In my school AP Physics C is INCREDIBLY hard, the mean class average is a c, only two people have an A in the class, the teacher is really hard. Will this affect my chances at EA schools? I have As in all my other APs, this class is just really hard.
This is likely to depend which universities you are applying to. Many universities do not even look at senior year grades (acceptances will typically come with some constraints, such as graduating high school before you start university).
Are you are senior? What universities have you applied to?
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Yes, I am a senior. EA: Umich, UIUC, purdue, CU Boulder, GTech, some safety in state.
Purdue won’t see the grade but make sure it doesn’t drop any lower.
Michigan defers a ton of people and will ask for first semester grades.
Not sure about the others but my advice would be to try very hard to get that grade up.
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That makes sense. But won’t they look at grade distribution in the class? Like if everyone is getting a c clearly the class is really hard.
I’m sure it’s hard but I’m not sure how colleges would know the grade distribution in the class. Are lots of people who are taking that class applying to the same schools? Even then it would take an extra keen eye from an AO to do that, I would think. Good luck.
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Many schools have college profiles that are sent to colleges. My son’s school’s college profile shows grade distributions for all classes that juniors and seniors take. So if that teacher always has a harsh grade distribution, colleges can know that. …
So it won’t be penalized a lot? Would it have been better to just not take this class in the first place. I was thinking of dropping second semester and finding an online course.
UIUC won’t look at any semester 7 grades.
What you can NOT do is drop the class, without telling each and every school you have applied to. If you have already been accepted to schools, you would need permission from them to drop.
AP Physics C is hard, regardless the teacher. Do what you can to get your grade up…meet with the teacher, do all the homework, get a class study group together, look at lessons at Khan Academy, or even get a tutor if that is in the budget.
I believe you, but I have never seen a school profile with upper level course grade distributions. Many schools don’t even share any cumulative GPA distributions, or medians.
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My impression is that a School Profile showing grading distribution for specific junior and senior courses is unusual. I’ve never seen one that includes this. The only grade distribution I’ve seen on School Profile docs is overall 6th-semester weighted GPA.
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Agreed. School profiles that show grade distributions for specific classes are not the norm. The OP should assume, unless he has seen the profile or heard specifically from the counselor, that colleges will not see the grade distribution for his AP Physics C course. They could see how current and past applicants from his school did on the course, but they wouldn’t look for that info unprompted. And they will see if reported his AP score and could surmise that a 5 with a C suggests a hard course or curve.
I suggest he ask his counselor to note it.
This is what I am thinking also.
One concern that I have: Physics would not be easy at Georgia Tech either, or probably at most if not all of these other schools. I doubt that physics at GT is going to be any easier than your current high school physics AP class. Those two kids in your class who are getting an A, you would find a LOT of similar students at Georgia Tech.
If you want to attend a university on the GT, U.Michigan level, then I think that you need to learn how to do very well in a very tough class. This is a very good time to take a big step in that direction.
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i’m in a similar boat; see if you can get your counselor to put it in their rec if possible (i assume it’s already been sent though, but maybe for RD schools?)
What are u suggesting the counselor put in their LoR?
just like “[name] has been challenging themself by taking the hardest classes offered at our school, including physics c—whose class average is [insert here]—and has been performing equally/better than their peers” or smth i don’t know. my counselor was willing to do that for me (although apparently half my class has an A so i’m just a loser and she didn’t end up putting it haha) so i assume the counselor would have an idea of how to word it/portray it best.
Yeah I will probably ask my counselor to do that. Would not taking the course have impacted my decision a lot? Cause I am doing engineering so I thought this course was needed.
i think if your counselor can put a note saying you’re doing about the same/maybe better than other students, and esp if you can get your grades up, it’ll look better that you went for the rigor and challenged yourself than tried to coast esp in engineering i think. plus grade inflation is huge rn so i think having a C might make the rest of your grades look more impressive maybe? this is all stuff one of my teachers keeps telling me about my physics class haha and she also told me some story about how some kid applying to tufts called the admissions office about a B and they were like “we’d rather you get your first B in high school than here in college yk” so if that helps ig? i don’t have any like expertise on this subject i’m a senior myself so take this all with a grain of salt ofc
Yeah I hope because I am a really hard worker my gpa will actually go up even with a c. this teacher says his class is harder than many colleges like ucla. I feel like I am being penalized for trying to learn more and be prepared for college as an engineer, just feels unfair in the moment, but who knows what will happen next year lol.
To the OP… This!!!
Michigan physics can be extremely hard for most students since your taking it with physic majors etc not just engineering kids. It’s very difficult there and GT at least. No AO has the time to look past the grades about individual classes unless your counselor wrote something about it in their school report for you. Whatever is hard now will be much harder at all your schools mentioned. Start meeting with your teacher and /get a tutor and/or Khan academy online like now. Fix what your not understanding now. The students at those schools are all going to be the top kids at their current schools mostly. To survive at Michigan etc you need to get this information down. You have plenty of time. Look at it as your getting ready for college. Many students go a whole grade lower the first semester /year at these schools. You shouldn’t really care what these other kids at your school are doing. If the teacher is really hard then great. Meet with the teacher and ask specifically what you need to do to raise your grade. You will thank us all next year.
Good luck.
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I sure have. It is a scary thing. I don’t want to get my kid in trouble by naming any names, though.