Uh oh, I got a D...

Applying to College
1

<p>But I'm re-taking it to get an A, and they replace it on my GPA, but the grade still shows up.</p>

<p>Would it have been more beneficial to get a C or a D and then re-take it for my GPA? If I re-take it, then I'll be 1/628.</p>

<p>I know I'll get an A because I'm not re-taking it at my school, where the class is notoriously difficult.</p>

<p>So... If I re-take it and get an A and am the valedictorian when I apply, will they care?</p>

<p>I'm a sophomore by the way. I'm applying to colleges like: Princeton, Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, Columbia, UPenn, UC Berekly, Northwestern, Duke, etc.</p>

2

<p>My opinion:</p>

<p>You got a D, you deserve a D.</p>

3

<p>I agree. It’s good to retake it, to show your commitment to the material, but unless you had a personal hard ship at the time the D was earned colleges will look at it as a D for “deserved”.</p>

4

<p>Oh, so it would have been more beneficial to go for the C and take the GPA hit, huh… ):</p>

<p>Oh well.</p>

<p>Do they re-calculate GPA, or do they just go with what the school gives them?</p>

<p>I’m not completely screwed with ONE D, right? I’m also going to get a B in AP Chemistry. -.-;</p>

<p>Any way I can make up for this?</p>

5

<p>Any other opinions? Man, I’m so worried…</p>

6

<p>what did you get a D in?</p>

<p>Ds (and to a lesser extent, Bs) aren’t what these schools are looking for. One D freshman year isn’t the worst thing (some schools don’t even look at freshman year grades), but I wouldn’t make it a habit. Of course this all depends on the rigor of your HS. Are As common or are there classes where one, two, or no students get As? Are Ds common for smart students? Etc?</p>

7

<p>Honors Algebra 2/Trig. It has among the lowest grades in the school.</p>

<p>Hard to get into in the first place. Less than 10% get As. Most get Cs or Ds.</p>

<p>I’m a sophomore… -.-;</p>

8

<p>MIT is pretty math-oriented. You’ve said math is not your thing, so you might want to reconsider applying there.</p>

9

<p>The timing in your post confuses me. Are you a sophomore? Are you applying or do you intend to apply in two years? How do you expect to be the valedictorian, when you still have two more years? </p>

<p>Also, if you are taking a course outside of your school, are you certain your HS will count that grade? If you were a transfer student in college, grades are not transferred, only the credits.</p>

10

<p>As long as you maintain a high GPA for the rest of your high school years, you should be able to compensate for that.</p>

11

<p>I am surprised your school administration would let students replace their school’s grades with grades from less rigorous coursework from another institution. Sounds like a really good argument for a high school weighting grades so it can make sure that students who are ranked the highest really had the highest achievement.</p>

<p>The schools my daughter applied to all recalculate the GPA using their own method, because of the different weighting systems high schools might use.</p>

12

<p>If you’re applying to those schools, you should definitely be able to academically perform in the top 10% of your local math class. You said that less than the top 10% of your math class gets A’s. That means there are prob 3-5 people in your class with A’s. You have no excuse for a D.</p>