted, the other in non-weighted). </p>

<p>**One of the Bs was unprecedented. There was a mistake in my grade report that I may not be able to fix. My teacher has quit the school. *</p>

<p>The C is not set yet, it's what I have before the final. It's in AP Physics C, Mechanics. Next semester is E&M. My final grade may be a B-.</p>

<p>The D is in AP Calc AB. I had problems with the teacher, was not able to make up a test for which I had an excused absence, and my homework frequently got lost after submitting it. I may be able to raise it to a C by turning in those missing homeworks. </p>

<p>Here's my question: Have I completely screwed over my chances for decent** colleges? How about summer programs***? How will the bad grades affect me? </p>

<p>I have the option of dropping the course and having it seem like I didn't take the two courses this semester. However, then I would want to take the courses somewhere else. I don't want to take classes over the summer, but if there is such a online course that doesn't cost thousands of dollars and has an individualized pace, that works too. Should I drop the two classes or should I stay? </p>

<p>I really, really want to stay, but if it absolutely ruins my chances, I guess I need options? </p>

<p>The reason I'm so worried is because of my horrible (but not quite as horrible as this year) performance these past few years. BTW, I'm a junior. </p>

<p>**by decent I mean at the Tufts/U Rochester/Vanderbilt/UCSD level. I don't like religiously affiliated colleges. I don't mind LACs, though at first the low Asian population was off-putting. What really matters is that they offer Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, and/or Linguistics, as major options, and that there is a lot of research that any student can participate in.</p>

<p>*** summer research programs such as RSI, SIMR, HSSSRP, etc.</p>

<p>Please, only non-constructive feedback. If you can't do that, buzz off.</p>

2

<p>Ouch, a D? How did that happen? </p>

<p>Wait, what’s the question? I think I’m missing something.</p>

3

<p>Yeah…not sure what you are asking…Do you want to know how much those grades will hurt you in terms of the schools you listed? Or have us suggest schools? Or something else all together?</p>

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<p>Sorry, I accidentally posted too early. I had typed up this post but then I closed it. I realized I had it open in another tab, and I thought I’d written the same exact thing, so I didn’t check before I posted. I have edited it to ask what I wanted to, and with explanations. </p>

<p>And BTW, I was diagnosed with depression in sophomore year, and while I wasn’t really that lethargic last year, I really feel like it’s affecting me NOW. However, I think most of my teachers think I’m just lazy. T_T</p>

5

<p>So I am assuming you are Asian based on the one comment (I am answering this with the assumption that you are an ORM). Though to be honest it does not change things much.</p>

<p>Schools may be a little more lenient because of the depression, but it probably made the schools on your list a bit unrealistic. That semester will drop your cumulative and class rank, it also reflects poorly on you because it is assumed that by junior year you are being more responsible when it comes to grades…
I am not sure what summer programs you are looking at, some put much more value on grades then others (the one I was in last summer did not even look at grades). If it is a more academic oriented program, you are then dealing with two types of admissions, those who only look at first semester junior year (in which case it is rather unlikely the you will be accepted) and those that look at your entire high school career, where it will be tough to get in, but may happen. Sorry I am not familiar with the programs you listed, I personally have only looked at local ones.
As for the AP Calc, I would drop it. If you have a D, no offense but you don’t belong in that level.</p>

<p>I can try and suggest schools, but I need your PSAT score and cumulative GPA as well. Also how set on those majors are you? By listing several I am assuming that you don’t have your heart set on any one of them.</p>

<p>Let me know if you have any more questions…</p>

6

<p>PSAT: 216
Cumulative GPA: 3.51
Rank: My school doesn’t rank</p>

<p>I’m pretty much set on Neuroscience. Cognitive Science is very similar, so if a school doesn’t have Neuroscience, I’d go with Cog Sci. Linguistics is less of a set thing. It’s cool, but I’m not sure about it. </p>

<p>The AP Calc AB is actually a level down from my math last year. If I drop another level, I will be taking math I took as a freshman. Hopefully I haven’t gotten that stupid.</p>

7

<p>You can try to score well on SAT I, IIs, and APs to offset the GPA problem. If it is allowed, you can completely drop out of school this year, take this year as a gap year, seek treatment for depression, repeat the junior year next year on a clean slate. I know private schools allow repeating a grade, don’t know if you can do that at a public school.</p>

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<p>Does the 3.5 include this past semester (I am assuming no)?</p>

<p>Okay so we have the same intended major. I have learned that a lot of schools say that they don’t offer the major, but will allow you to major in it anyway through a specialty or design your own major usually involving a mix of bio and psych classes.</p>

<p>Look at Pitt and Muhlenberg, both have decent neuroscience programs/the major. Also look at Juniata, which does not offer it, but has a strong design your own major.</p>

<p>I still say drop down in math, you have a D. Or switch to something like AP Stats.</p>

9

<p>The 3.5 includes all courses except for Physics AP C and Calc. My school doesn’t offer the option to drop out and come back next year. </p>

<p>I’ll ask my counselor what I can do for the Calc. I don’t know whether or not I can submit homework that I have redone to replace the homework that went missing, but I calculated, that if I got it in I would get at least a solid C. My school seems to be flexible in that regard. Because they don’t really like people taking classes outside of school, I think there is a hope that I can get that C. But I don’t know. I’ll have to see when school starts again.</p>

<p>Haha, I’m actually in AP Stat right now and I got a B, partially because my group project grades sucked, and another part, because I didn’t do so well on two tests since I studied for subjects that I thought were “more important,” such as AP Bio and AP Physics C. </p>

<p>It’s funny though, because all the counselors and administrators always say that usually people taking both a calculus class and AP Physics C class at the same time do worse in AP Physics C, but I’m doing better in AP Physics C. </p>

<p>That’s good to know about the majors, thanks. :)</p>

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<p>Sorry if this has already been covered, but is the 3.5 weighted?</p>

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<p>The GPA is not weighted. However, if weighted, my GPA only comes out to about 3.78 without the two classes I’m concerned about. How do you calculate weighted GPA for classes that are lower than Bs?</p>

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<p>I imagine a D in an honors class would be considered a C in a regular, etc.
But your weighted GPA doesn’t matter as much because all schools weight differently and the colleges might recalculate anyway.
I’d recommend looking at the average GPA for students admitted to the schools you want to go to, on their websites. That would probably give you a good idea of how hard it’s going to be for you to get in.</p>

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<p>OKay, that helps. But what do you mean by colleges recalculating?</p>

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<p>Every high school calculates weighted GPA differently, so colleges will often just look at your actual grades and calculate a weighted or unweighted GPA based on their own standards. It makes it easier to compare students from schools with different scales. It wouldn’t be fair to directly compare the GPAs on the transcripts from two schools that weight GPA differently.</p>