<p>SteveMA, I think every one of the 11 schools my S applied to requested a mid-year report. He did not apply to any schools with rolling admissions. Perhaps that is the difference. If this student is applying to schools like Williams in the RD round, they are going to want the mid-year grades.</p>
<p>Regarding the student’s situation, I would consider dropping into AP Calc AB. She would be staying at the AP level, and staying with calc. Physics…get a tutor. Actually, even if she drops down to AB I would get a tutor for both. It may be that she is not studying effectively, and a good tutor could help her with that.</p>
<p>It may be that if she makes a breakthrough now she will be fine from now on. Taking the long view, it is also true that many successful premeds were not the kids who could sail through a full load of AP classes with As in HS. She may ultimately be better off at a college that is not at the pinnacle of selectivity, competing with those kids, even though she is an excellent student.</p>
<p>Ok this was in 2009 a very crazy year for applications, My D senior class president millions of EC’s blah blah did not apply early admission. She got two B’s on her report card, clege advisor called colleges that rejected her, it was the 2 b’s I said 2 b’s made a difference? she said the other kids got A’s. It all worked out ok and she is graduating this year. but it did make a difference in her admissions. so I was told) just sharing my experience. also if she had applied EA they never would have seen them</p>
<p>Consolation–I am sure it is the difference but we were talking about RD schools because it was suggested that the OP have her DD get her RD apps in before the marking period ends.</p>
<p>I’d tell her to stick it out and work her butt off for a B. When does your grading period end? Ours ends the end of Jan. </p>
<p>Is your DD taking advantage of any and all extra help? At my kids’ high school there is a math lab after school 2 days a week. Also can she earn back some of her points on tests? Here they allow kids to do test corrections for 1/2 credit back on math tests.</p>
<p>Colleges can and will request mid-year grades depending on the school. </p>
<p>Colleges will not only look at the grades but the caliber of classes on the transcript. A few B’s should not really weigh in that heavily unless they are classes that are necessary for the major, especially if she shows an upward trend in these classes over the year. Remember, most seniors are slacking off. It appears that she must have done quite well in AP Bio because of the 760 on the subject test so that’s a plus. </p>
<p>There is no guarantee that if she ends up in Honors Physics that she will fare better unless the class is “known” to be easier than the AP class. Dropping down to AP CALC AB seems like a good compromise for that class. The math one really is not critical to her college major so she has room there to switch it to AB.</p>
<p>If your kids already have “18 of 19 acceptances in the door,” then you must be talking about rolling admissions schools, not RD schools! RD schools do not send out decisions until the spring, and most (if not all?) of those DO expect mid-year grades. Your statement that you’ve received 18 RD acceptances by this time of year seems a bit odd. Can you please clarify?</p>
<p>dodgersmom-Your situation is stressful. I empathize completely. My d had a similar situation last year. This is your D’s last year at home and her senior year. With her current schedule, she will grind until May. Then three months later she is gone, balance is important! I would talk to the counselor, explain the worry of the sinking ship, not the C’s. (they don’t like grade driven reasons as much as well-being reasons) See if they can drop her physics class, and I would go all the way to regular physics. Honors will take a little load off but not enough for the B in Calculus. One regualr class with a good grade is much preferred. Like others have suggested. with her future major, pick schools she can be successful in without being behind the 8 ball for 4 more years!</p>
<p>One of my daughters was in AP Calc her senior year and was struggling (C-). She switched to Calculus midyear and not one of her colleges said anything about it. She had applied to 11 schools and was accepted to 10.</p>
<p>Change from AP Calc BC to AP Calc AB…thus will still have an AP class.
As for physics, I believe that the difference between AP Physics and Honors Physics is usually calculus based vs non-calculus based. Thus, it would be important to find out if the difficulty with the class is the concepts or the calculus. Maybe consider a different science.
Also, consider a tutor for both subjects. The analytical skills needed for both Calc and physics are similar, and she may need to find a better person to present the material to her.</p>
<p>Lastly, if her college interest is in bio/pre-med, she might want to consider carefully. Calculus and Physics are both requirements for bio/pre-med in college. She may be a late-bloomer in the topics, and that’s ok, but she also may be fighting an uphill battle and competing against kids who find AP Calc BC and AP Physics a breeze.</p>
<p>AP Physics B is non-calculus-based; the two AP Physics C subjects require extensive use of calculus.</p>
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<p>I agree. When median college test scores run in the 65% range and the look-once naturals at math and science blow away the upper end of the curve, a lot of college students quickly decide to switch to less stress-inducing majors.</p>
<p>Is there a GPA difference between AP and Honors? AP at my son’s HS was given an extra point and honors an extra 0.5 point. Well worth sticking to AP if this is the case.</p>
<p>I think it’s worth dropping down in both. Sure a C could turn into a B, but it could also turn into a D or an F. These subjects are both cumulative and she’s way behind the curve. She might have too heavy of a load. This could get much much worse and jeopardize graduation, not to mention college prospects. </p>
<p>There are a lot of great colleges where your D could excel. Make sure she has some reasonable options. She’s better off lowering her college expectations and applying to some great schools where she’s still a shoo in rather than going for broke and really messing things up.</p>
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<p>1) Because they could ace the 2nd quarter and have it average out to a B or B+ for the semester.
2) Because they recognize that there is a gap in their knowledge between what’s necessary to move forward successfully and where they are. Since both calculus and physics all build on each other - integration requires a good understanding of differentiation in calculus, and understating of translational kinematics, force, work and momentum is necessary to understand the angular versions. </p>
<p>This could get worse. If she drops down to AB in calculus, she’ll be seeing some material for the 2nd time and she’ll be able to retain it.</p>
<p>Thank you all for replying. I discussed all those options with her back then. She did not want to drop down to an easier class in either of the two subjects. Instead, she promised to study harder and seek help after school from peers and teachers.</p>
<p>As of last December, she had a low ‘B’ in both AP Calc B/C and AP Physics. She wasn’t very happy about it (since she is a 12th grader and was applying to colleges in December … and the school report to colleges showed ‘B’ in both these subjects) but at the same time she was glad that it was a B and not a C.</p>
<p>Ever since the mid-year reports went out to colleges … and like other seniors she is awaiting admission decisions, she is not working as hard as she did before, consequently the grades in both those subjects have dropped down to C again.</p>
<p>She assures me that she will manage to bring those up to B (A is not a possibility any more this late in the year) before graduating, and that if she is not able to get B and if she ends up graduating with C as her final grade, that wouldn’t change anything or harm her academically.</p>
<p>Not having enough knowledge about it … i.e: whether or not HS grades matter any more later in their lives, I don’t know how to counter her about this except to accept what she tells me.</p>
<p>If she is able to get into colleges of her choice and not have to deal with wait list then should be fine. Most colleges won’t rescind her with few Cs.</p>
<p>I have been told that even the more selective schools are very forgiving of even a C in AP Calc BC. Don’t know about the Physics. But with Bs in them at the mid year point, she’s done very well, IMO. Fingers crossed for acceptaces, and do let us know. </p>
<p>As to what she gets in the course for the year, unless she totally bombs them for the second semester getting D’s or lower, it’s not likely to be a problem. The college get full senior year transcripts so the grades will be averaged, and only the one grade per course is usually shown, at least at my kids’ schools. It takes a lot to flunk a course when the mid year grade is a B. My son deliberately flunked his end of the year Calcu final which was a third of his second semeter grade, but still showed as B- for the year.</p>