<p>Princeton
Harvard
Yale
Stanford
MIT
Columbia
Northwestern
Duke
Chicago
Penn
Berkeley</p>
<p>How will colleges view a D that was re-taken for an A? What if the person is #1? At my high school, only the higher grade is factored into the GPA but both show up on the transcript.</p>
<p>Any advice?</p>
<p>1) It would have been easier to simply say the USNWR top 12 minus Caltech. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>2) If you retook for an A and no harm was done to your GPA, it’s fine.</p>
<p>3) I sincerely hope you have safeties.</p>
<p>^
Yeah, I haven’t decided on those yet. Don’t worry, I’ll apply to some. I just wasn’t really aiming for them, so I didn’t include them.</p>
<p>I’m paranoid because I keep getting different answers- Are you positive? Both of them still show up on my transcript.</p>
<p>From my understanding, you’re a current sophomore. It’s good to dream big, but realize that you’ll change a lot from now until senior year.</p>
<p>^
I don’t think that I’ll change much.</p>
<p>^^^</p>
<p>The student who is #1 as a mid-year sophomore doesn’t always end up as #1.</p>
<p>^
Very true, although there is a very good chance that I will keep it unless I completely choke.</p>
<p>isn’t a D considered choking?</p>
<p>I think you should stop worrying about this D. On your application you can put notes of explanation, so perhaps it would be wise to clarify why the D was received (if there is a reason). You are just a sophomore, the only thing you can do is work hard for the next couple years. The D is going to be there, but I don’t think colleges will look at it too harshly, especially because you retook the class, and if you continue to get As throughout the rest of your high school career, they will probably not regard it very highly. </p>
<p>Was this a freshman year class? Some colleges (Princeton) don’t even look at freshman year grades.</p>
<p>But please, stop posting this topic again and again and again. I have seen this at least 5-10 times, and they all had basically the same answer. To be honest, none of us can say for sue what colleges will think. Maybe you should call a college admissions rep instead of bombarding this board.</p>
<p>How did the D happen?
Rather than worry about someone else will think three years from now, spend some time reflecting on what went wrong and work on that.</p>
<p>^
I went against the advice of my friends and took a consensus intensely hard math class.</p>
<p>First test- I never made the adjustment from previous math classes. The level of difficulty increase from the first test was insane. I failed.</p>
<p>Second test- I actually wasn’t doing too badly on this test, but I started to run out of time and got nervous. I lost 22% because of careless mistakes. Basically, I choked due to a lack of time.</p>
<p>Third test- I don’t know what went wrong here; I thought that I did pretty well.</p>
<p>Fourth test- I gave up at this point since the highest that I could get was a C and I wanted to retake.</p>
<p>It was a sophomore year class… The second most important year. -.-;</p>
<p>if you are currently a sophomore, how do you already have a final grade for it?
and why would you only have 4 tests in a course?</p>
<p>It’s good that you’re number 1, but you’re only a sophmore and you’ve already gotten a D- even if it doesn’t affect your GPA, I think they will notice it. And I’m assuming things, but from the tone of your post it seemed like you were number 1 but not taking the hardest classes at your school- remember, they look at your courses too. GPA isn’t everything. I think you should get some mid-range/target schools in there…Not just top schools and safeties. Anyway, best of luck!</p>
<p>I looked back at some of your other threads, and to be honest, I think you made a very, very poor decision. Now, you couldn’t have received a D for the class from just 2 months of class. There is no way that that class is over. It sounds like you got bad grades the first few tests and simply gave up with the decision that you would retake the course. If you still can, I would stay in the class and work as hard as you can to raise the grade. It would be better to get a B (or a C even), then receive a D and then retake it for an A. It sounds like it will show up on your transcript, and every college is going to see a big glaring D. Yes, your gpa won’t be affected because you retook it, but colleges will still see the D on the transcript, and wonder why you recieved a D first go around. If everything else about you is equal to another candidate, each time they will most likely go for the other candidate, because of that D. You need to stay in the course and try your hardest to get your grade up (if you still can). </p>
<p>On another note, I’ve seen some other posts in these other topics of yours, and this is some friendly advice from me to you. Don’t try harder classes than you can handle. I’m not talking about the Alg 2 business. For example, you are in AP Chemistry? You should not be taking AP Chem without course in algebra, especially if you are selfprofessed to be “not good at math”. And I wouldn’t assume that you are going to get an A when you retake the class either; it’s dangerous to assume things like that.</p>
<p>^
5.5 tests</p>
<p>I failed the first three. Assuming I got 100% on everything, the highest I could have gotten was a C or a C-.</p>
<p>^^
I have the most rigorous course in my grade level.</p>
<p>If you’re still a sophomore, how can you know you’ll be valedictorian? Don’t put the cart before the horse.</p>
<p>If you’re still in this class you’re getting a D in, work your butt off to bring your grade up as high as possible. Anything (except an F) will look better than a D.</p>
<p>Valedictorians do not get “D’s” in high school—especially in core subjects like math.
In addition, you may need to be reminded that achieving the honor of Valedictorian does not guarantee admission into top schools. Hell, our Valedictorian was rejected from schools where my son easily gained acceptance. College admissions understand that being Valedictorian does not always mean being the smartest kid in the class. Many times, it’s the kid who has mastered working the curriculum (taking fluff classes to raise the gpa and avoiding other classes because the challenge of the course may not be rewarded with an “A”) that ends up with the title. </p>
<p>You’re a sophomore in high school. Stop worrying about getting into top colleges. You can’t even attempt to make a college wish list until after you have taken the SAT’s.</p>
<p>and the elephant in the room is that you are going to do terribly on your SATs</p>
<p>The thread title is very misleading. You can’t be a valedictorian when you are only a sophomore.</p>
<p>^^And you have neither received a ‘D’ yet nor ‘retaken’ the course. Three ‘misleading’ pieces of information in 7 words. I think your head is screwed on a little too tight. Suggest you loosen it up a bit; it’ll make it easier to breathe.</p>