I got my admission to UIUC DGS (undecided) in EA session of 2020. I am a straight A student with several Bs in the past three years. However, I took a computer science course which is really overwhelming and hard to me at the 2nd semester of my senior year. I got 56 (which is a D since our passing line is 50) finally since I performed badly in my final assignment which weighs nearly half of the course. Therefore, I am really worried that I might be rescinded due to this. Here are my other grades in senior year:
AP Economics (89)
C-Prep Chemistry (95)
C-Prep English (94)
C-Prep Statistics (98)
Financial Accounting (94)
C-Prep Calculus (83)
Together with the computer science course, my overall GPA of my senior year will be 87.
I have some relatively strong awards and well-rounded extracurriculars.
Call the admissions office today and explain to them what happened. Frame it as you took a chance, pushing yourself to take a class in a field that was new for you, and it was too challenging for you. Now you know that Comp Sci is not your field. It sounds as if you didn’t need to take the Comp Sci class, that you took it as an exploratory option. With your other grades, I strongly doubt that they would rescind you.
The mid 50% UW GPA for DGS admitted students is 3.32-3.78. If your GPA with that D is still above 378, or close to 3.78, I would be very surprised if your admission would be rescinded because of that single D, especially since it is not part of a pattern of declining grades.
However, as @parentologist advised, it would be a good idea to contact the admissions office to make sure that they understand that it wasn’t senioritis, but, as you wrote, because you decided to leave your comfort zone.
Thank you very much! Actually I emailed them (I was not in the States) and got a reply saying that they will reach me out when they receive my final transcript if they have any concerns and would like an explanation. I will try to call them next Monday!
You can convert the individual grades to a 4.0 scale and recalculate (see what scale UIUC uses). It is, though, a good score, and most likely above average for students attending DGS. But I really wouldn’t worry that much. I doubt that they will rescind your admission.