I am really hoping I am not going to be needing to know the answer to this, but want to be prepared. My DS19 (twin to the DS19 I posted about yesterday) is on the cusp of D+/C- in his Spanish class. He has a diagnosed learning disability (has a 504 but it hasn’t proven that helpful for spanish) that encompasses both word retrieval/working memory as well as speech issues, so languages are REALLY hard for him. I take full responsibility for making him take a 3rd year of a language as I kept reading that most colleges want to see 3 yrs and he muscled his way through his first two years - I thought he could handle it, but its just too much for him.
His GPA otherwise is fine - he has probably a 3.6+ weighted, and would have a 4.0 weighted without spanish this semester (or close to it). Not looking at super competitive schools, but probably schools like Oregon, Colorado, etc.
Any idea what happens if he has a D? It will be a clear outlier on his transcript, but I don’t know if his options (esp the ones above) are likely to disappear because of this ONE grade? Obviously he will have to explain it, but will that even matter?
He is pretty much ruling out schools that have more than one semester of language requirements, and is more focused on design/marketing/business type majors.
Any advice for this completely stressed out mom would be much appreciated!!!
My S17 quit Spanish after 2 years because he was AWFUL at it. Everyone said the 3 year rule, but we decided a D+ in Spanish 3 wasn’t going to be all that impressive to colleges! He was accepted at all 9 schools he applied to, with WAY less than a 3.6, no honors or APs. Mostly NJ publics, PA publics (not Penn State) and a few small LACs thrown in. I don’t know the admissions selectivity of the schools you mention, but he will definitely have options. Good luck!
@NJWrestlingmom, I wish I had seen that a year ago - too late now for mine (who has approximately 1 hour left of Spanish 3!). Fingers crossed. Thanks for your response!
@emilys29 There are plenty of colleges where your child can thrive. My kid targeted tech colleges which did not require any languages. He is doing fine one year into college. My kid’s GC said it’s best to not try to explain grades. You may want to focus on universities/colleges where there is some level of support for students with LD. If he is interested in business/marketing, you may want to think about addressing speech issues. Many of those classes have a lot of oral presentations as part of the grade.
I don’t know the answer but I wanted to say good luck to him! I hope it doesn’t hurt his chances, in my non admissions officer mind, it shouldn’t.
Aaaah. DS came home and let me know it looks like he’ll eke out a C. I never thought I’d be the mom to celebrate a C, but here we are. Phew.
In the meantime, I had called Oregon and they said that there is room to explain on their app, so it wouldn’t be a dealbreaker as long as everything else was there. Since the requirement was 2 yrs of foreign language, it wouldn’t have meant he was no longer eligible.
I may be compleatly off but with whatever grade they gets they should definitely ask that teacher for a letter of recommendation (unless the teacher is being hard to work with) because they can comment on their work ethic and determination. One bad grade shouldn’t throw off their chances at getting in
Definitely look for colleges that don’t have language requirement in their curriculum.
@ms2019 I would agree with you in some classes, but I think maybe his normally positive attitude might have been a bit out of whack out of frustration with his inability to “get it”. Other classes where he has persevered - for sure.
@bopper , yes, we have already eliminated some schools based on that. If he gets a BS, that seems to have more focus on math requirements than language. And some allow for documented disabilities to be excused, but overall he is definitely avoiding those!!! (The irony being that his twin’s whole focus is languages - takes 2 currently - clearly one got the language gene and the other got the creative side!).
@ms2019 I don’t think that is generally a very good idea. And revealing an LD has its own disadvantages.
If he gets a C, this class isn’t a concern but for the most elite schools. He’ll be fine for an Oregon or similar.
That said, I got into very strong universities with a D in junior year French, but strong grades in everything else. And I didn’t explain away the D. Although I remember it well. 
Just FYI, my DD did get a grade like that in her language court in 10th grade. (I take the blame, the school actually also took a lot of the blame.) She switched to a different language for 11th and 12th. She got into very good schools, with very good merit scholarships. She also did refer to it in the Common App section where you can add additional information and explained what happened.