When Do Colleges Rescind Acceptances?

<p>todaywasagoodday–Your question isn’t clear. Why was your ACT score canceled AFTER it went to colleges? Were you suspected of cheating?</p>

<p>I have a friend who was admitted to an Ivy and replied by May 1st. However, he failed his IB diploma(less than 24 points). Is this 100% rescission? What, if anything,can be done?</p>

<p>His GPA throughout esnior year stayed high and he graduated from high school.</p>

<p>Sally, could you please give me your opinion. My daughter has been accepted into Michigan State university. Last semster she earned 4 A’s and 1B(ap bio) 1B-(ap calc). this semester she will also have 3 A’s, 1 B+ but her ap bio will be a C and her ap calc will be a C+. Will this cause her admission to be rescinded? I feel responsible. She has had a weekend job for the entire year, but they switched her hours to the schoolweek and I thought she needed to keep the job bc she needs to help pay for her college and jobs are hard to come by-so I told her to keep the job. Didn’t realize how tired she was working from 5-10:30 3 days a week during school. She has wanted to go to MSU her entire life and I don’t want to see it taken away from her. Her GPA will still be a 3.0 or above weighted or unweighted.</p>

<p>(I’m not Sally, but I hope you don’t mind me answering) WorriedMSUParent, your daughter should be just fine. She’s still passing all of her classes and has great grades, despite a couple of C’s. I knew plenty of students who ended their senior year with similar grades and were never in danger of having acceptances rescinded. Best of luck to her next year at MSU.</p>

<p>What if the AP Bio ends up being a d+. She said the final was really hard and that she is worried she did really bad on it. I really can’t believe after four years of working very hard-she was an all A student with one prior B+ on her transcript and it can all be taken away. I am so worried if msu rescinds she will get stuck with nowhere to go. She also got the most money from msu so if they rescind don’t know can afford to go to anyother university-the whole reason for the drop in grades was for her to earn the money needed for her to go to msu now before college starts so she didnt have to work her freshman year and could focus on classes.</p>

<p>What I think will happen if your daughter gets a D+ is that she will receive a letter from MSU asking why her grade is so low, and then she can respond by explaining that she worked extended hours at her job, with the aim of getting a head start on covering college costs. She can offer to document her work hours for the admission folks if they want (and they probably won’t). This will show that she doesn’t have just a garden-variety case of senioritis. </p>

<p>I don’t know if MSU has a specific policy that governs the impact of any grade below a “C.” I think you should call the admission office and ask. You can fly under the radar when you do (i.e., no need to give your daughter’s name at this point, even if they request it). </p>

<p>Meanwhile, if it’s not too late, she can ask her bio teacher if she can do an extra-credit project to bring her grade up a bit. (Our local seniors have already finished classes but perhaps your daughter still has a little time?)</p>

<p>Thamks, Sally. No classes ended this week so no chance of doing any extra projects-she asked after the test and was told no extra work. The class is based 60% on tests, 25% lab, 10% homework, and 5% participation. She earned th full participation and 9.4% for homework, she got 21% on the one lab this quarter, what she did was bomb the one test-which was 60% of her grade. That test wasn’t until May 7th-so she was passing the quarter with a great grade until the very close to the end. She worked the two nights before and stated she planned on studying much more but fell asleep bc so tired from working. In her letter of explanation, if needed, should she note that a poor test score really hurt her the last quarter not just that she overall checked out of the class. OUr semester grades is 40/40/20-she earned a c+(78.7) the 3rd quarter so if she earned a d this quarter she needs a high C on the exam to keep a C in the class. She studied for the exam but said that this AP class has been really hard and that even though she felt she studied really hard she still feels lost on some of the concepts and the test was alot of essay type of questions so she is not confident. I am so stressed out right now, I have her in a panic and upset that I pushed her to work without recognizing she was struggling with the balance of working during the school week with AP courses. I was so worried about the expense of college, I never considered that it was taking such a toll on her focus the last couple of months. Do you think with the explanation and the grades she got in her other classes even if they ask for an explanation they will still allow her to enter? Should we ask for a probation status if it comes down to that?</p>

<p>I will be surprised if she is rescinded, even with the D+. If MSU does contact her, she should certainly provide the full breakdown that you gave above which led to the low grade. (She should explain about the added job hours, too, of course.) They may expect her to enter on Academic Probation, which is no big deal. </p>

<p>Meanwhile, go easier on yourself. I really don’t think that this will end badly, and it can be hard to know without a crystal ball how much to push our kids and how much to back off. I bet there are times in the past when you pushed and it turned out to be the exact right thing to do.</p>

<p>Well, was able to breathe a sigh of relief today. My daughter got her final semester grades and she earned 4A’s, a C+ in AP Calc. and thank god a C in AP Bio. So, its nice to know the focus this summer can be on getting her ready to go instead of waiting for her admisssions to be reviewed.</p>

<p>That’s good news, worriedmsuparent. Now you can get some sleep. :)</p>

<p>Hi Sally</p>

<p>I have a friend who was admitted to an Ivy and replied by May 1st. However, he failed his IB diploma(less than 24 points). Is this 100% rescission? What, if anything,can be done? He graduated from high school with ok GPA.</p>

<p>maybirthday–I can’t speak for all the Ivy League schools but I know that Yale will contact a student in your friend’s situation and ask for an explanation. Depending on what that explanation is, the student may be asked to take a year off before enrolling. If the downturn is egregious, the student may find that his acceptance has been rescinded. </p>

<p>Your friend will most likely hear from the admission office at his college so he should be prepared to explain why he fared poorly on his IB tests. If he was ill or was dealing with family problems, he should be sure to say so. </p>

<p>If the college wants to revoke his acceptance, he might also want to prepare a “counter-offer.” (i.e., “What if I go to a local college for a year and get top grades and then enter in 2013?” or “Can I do a meaningful community service project for a year and then enter in 2013?”)</p>

<p>Thanks Sally, your reply has been very helpful.
Does the university contact only the student or the high school counselor as well in cases like this?
Is it better (less likely to result in rescission) to contact the university now about failing the IB diploma and trying to negotiate to reach a decision, or wait for the university to hound for an explanation after IB results come out in July?</p>

<p>I can’t say for sure, but the college will probably only contact the student because, by the time they receive and process the students final grades, the counselor may already be on summer vacation. If they rescind the admission, the counselor will be notified.</p>

<p>Personally, I think it makes sense to be proactive and notify the college promptly. It reflects well on the student and also allows more time to plan alternative paths, should the college rescind the admission. </p>

<p>Colleges never want to rescind acceptances so it also makes sense to propose some sort of alternative, as I mentioned above, should it look like the college is getting ready to rescind.</p>

<p>Hello Sally!</p>

<p>I’m going to UCSD this year and a little worried about my senior year grades. For 1st semester I got 3 A’s (AP Literature, AP Spanish, US Gov’t), 1 B (AP Comp Gov’t) and 2 C’s in AP Calc BC and AP Physics.
For 2nd semester, I managed to raise my grades so that I had 4 A’s (AP Literature, AP Spanish, Econ, World Religions) and 2 B’s (AP Calc BC and AP Physics).
Would UCSD rescind my acceptance for those 2 C’s in 1st semester or would they overlook it because I raised those grades to B’s in 2nd semester?</p>

<p>Thank you so much Sally!</p>

<p>You should be just fine, musiclover4. Don’t worry.</p>

<p>Nice job raising those grades!</p>

<p>Phew, thank you so much Sally!</p>

<p>Since I am currently a Human Biology major, would UCSD take away my major because of my low grades in Calc and Physics and put me as undecided? </p>

<p>Thank you so much again!</p>

<p>That’s a question for UCSD, but my best guess is that you’ll be fine. You pulled up those grades to B’s so I can’t imagine that you’ll have a problem.</p>

<p>Hi,
I am attending Rutgers School of Engineering next fall. I did really bad (D+ most likely) in AP Calculus AB class. It’s not because of the dreaded senioritis or a lack of studying either. I feel like I understand the topics, but have no idea what happens because of the difficult tests they give. Will Rutgers rescind me because I received a one D or D+? I am currently acing all my other classes with mostly As and 2 Bs. Has anyone ever heard of this happening?</p>