What if a student goes from getting mostly A’s, a few B’s (never a C), but gets a C their second semester of senior year? How drastic is that to the admissions office?
@pearson12-Probably not drastic at all if the rest of the grades are still a mix of A’s and B’s.
Hi Sally, I just discovered this corner of CC. Thank you for your thoughtful, practical, knowledgeable guidance. I have a question related to my senior daughter. She has been accepted to Dickinson, Colorado College and Bard EA and deferred at Williams and waiting on other regular decision schools as well. She modified her second semester schedule after starting an art class that she was taking for fun. It wasn’t fun - very serious, lots of judgement, not what she was interested in. She dropped it for a study hall. She still has 6 classes plus lunch orchestra so she isn’t a slacker. Can you please recommend the best way to let her schools know about the change? And will this hurt her? She is a presidential scholar candidate, national merit semifinalist, solid student, great kid. Thanks for reading this and any guidance you can offer
@aynrandfan -This change will have no impact on your daughter’s admission outcomes. But, even so, she should
set the record straight. Given that the class she dropped is not a core academic subject, the college folks may not even notice the discrepancy when her final grades are compared with her application at the one school she chooses to attend. However, because college folks don’t like to be blindsided by schedule changes, she should send an email to all of her colleges that briefly states that she has dropped the art class because it didn’t provide the opportunities she’d anticipated. If she continues to do some art on her own, she should say so.
Your daughter can handle this in a couple different ways. The easiest would be to compose one email. She would put her own name on the “To” line and then Bcc all of the main admission email addresses at each of her colleges. Make sure that the email includes her full name, her home city/town, state, and high school.
Alternatively, she can write a short personal email to her regional rep at each of her colleges. This will give her a chance to establish (or rekindle) contact with her rep and to add in something specific about the school (e.g., “Although I’m not taking art now, I’m already salivating when I read about the glassblowing options at Tulane …”) This approach is the one that I would probably cajole my own child into taking if he were in your daughter’s shoes! Also, if your daughter has been assigned an applicant ID number at any of her colleges, she can include it in the email if she takes this personal approach.
And since she was deferred at Williams, I assume she plans to send–or has already sent–an Update letter that informs Williams of changes in her life (ideally positive ones like new activities and achievements). The Update letter is also a good place to mention the schedule change, if she hasn’t sent it already.
And if she wants to go one step further and take a stab at something “gimmicky,” she could tell Williams that she is still finding time to pursue her interest in art independently, and to “prove” it, she can send them something Williams-related that she has made … e.g., a watercolor painting of a a campus building, a sketch of what passes for downtown in Williamstown, a ceramic sculpture of a cow, etc.
Although I always warn students that deferral-reversal gimmicks are long-shots, sometimes they DO seem to work!
In any case, although your daughter should tell her colleges about this change, it won’t affect her admission verdicts in the spring.
Hi Sally,
If a senior gets either a D or an F in the required econ “honors” class, will a CSU rescind the acceptance? I know some would, such as SDSU, but what about Chico or CSUCI?
@Themathaw -The expectation that a senior will get a “C” or better in every class is a CSU system-wide requirement. However, if you are doing poorly in a current class, here’s what I would suggest:
- Keep in mind that the required "C" is just for the final grade in the class. So a "D" or an "F" on a quarterly or semester report card is not a problem, as long as the grade is up to a "C" for the entire year.
- Each case will be reviewed individually. So if you are hopelessly lost in a class and don't think it's possible to get a "C" or better for the overall course grade, you should do everything you can to improve your grade and then document your efforts, even if they're not successful (e.g., going for extra help after school, getting tutoring). Ask your teacher for a letter of support, stating that you did try to turn your grade around. If you can prove to your college that you weren't slacking, this will definitely work in your favor, especially if your other grades and test scores put you over the required admissions-index threshold.
- If the class has already ended (it was a one-semester class) and you got a "D" or an "F," you should contact your colleges and explain the reason for the poor grade if you've got a good one (e.g., family troubles or other personal problems, illness that kept you out of school for a week or more, working too many hours at a paid job if your family is low-income, too rigorous a course load ...)
Colleges really don’t like to rescind acceptances, so if you make some effort on your end to show that you are paying attention, you should be okay.
Good luck!
@Sally_Rubenstone
Hello!
I know I might be blowing this out of proportion considering I have been a decent student throughout high school. I am a high school senior in my second semester and I am still trying in all my classes. I am taking 7 AP classes and I most likely will get As in 6 of those, plus an A+ in an honors class. However, there is one AP class that has gotten much more difficult this semester and it looks like I might get a low B. I was wondering with the rest of my APs being As, would a low B or even a high C drastically impact the way colleges would see me? Thanks!
@pittsburghpens87 -No … one low B or even high C isn’t going to have any negative impact on your acceptances if all your other grades are strong. Your course load does seem very heavy (TOO heavy, in fact!).
Hello Sally,
Thank you for listening to my story. I’m an undergraduate student in my junior year and was recently expelled from my college because of a false accusation after attending the kangaroo court of the school’s Title IX Office. After the investigation, they decided to dismiss me from school and put a permanent notation of dismissal on my transcript.
However, I was applying for other colleges DURING the investigation and have already sent out my OFFICIAL transcript (by the school’s registrar office) BEFORE the dismissal and the notation ever took place. I’ve also completed one of the colleges’ application form indicating I’ve never been dismissed from a college.
So my question is, does it count as omitting and falsifying application information? I didn’t lie because they were official transcripts sent directly from school. But do the colleges’ admissions think the same way? At the moment what I feel most nervous about is whether they will revoke my acceptance offer after they find out the inconsistency and think of this as omitting and falsifying. Do I have to updated my transcript according to any policies or codes (could not find any because my circumstance was just unique)?
Please let me know what is best to do, thank you very much.
@justastudentt -If you are admitted as a transfer, the college you plan to attend will request a final transcript. If you don’t report your dismissal before then, it will be evident on your final transcript. I think it was misleading (and possibly even unethical) of you to apply to transfer as a “Student in good standing” (which all transfer applications require) when your status at your college was in limbo, but you were not yet technically guilty of falsifying information. But now that your verdict has been handed down, you should contact your prospective transfer colleges to update your status.
Since you feel that you were treated unfairly, you should provide details. (You also would be wise to seek legal help.) Your explanation can emphasize your claim that you were falsely accused and should include the key details about what happened. But you should also emphasize what you learned from this episode, and you should bend over backwards to sound humble and eager to learn from your mistakes. Even the term “kangaroo court” (while it may indeed describe how you felt your situation was adjudicated) comes across as arrogant, and that’s not the tone you want to strive for in your explanatory letter.
It’s hard to weigh in more responsibly without knowing a lot more about the episode in question, and–as noted above–you may want to engage legal assistance. Good luck!
Thank you Sally, I really appreciate these helpful suggestions.
Also I wonder if there any further suggestions about how to explain to the school admissions? Is it really wise to indicate it was a false accusation(my main concern)? Surely that was the truth but I don’t know if anyone will believe me more than the results made by school “authorities”. Is my chance close to nil as long as there’s such record on my transcript? Thank you very much.
@justastudentt -If you want, send me a Private Message and explain your version of what happened and also the “official” version of what happened, which got you expelled. Once I know the details, I can better advise you on how to present the situation to your transfer colleges.
Thank you, I will provide you these informations as soon as possible.
Thank you very much
@Themathaw If it is a required class and you fail, would you graduate from HS?
Hello,
what are the chances that I would get rescinded for 3Bs and 2Cs (all AP classes) during 1st semester- the school is UMich and their website says “Any significant decline in your academic performance, such as three or more C’s, any D’s, E’s or F’s, may be cause for revoking admission.” (https://umich.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/300/~/revoking-admission) school is Umich.
Also i dropped one the classes I got a C in (APCS) and replaced it with AP Macro so should I contact them about this? Based on my grades so far I’m predicting I’ll get at least 2 As and 3 Bs 2nd semester. so as long as I don’t get a total of 3 Cs for the school year will I be alright?
@lincoln1222-It’s impossible for me to know how much your grades have declined without knowing what they were in the first place! But my best guess is that, if you get 2 A’s and 3 B’s and NOT 3 C’s, you should be okay (assuming all the A’s and B’s aren’t in gym, chorus, yearbook … you get the idea).
BUT … you definitely need to tell the admission office about your change of classes. It shouldn’t make a difference, but I can’t see The Big Picture (your background, overall academic profile, future goals) that the admission folks saw, so again I can’t say for sure what the impact of the change will be … though probably none.
Hi, I am an international student from India. I was accepted to Texas Christian University from India with full scholarship. In the first semester of my final exam, my grades were Straight A’s . But in the final exams of the senior year, my performance has dropped considerably. I predict after looking at the answer key of the papers, i will get in the 60s in 2 subjects ( that’s a B in India though [60-75]) , and in the 70s in 3 subjects ( thats a B or an A [75-100]), and one A. What are the chances that either my scholarship or the whole admission will be rescinded?
My Grandmother was hospitalized ( i was present when she got attacks) in the middle of my final exams, which might have affected my performance.
@frogs2022 -I can’t say for sure but I think you should be okay for both your acceptance and the scholarship. If you get a warning letter from TCU asking why your grades dropped, you can explain the situation with your grandma. But colleges typically rescind for D’s and F’s … or for a whole slate of C’s. Although your grades are clearly down, the downturn doesn’t strike me as serious enough for there to be any action taken.
Good luck!