Freshman year: honor Chemistry (A), honor Biology (A), honor English (A), pre- calculus (A), PE (B), Spanish (A) AP Govt (A) exam 5. Sophomore year : honor English A, honor Programming (A), Spanish (A), AP Physics (A?), AP History (A), AP Calc BC ©
Question: Would a ‘‘C’’ in Calculus BC in Sophomore year completely eliminate chances for top schools? Is there anything I can do to remediate ? SAT Math II is 750
unless you’re majoring in math… i don’t think so. your other grades seem stellar so i doubt they will scrutinize you too much. it might be a warning sign to them but definitely not a make or break thing. are you planning to take the ap exam? is your final grade a C?
What math classes do you have planned for junior and senior year? The grades you get then will either confirm or infirm the C. If you get B’s or As in higher level math (discrete math, linear algebra, differential equations…) it’ll indicate the C was a blip, something not indicative. If you get a C again it’ll indicate you tend to take on more than you can chew and should have followed the normal path where Calculus is taken senior year (which is 100%fine for top 25 universities and LACs.)
^^^ Note this is a mom posting about her son.
Perhaps mom ill-advisedly pushed the kid into taking the advanced math class in 10th grade.
Why is the math being pushed so hard including the SAT II? Many outstanding Top 20 college students wouldn’t take BC until senior year. To answer your question, I don’t think a C will ruin or even “completely eliminate” any chances. I do wonder what the plan is for here on out. Have you as a parent talked to an actual college admissions counselor about what is reasonable or are you just pushing because your child has math potential? Even the best students get burned out, especially if pushed too hard.
Yes, a C in math for a stem wannabe, for a monstrously competitive college, presents a problem.
You need to take a breath, back up, and learn what a tippy top wants. It’s not pushing before the right time. What made you think he was ready for BC so early? And how do you plan to show continued rigor, if he’s got AP physics and BC done in soph year?
You need a legit, informed plan.
He went from algebra2 straight to Calculus BC? No wonder he got a C. He was missing a whole year of material (and that’s if his school is doing “BC or AB” and starts with the AB material) and math is sequential. That’s crazy. Kids should never skip precalculus, even if they have a good grade in algebra2.
Does he currently have a tutor? Perhaps an NHS student? If he can finish the year with a B it’d be salvageable. Review precalculus concepts through Khan academy with a tutor and perhaps take the AB test only. Then he could take college Calculus 1+2 as dual enrollment junior year, aiming for an A, so that he can review and master the concepts, and save the advanced math classes for senior year.
I am so sorry for your son. Skipping a whole year of math means he couldn’t master the concepts and had been playing catch up ever since. What’s done is done, but he needs as a future stem major to go over and really master the material in precalculus and Calculus AB. He can’t have shaky foundations in those or his stem major will be in jeopardy.
The OP says he got an A in precalc as a freshman.
Regarding having taken the SATII young, I’ve advised my own child to take Math 2 right after finishing precalc, while the material is fresh in her mind and there’s little or no need to review.
I don’t see any obvious evidence of pushy parent syndrome here. Sometimes kids, particularly young, bright, kids, want to do what they want to do regardless of what the adults around them feel is wise. IMHO it can be less pushy to let them make their own ill-advised decisions and reassure them that there are plenty of good colleges who will like the kid they are, rather than starting on the “if you want to go to College X, you must do Y and Z regardless of your personal inclinations” path with a 13yo.
Even with perfect grades and perfect SATs and perfect extra curriculars, HYPS and schools like them are a gigantic crap shoot. Of course, some students get in who got a C somewhere on their high school transcript. That’s why these schools have a range of GPA’s and a range of SAT scores. For all we know, they don’t want to fill the class with 4.0’s and 1600s. Maybe, recovering from a bad grade will show the gumption they are looking for. Who knows? Is he URM or hooked in some way? Does he come from a geographically interesting part of the country? The real problem is when a student gets their heart set on a school that rejects 93% of the applicants. Personally, I think you’d be better off worrying more about letting your son have a balanced, enjoyable high school career and less about any particular school. Is he taking these ridiculously hard classes because he loves them and can’t see himself doing anything else? Great. If not, can he slow down a bit?
And sure enough, having read the linked thread, which someone in this thread used to support their pushy parent theory, the OP clearly says she advised against it, the school advised for it, and the kid made his own choices.
OP, there are plenty of fine schools that will love your kid for who he is. Assuming the top 20 / Stanford focus is coming from him, you might do a little counter-programming: all Ivy League means is a sports conference; rankings developed by other people take into account the factors they care about, which might not be the factors he cares about; employers and grad schools will care about what he did more than where he went.
My own child (who is one who does her own thing regardless of advice, as well) started getting anxious about college this year as a sophomore. Her school, even though pretty much everyone stays in state, starts with the “you must decide your whole life right now” message way too soon IMHO. I asked her what she anticipates wanting from college, and she came up with a handful of factors: students who like to learn for the sake of learning; walkable campus that’s not completely isolated from the outside world even without a car; enough majors for her to be somewhat undecided; at least as many kids of her ethnicity as her large high school has; small or small-feeling enough that she would not be a nameless faceless number to everyone in the administration.
I dumped the IPEDS database to Excel, stripped out the schools that didn’t meet her criteria and those that would be unaffordable, and showed her the resulting list. She was enormously relieved to see that there were lots of schools that met her criteria and had relatively high acceptance rates. Regarding the very reachiest schools, we said that we thought it would be perfectly reasonable, and not a waste of time or money, to put in one or two applications to those schools if she wanted to, but that with a 5% admissions rate, she should think of it more like a lottery ticket purchase than anything else.
I can totally see the kid choosing to take calc BC instead of AB against parent’s advice/caution - my daughter is the same way. She is a humanities kid, math is not her forte, but she is getting an A in pre-calc honors this year (sophomore), and I let her choose her classes. Btw, my friend’s son is taking Alg2/Trig and Pre-Calculus at the same time (she says it is working out fine, who knows?) with the goal of tak8ng BC next year. Again, not sure why the rush, but at least he is a STEM kid. For my daughter, she was told (misinformed?) that taking BC after pre-calc honors is the only way to get “the most rigorous” notation on her transcript. My suggestions to check with the school counselor are rebutted with “what if the counselor changes and the new one has a different standard for rigor?”.
@allyphoe, That has to be some of the best, most reasonable advice I have ever heard a parent give to a kid concerning college planning. It should be a sticky at the top of one of the threads.
In the thread linked the kid was in algebra2 and insisted on skipping ahead to calc BC.
Thank you so much for your responses. Yes, it was my son’s idea (with support of his pre-calc teacher) to take Calc BC . I thought AB would be a better choice for him but did not press. I decided to let him try and go to AB if BC doe snot work. Apparently wee were trapped because both ‘‘C’’ and dropped class would look bad on a transcript and his teacher - who is the only one who teaches high level math at his school was almost aggressively against my son dropping this class. I am just trying no to figure out how to fix this mess we are in.
He could retake the class online, master it, then move to more rigorous math and ace that. Then find the right balance in ECs and commit (not all stem, not honor societies, not random community service.) That could show strengths. But he has to want to do that. (A lot of kids only want to master what the hs offers, those courses, clubs or similar.) And he needs to get a real idea of what S looks for, beyond stats.
But it’s ridiculously tough to get in, even so.
Adding. Oh, and while he presses, he still has to have a real life. He may be entranced by the idea of S, not understand the work and savvy it takes.
My suggestion, if he can dual enrollment, is to prove this was an unfortunate situation that is not indicative of his character or abilities, by getting high grades in college Calculus 1&2 junior year, after some precalculus review over the summer. It’ll show he can handle the more autonomous, faster paced, rigorous college class. Then, senior year, continue dual enrolling in math and taking two from statistics, discrete math, differential equations, and linear algebra. My recommendation would be discrete math and linear algebra since they’re two math subfields not offered in high school, but it’d totally depend on his interests.
MODERATOR’S NOTE:
Well, it looks like the son asked the original question, so this comment leads me to believe that 2 people are sharing an account, which is not allowed. Closing thread. But enough advice has been given to start.