<p>I accidentally posted this in the College Search and Selection forum when I meant to post it here. I feel like a dork, but, here is a link to the original post:</p>
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A friend of mine was ecstatic to be the first of her family to get into a four-year institution. She loved UCI and it was her first choice, and there were many reasons UCI might have found her a good candidate: academic excellence despite minority low-income status, the huge medical challenges she overcame, and a strong interest in science and engineering. But, you can imagine how it felt to hear that her admission was rescinded because of a change in one of the grades she reported when the transcripts arrived.</p>
<p>I know this isn't unprecedented. I know it's a UC policy, and that students are warned of this when they apply. But this friend tells me her teacher changed her grade without telling her. She wrote a heartfelt letter to the dean of the campus and even had her teacher call, but was told the decision was final. Does this seem.. fair? I'm not clear on the details, and I don't know exactly when the grade was changed, or if my friend could have been more vigilant. But I'm wondering what can a student really do in certain cases, and how the UC system deals with their policy.</p>
<p>Can my friend do anything more in this situation? In case you're wondering, she is now looking at community college and because registration started a while ago, she'll have trouble getting the classes she needs. It particularly pangs my heart because she was looking forward to escaping her unhappy family environment and building her success and future on her independence. UCI symbolized so much to her; it's like a tragedy.
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<p>I've done some more research and heard of an appeals process. I'll look more, but if anyone has advice, please let me know. The "final decision" I heard about from my friend seems to conflict with the idea of an appeal; I'm hoping it's not too late for something like that.</p>
<p>Is your friend able to document what happened? If she was told that her final grade was going to be, say, a B in writing or through a school website, and then found a C on her report card or transcript, and immediately told UCI about the mistake, I would think she’d be in much better shape than if she kinda thought she would be getting a B but sorta didn’t check. If the teacher lead her to believe she was going to receive a B and then, for example, found a calculation error and gave her a C, would the teacher be willing to write a note to that effect? Showing UCI some evidence that your friend had reason to believe that she had received a B could go a long way to demonstrating that she was not being intentionally dishonest or misleading in reporting the B. Or am I missing something here?</p>
<p>Seems to me it makes a huge difference why the grade was changed. Do they suspect some sort of fraud on the part of the girl? Or was it a mere clerical error by the teacher? Or something else entirely? Without more information it’s hard know what really happened here.</p>
<p>Even if she get caught cheating, the teacher must let her know in advance. Once a grade is recorded in document that this student used and reported on a college application, a teacher cannot change unless there is a very good reason. I’m sure some schools policies do not allow that kind of change unless it’s to change up based on AP scores or something like that.
Most likely scenario is this girl lied on her UC application and her transcript does not match with her application.</p>
<p>yes, the short answer is that there is an appeal process. But no one can make any suggestions without more info including grade and course. </p>
<p>If for example, your friend’s grade was changed to fail (D/F) and it was a REQUIRED a-g course, there is no real value in appealing to UC bcos your friend does not meet the minimum requirements for admission. (The only appeal would be to the HS teacher and/or principal to change the grade back.) OTOH, if the course was an a-g elective, then an appeal might work. Alternatively, if your friend qualifies for admission based on testing alone (~690 average on five tests), she could appeal for admission under than scenario.</p>