Hi everyone,
I’m currently a mathematics major at a large state school who plans to apply as a junior transfer next year to Penn (for a math major), Cornell (statistics major), and Duke (statistics major), along with other less competitive programs. I have a clear and genuine reason for desiring to transfer to these schools in particular and I believe my extracurriculars are solid.
From an academic standpoint, in college, I’ve received all A’s and one A-, except for a B- in first-semester Calculus III. I won’t go into too much detail, but basically, I had trouble adjusting academically to college, as a result of treating it like high school and assuming my old study habits would still be sufficient. However, my other first-semester classes were so easy that it only really hurt me for Calc III. Since then, I’ve received A’s in other math courses, like Linear Algebra. While a B- isn’t awful, the fact that I’m applying to be a math or math-related major makes me worry about how much of a negative effect this will have.
Would it be beneficial for my application if I retook the class at a local community college, or my current university, over the summer, just to prove that I can master the material? Even though it won’t affect my GPA and replace the B-, I feel as if doing this could be helpful in showing that my poor grade was not a result of an inability to handle math courses, rather, academic unpreparedness coming out of high school. Thank you all for your advice, it is greatly appreciated!