@chillywaters -Admission officials don’t like it when a student drops out of a more rigorous class into a less demanding one post-acceptance. But they especially dislike it when the student doesn’t report the change as soon if it happens (if not before it happens … which is preferable). So your son should definitely email his regional rep at his EA school (with a Cc to the main admission address) to explain everything you’ve said here … especially the fact that it was the teacher (and not your son) who’d insisted on the change. If he’s already applied to other colleges, he must notify them ASAP as well.
My crystal ball is telling me that your son will NOT lose his acceptance over this, but he should certainly disclose the change right away. It would also work in your son’s favor to ask his school counselor to write to the EA school to confirm the story.
@Sally_Rubenstone, Thank you for your reply. The school is the University of Michigan. He is drafting an email now. This is all new to us, so he wasn’t really aware that he needed to ask before making a schedule change. Any idea how U of M responds to these issues?
@chillywaters -First of all, congrats to your son on his Michigan acceptance. That school is always tough to get into but this year’s EA seemed especially brutal.
When your son writes to U of M (as I’d suggested yesterday), he can also say what you’ve just told me here … that he and his family are new to this process and that no one (including his school counselor) had advised him to ask about making the math switch before it happened. He doesn’t want to come off as sounding whiny in his message, but he should emphasize that he was merely following his teacher’s strong recommendation and not his own preferences when he dropped out of AP Calc.
While I don’t know how U of M specifically responds in these situations, I still stand by my previous conjecture that your son will be fine. But do let us know how it all works out for him since this could be helpful to others in similar shoes next year.
Hello @Sally_Rubenstone
I was recently admitted to a top university under early decision and I am worried my acceptance will be rescinded. I currently have straight A’s in all my classes except a D in AP Chemistry. Just to note, my school does grades Quarterly and this will be on my mid-year report. I am taking 4 AP classes this year. There does not seem to be much hope to raise my D to a C in the class, but I have never gotten below a B in any of my classes before in high school. This is not a result of “Senioritis” or “slacking-off.” I try my very best in the class and study days before an exam but still fail the exams. I received a B First quarter, but the D in second quarter worries me. Even if I were to drop the class, I feel this would be worse. My teacher is known for being very brutal about giving extra credit. It is one of the hardest class in the school with only 24 students taking it in a school with 3000~4000 students.
What are the chances my admission will be rescinded? For context, this school is Emory. Even if they make me explain my D in the class, I don’t know how I could explain it other than I studied hard but my grade on the tests were not an accurate indication of performance.
Will a D for one quarter (not the final year grade) possibly get my acceptance rescinded?
Thank you for your time
@bulove009 -No, a D for one quarter won’t get your Emory acceptance rescinded. But, assuming that the class will continue for two more quarters and won’t be ending this month, you should seek tutoring and/or extra help from your teacher to pull up your grade. You should also write to Emory now to explain what you’ve said here (that you ARE trying but you’re still having trouble with the tests). So that way, when the Emory admission officials see your midyear report, they won’t assume you’ve been slacking.
@Sally_Rubenstone
Thank you so much for your response. I’m guessing I should not reach out first unless they contact me, correct? Because there is a chance they may ignore it?
Actually the quarter is ending next week with midterms so I am most likely ending the second quarter with a D.
@bulove009 -I would suggest that you contact Emory NOW. The admission folks there probably won’t act on your D, but they won’t ignore it either. That is, they WILL see it and wonder if senioritis kicked in the second you got your good news from them!
So DO contact them ASAP to explain that your downturn was definitely NOT the result of slacking, and describe the measures you’ve taken (and will continue to take) to try to stay afloat in that class.
@Sally_Rubenstone, my son heard back from his Admissions Counselor and was told thanks for the email and the update, it will be noted on his application and the email added to his file, and As long as you perform well in the remainder of your senior year coursework, your admission will not be affected. Whew! Thanks for advising him to email right away!
@chillywaters -Thanks for the update. That’s great news … and also potentially helpful to other students in similar straits, either now or in the future.
@Sally_Rubenstone I am in a bit of a weird situation. I just moved from India to California for my senior year and then college. I have no intention of going anywhere else but UC because of the proximity to my family. I do have perfect ACT, SAT Subject tests and 3 AP scores but my board, CBSE, in India is known to deflate marks in the 11th grade. I had a 8.4 GPA out of 10 in my 10th grade but got cut down to 6. I talked to the admissions office and they seemed to know about this so that is not an issue. However, since I moved to the US, I have to take US History in my senior year as well. The education system in general is very different than what I am accustomed toso my grades are pretty bad this year. Adding on to this, my father committed suicide 6 months ago because of which I have lost the ability to concentrate. These factors combined made me have 2 B’s, 3 C’s and a D in US History. I have already sent an email to the UC’s detailing this situation but I am really worried if I would be able to attend college, specially after hearing about people getting rescinded for C’s. To clarify, my major is aeronautical engineering and all of my STEM classes have a B or higher. Please let me know if I should drop an year or would I be considered for the fall term at UC. Thank you.
Hey @Sally_Rubenstone !
I’ve been accepted to my top choice (Harvard) early, but am predicting 2 C grades in AP Physics and AP Calculus for the first semester, which they’ll presumably see when my mid-year report is sent. I did have some unforeseen circumstances (death of a family member, working more after my dad lost his job, taking care of a younger sibling, missed a week of school due to sickness), but when I talked to my guidance counselor, she advised I don’t contact them at all to explain any of this unless I hear from them first, so I don’t “draw attention to it.” I’m worried that if I do get a warning letter or even worse, it’ll have reflected poorly on me to have not reached out beforehand. Should I still e-mail or call Harvard before they receive my first semester grades? Or wait like my counselor advised me to do so? Would calling or e-mailing be better? And what exactly should I focus on if I do end up contacting them (my various circumstances or what I’m doing to improve my performance and bring up the grades)? I’m frankly freaking out over this. Is it likely that I’ll be rescinded for these two C’s? These 2 C’s will be alongside 5 A’s, and I’m taking all AP classes.
And also, would it be better to focus on one or two circumstances rather than explain them all?
@thunderhawk765 -First of all, my condolences on the loss of your father. No teenager–in fact, no person–should have to endure such a tragedy.
I’m sure that UC admission officials will be very sympathetic to your situation and will give it thorough consideration when evaluating your candidacy. However, it’s not clear from your question if you applied to ONLY Cal Berkeley or to other UC’s, too. I think it’s the latter, but I would need to know exactly where you have applied before advising you.
Applying to college for the fall term of 2021 will only improve your admission chances if you have a very strong spring semester and can bring up your lower grades. When selecting students for the fall of 2020, admission officials will be only using your grades from the first half of your senior year when they make their decision. So if your second semester turns out to be far stronger, you will definitely improve your admission odds if you take a year off and apply to colleges next fall instead.
Again, admission officials will assess your transcript with your tragic loss in mind, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you will get the good news you’re hoping for, although you might. But do let me know exactly which colleges you’ve applied to so that I can counsel you more effectively.
@theletobe -I always feel it’s a mistake when students with plummeting grades hope that the college folks “won’t notice.” Trust me, they WILL. So you’re best off if you show them that you notice, too … and that you care.
Don’t wait for Harvard to contact you. Send an email to your regional rep (the admission staff member who oversees applicants from your high school) with a Cc to the main admission address, In it, explain that you’ve had a tough fall. The emphasis should be on the fact that your dad lost his job and that you’ve had to work extra hours to help support the family. But only do this if it’s true and can be documented. Harvard admission officials probably won’t contact your employer to ask if indeed your schedule has changed. But, even so, don’t report that it has, if this isn’t honest.
You can also mention the added babysitting duties and the week of illness. Don’t put a lot of emphasis on these, but it’s fine to say that your first semester was a “perfect storm” of stressful experiences.
Only include the death of a relative if it really was a significant loss for you or your immediate family. If the death really did cause sadness or strife at home, it’s fine to say so. But if the deceased was a great aunt far away with whom there was little contact, you will only hurt yourself in the admission office by using this as an excuse for dropping grades.
My best guess is that Harvard will respond by saying that you need to bring up your grades in the spring semester but there will be no consequences right now. Then do whatever it takes to improve at least one of those two C’s (extra help, tutoring, etc.). Even if you ultimately don’t raise either C, at least you will be able to document the measures you took to improve, and thus Harvard will accept that you haven’t been slacking and might let you slide in with the C’s.
@Sally_Rubenstone I have applied to all the UC’s. Could I ask for one more thing from you? I did contact the UC email account and they told me to update my scores in the portal for further evaluation. How can I let them know about the circumstances I was in because if they see a D they might just think its senioritis which its not. I contacted individual schools and all of them told me to update my scores. Do the UC’s have like an additional comments section on the portal like they do on the application? Thank you, your help is much appreciated.
@thunderhawk765 -Sorry, but I don’t know what sort of information you can provide to the UC’s through the portal. Many colleges do allow updates via portal such as the explanations you want to send. But if there’s no way to do this through the portal, just send an email to each of your UC schools.
However, if you are going to blame your low grades, at least in part, on a “different educational system” in the US, you need to explain in your email exactly WHAT is different that confused you.
But I would think that your father’s suicide is reason enough for low grades, and many of the college folks will understand this.
@Sally_Rubenstone Okay, I followed your instructions and sent the mail to UC Merced. Thank you so much for this, I had noone to turn to on this issue, even my school councellors told me that I will not be able to go to college despite having very good standardized tests. Now I have a bit of hope. I will send all the other UC’s the mail now. Again, thank you so much for your help. And, if you dont mind me asking, would you think that I will be able to get into any of the UC’s? All I lack are these scores, I have very strong essays, as told by my school principal, litrature teacher and councellor, because I have a ton of great stories about astrophysics, technology, electrical engineering, music composition and many more things I did with my father, I have very good EC’s, upto national level, in music and technology, and have nearly perfect ACT, Subject tests. I understand if you cant answer this, I just wanted to know your opinion on if I would be able to go to college at all. Again, thank you for all the help
@thunderhawk765 - I cannot predict your admission chances. I don’t have access to the extensive information about you that college officials will see, and I also can’t accurately estimate how much college officials will forgive your low grades because of your family tragedy. However, grades are the most important component of an application. They are much more important than essays, extracurriculars, and recommendations. But, even so, there are many colleges that will welcome you, although it sounds like you may not have applied to a balanced range of “Reach,” “Realistic,” and “Safe” colleges. If you applied ONLY to UC’s, then your list is top-heavy with “Reach” colleges.
Also, you said that you only moved to the US from India last year. Are you an American citizen? And are you applying for financial aid? If you are international candidate (non-citizen) AND you are applying for aid, this will make your college process more challenging, and you may need a longer list of less-selective colleges than you currently have. But the good news is that many of such colleges are still accepting applications so it’s not too late to consider new options.
This doesn’t mean that you won’t get good news from your top choices, only that you can’t count on acceptances from highly competitive institutions.
I never thought I’d be asking advise on this topic, but my dd is barely holding onto a C in her AP Env Science class.
Even though we are only 4 weeks into the new semester, she has had to deal with a lot. Sinus Infection (missed 2 days of school) Stomach Virus (missed another 2 days). Some social stuff (I know this doesn’t count), a close friend’s mother passed away, a close friend was in a car accident and has been in an induced coma for 3 weeks, and now my mother (her grandmother) is on hospice and is expected to pass away within the next week.
Not sure how much any of this really plays into the grade because she swears it is really just that the teacher is not teaching. The teacher does not give homework, just tells them to read occasionally and gives them quizzes/tests and then lectures on whatever she feels like for the day or puts on a movie. She has also said the teacher is unapproachable, rumor is she got mad at a student last year and threw a laptop at him…and she is the only teacher that didn’t respond to my email when I emailed all of her teachers when she had the stomach virus.
I’ve advised my dd to go talk to her counselor and see if she has any advise on how to approach the teacher, because it is going to be a long semester and there is still plenty of time to pull the grade up. She hovered at a B- most of first semester and ended up with a B+ as her grade, so there is hope.
If she does get a C/C-/or even a D how likely is she to have an admission rescinded? Schools in question that she has been accepted to are (I know this is a crazy weird list) Auburn, Florida State, Chapman University, Arizona State, and Univ of Oregon. She is still waiting on decisions from San Diego State and Cal Poly - SLO. Her top choices are Auburn, Florida State, Chapman and Cal Poly - SLO.
Thanks for any advise.