Will 1 C senior year cost me?

Applying to College
1

I’m a senior that has applied to 6 EA schools: UMD, Penn State, Tulane, UMich, Wisconsin, and Northeastern. I have an upward trend in my grades from sophomore to junior year.

10th grade: 3.25 GPA
11th grade: 3.65 GPA

12th grade: I have straight A’s except for a B in AP Spanish and I have a C- in an elective.

-12th grade GPA without the C- is a 3.83
-With the C- I have a 3.61 so far

If colleges request first quarter grades will this C- jeopardize my admission?
Since I have straight A’s and a B in an AP class in my core subjects, will colleges overlook the C-?
I’ve never gotten anything below a B- in my entire high school career so will this be a red flag?

2

Considering it is a non-core class it may not even be factored into GPA calculation. I would not stress over something you cannot do anything about except improve the grade.

3

That won’t affect your admission any more than your other grades. It shows you are a solid B+/A- performer.

4

Thank you

5

And 2 more questions:

  1. Should I send my first quarter grades to colleges?
  2. Should I try dropping the class? Or would that look bad?
6

Don’t drop. Just do better! You still have 5 months
until graduation. One C will NOT affect your acceptance

7

Thanks @NASA2014

8

bump

9

So should I send these grades to colleges considering that my other grades are 4 A’s and a B, and the elective has nothing to do with my intended major? (political science)

10

Frankly, I’d drop the course. If they ask why, you can always say you needed more time to focus on your other courses and your extracurriculars. A C- just doesn’t look good.

11

@Planner wouldn’t dropping the class look worse? I guess I could since it’s my third time taking the class I could just say I’ve completely lost interest in it. Would you recommend dropping it and saying I’ve lost interest?

12

Unfortunately, taking a course three times would seem to indicate a lot of interest. I think the C- looks bad no matter how you slice it, but this is probably something you should discuss with your counselor at school, especially since you’ve taken the course multiple times.

13

Why is this the third time taking the class? What class is this?

14

@“Erin’s Dad” it’s a film class. There are different levels of the class, so I’m not taking the same exact course each time.

15

Then yes, it sounds like you’ve just grown tired of it. Just drop it.

16

@“Erin’s Dad” I’m going to be able to bring my grade up to a B for the semester. I’m probably going to stick it out and do really well second quarter. Do you know if it’s possible to only send core subject courses to colleges?

17

Some colleges consider art a core academic subject, so a film course would be included in GPA calculations at such colleges.

18

@ucbalumnus Yes, you’re right that it counts for GPA calculation. It still isn’t an academic subject so I don’t think colleges will look at it as much as my core academic classes.

19

UCBAlumnus mentioned that because the UCs specifically include it in their A-G GPA calculations as part of their CORE. You would need to check each college to see if it would be included or not.