So, I was just accepted Early Decision to Amherst College. While this is wonderful, my pre-decision waiting period was a disaster. I became:
Overwhelmed with schoolwork
Extremely anxious/slightly depressed
Sick.
My grades for 1st quarter were A-, A-, B+, B+, and B. Now they are around a C, C+, B-, B, and B+.
My mood and work ethic have skyrocketed since my acceptance. We have roughly three weeks in January before the end of the 2nd quarter (and end of 1st semester) and then Mid-Year Exams, and I hope to make a difference then and do very well on my exams, but I am still wondering…will my acceptance be jeopardized?
This slump has vaccinated me against any possibility of developing Senioritis, so I’m not too worried about my grades for the rest of the year. Am I in trouble? When do colleges check in to see how we’re doing? Do our final, end-of-the-year grades matter most?
i wouldn’t worry too much. you can always send a letter to the school explaining your challenging circumstances. the bottom line is that they accepted you, which means they want you at their school. they won’t revoke your admission just because a couple grades dropped. that being said, bring your grades up anyway and make sure you keep it up second semester, because otherwise you are playing with fire.
You should really bring those up. Were you an all A student before or more like half-A/half-B? If you can bring the Cs to B-/Bs and get at least an A, I’d be a lot more confident. I do think Amherst will look at your mid-year report and could rescind your acceptance based on this.
Basically, yes, you should be worrying, but try your best in these next few weeks and hopefully bring your grades up a bit. You could also call the admissions office and ask what grades would be grounds for getting rescinded.
If those grades end up being your semester grades, you need to call Amherst and tell them what happened. If you don’t tell them before they find out, they will be less sympathetic. Also explain that you are ecstatic about Amherst, and that your acceptance has led to a strong motivation to recover.
Devote the next month to getting back on track. Try scraping two to three A’s. If all else fails, contact Amherst and ask them yourself. Don’t worry too much about it!
This is what I would do: you should try your best to bring those grades up to at least Bs before the end of the term. You should talk to whichever of your teachers you think might be sympathetic, explain the situation, and ask if there is anything you can do for extra credit to help bring the grades up. If most of them end up as Bs with maybe only one C I wouldn’t worry about it, I seriously doubt that Amherst will rescind your admission based on one C. If you end up with more than one C, I think you should face the problem head-on and write a letter to the admissions office in general or your admissions representative in particular, explaining some of the circumstances, repeating how excited you are to be accepted at Amherst, and vowing that you will bring those grades up in the third quarter. And then make sure you do bring them up. I think you’ll be fine!
The acceptance is not “easily” revoked by doing poorly on one or two classes. With three weeks left, it is premature for anyone to judge whether your acceptance will be revoked or not. My best suggestion is to do as best as you can, talk to your teachers in those classes for any help/assist, and if nothing turns out the way you want, send an email to the Dean of Admission, explaining the situation. I would stay away from using “overwhelmed” as an excuse since this can be viewed as another way to hide slacking off. If you have a record of visits to doctor’s offices, then that may be legitimate defense on your behalf.
Whatever you do, I would take necessary measures once the grades come out.
Yes, I would also recommend avoiding “overwhelmed” and you might not even want to mention anxious and depressed. I think the important thing, if you do write to the admissions people, is to avoid making any excuses unless you had a medical illness that would serve to partway explain the lower grades. The way a letter like this might do you some good is if you take responsibility for not having gotten the grades you wanted to get and let them know that you have every intention of bringing them up for third and fourth quarter.
Yes, I do think you should worry. Those are some drastic drops in grades, and college don’t like to see such changes in their accepted students.
The first thing to do is to bring those grades up. Talk to your teachers, explain your situation and hopefully they’ll be understanding. You probably won’t be able to get that C back up to an A- but if you work hard, you may be able to get it up to at least a B.
Secondly, I would suggest sending a letter to the school explaining things. This way, you’ll get it out in the open, recognize and admit there is a problem, and explain how you plan on fixing things.