Will private colleges still accept me even with a D in 2 courses?

<p>Hi all,</p>

<p>I'm currently a senior in high school applying to college. I live in California, but am applying to mostly out of state privates (Largely due to the fact that I am ineligible to apply to UCs anymore). What happened was that I got a D one semester during sophomore year in Chemistry Honors and a D one semester during junior year in AP U.S. History. So I went to my alternative of applying to privates, since they don't have the A-G requirements.</p>

<p>But today I talked to my counselor and he said that colleges won't accept my credits for those two classes and view them as incomplete. This completely confused me because I had Emailed a few colleges asking about if I could still apply with a D in those two courses and they said yes, that they'll just be focusing on my overall GPA. Obviously, it's hard for me to trust the counselor since I have had misunderstanding experiences with him before. </p>

<p>I just want to make sure, because even though the admissions counselor said I could, I don't want it to end up being untrue or another case of intercommunication.</p>

<p>For extra information, the colleges I'm planning to apply to are: Eckerd College (FL), University of Tampa (FL), Syracuse University (NY), Wagner University (NY), Ithaca College (NY), Whittier College (CA), University of Santa Clara (CA), and University of San Diego (USD). They are all privates and Ithaca is probably my top choice.</p>

<p>Anyone have experiences with applying with a situation like mine or know for a fact that privates will still consider me?</p>

<p>Thank you for any help :)</p>

<p>I suggest you talk to the admissions counselors at the schools you are applying to. They will probably be able to tell you if they might consider you. You may be accepted on a conditional basis, meaning you wouldn’t have full student status until you completed a certain number of classes. Or, they may tell you that you might have the chance to take some of those classes over during the summer.</p>

<p>The other alternative is to attend community college for a year or two, then apply to transfer to a California state school (or private).</p>

<p>“…today I talked to my counselor and he said that colleges won’t accept my credits for those two classes and view them as incomplete.”</p>

<p>Maybe that is true for the UC and CalState systems, but that isn’t true in the rest of the world. You would have to FAIL the classes for the credits to not count. </p>

<p>The colleges that you called told you that the Ds won’t matter provided the rest of your record is good and they like your GPA. Trust that statement. They are the ones making the decision about your application.</p>

<p>You mention the Ds were in one semester. If the final grades were higher, I’m not sure what the problem is. I know Ithaca is quite competitive and unless you otherwise have a fabulous GPA. SATs & other qualificiations, it might be quite a reach.</p>

<p>Ithaca does not require fabulous stats. Getting any aid there requires good stats, but just getting in is not difficult.</p>

<p>Thank you all for replying to this message, it’s helped a lot. I didn’t call Ithaca but I sent them an Email and got this as a reply:</p>

<p>"Dear Ayesha,</p>

<p>Getting D’s do not automatically make you ineligible for acceptance to Ithaca College. It will effect your ability to get merit-based scholarships, but for some of our very competitive programs it could influence our decision making.</p>

<p>While the Politics major and the Legal Studies major are not our most competitive majors, students that we are looking at for acceptance are scoring a 3.0 on a 4.0 scale (a high B, a low A) in the mid-50%. Their SAT scores fall between a 1660 and a 1910 (about a 550-650 on the individual portions). When we are looking at your transcript, which is the most important part of your application, we are looking for your potential and to see upward trends.</p>

<p>Our preferred high school curriculum is one that includes 4 years of English, 4 years of the Humanities/Social Sciences, at least 3 years of Maths, at least 3 years of Sciences, and at least 2 years of a Language. We are looking for students that are taking a challenging course load, which could include college courses and AP or IB classes.</p>

<p>Thank you for your questions and I hope this was helpful to you."</p>

<p>Since they will accept the score, I believe I am a good candidate for this school. I am applying under the Political Science major and even with the D have higher than a 3.0 cumulative GPA and a 1900 SAT score.</p>

<p>I’m in your position and I also intend to apply to Ithaca, Whittier, and Syracuse. Did you get accepted into any of those?</p>

<p>Galaxy D – I think you have your answer</p>

<p>ps – I generally have high respect for IC, but the letter they wrote to you contains so many grammatical errors … Sigh.</p>

<p>^
“Effect” instead of “affect.”</p>

<p>“A student that are taking…”</p>

<p>If only your 'D’s had been in English, they may have been overlooked entirely… :P</p>

<p>But as he/she said, the 'D’s alone won’t preclude your admission.</p>

<p>amongst others.</p>