Junior year grades
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Anonymous
| DS just completed junior year and the dust has settled on 2nd semester grades, unfortunately has 1 bad grade in a rigorous course. DS is disappointed, because she has worked so hard earning only As and Bs throughout HS all with high rigor. He can’t re-take the class summer school for a better grade b/c it’s IB so he’s stuck with it as a D. In retrospect, I should have gotten more involved - I wrote to the teacher early on when I saw the grade nose dive, no response to date, so I should have requested a meeting. I also should have reached out to other parents of seniors to see if he could work with a student who took the course with this teacher for some tutoring. DS said he spoke with the teacher more than any other teacher to work on the way he does the IB prompt for quizzes. It was a frustrating semester- I spoke with DD multiple times about this course and the teenager in him also miscalculated and kept saying to back off as he’s got it. To be honest, I’m not impressed with any teacher who completely ignores parents but that’s what happened. DS works part time, and has strong ECs. SAT was not strong, he wants to retake in the Fall I suspect he will apply test- optional unless he increases his test score significantly. He has secured a yes from 2 other teachers for his letter of recommendations. Anyone who has BTDT, does this 1 grade eliminate him from his chances of getting into certain schools? How can this 1 data point be successfully explained in an essay? The class is not on his intended field of study but it stings. Thinking he will need more target and safeties on his list. TIA |
Anonymous
| I don’t have a clear answer here, but my DC is in the same boat (although with very strong ACT score) and we are using a private college counselor to make a college list, and the counselor said it does knock some schools off the list - ivies and colleges like Duke, Northwestern- although there are still fine schools that are options. |
Anonymous
| Retake the class senior year. At least it shows perseverance. |
Anonymous
| What class and what potential major? |
Anonymous
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If Asian, screwed.
If URM, Legacy, Donor, Athlete, etc., may still have some chance. |
Anonymous
Not an option in many schools. Almost certainly not if the kid wants a full IB diploma. OP— yeah test optional and a D, your kid isn’t getting into A T20 (or UVA, WM, VT a engineering). But, plenty of good schools out there. What was the A/B/D distribution junior year, and how many IB and honors. Neither of my kids came through with unblemished GPAs, and I think they did well in admissions. Your kid should be careful about ED/EA— this is a case where strong first semester grades can really help— especially in the area he struggled. Back when kid 1 went through, he took the SAT II in the subject and got a strong score, but that’s not an option any longer. He should talk to his school counselor. She’s the one to best put it into context in the school recommendation. One thing that comes through. You blame yourself. You blame the teacher. That’s fine on DCUM. On a college app, your kid needs to be the one to take responsibility, not pass the buck. Explain where he went wrong, explain what he learned from the situation, explain how he will prevent a repeat. “She wouldn’t email my mommy” is a terrible look on a college app. |
Anonymous
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Yep, same thing happened to my kid. All As except for one B up until second semester junior year. She is going to get either a C or D in IB English and a C in precal. Luckily she can retake precal this summer, but as far as I can tell, there is nothing we can do about IB English. Someone correct me if I’m wrong.
Would love to know what school this is, op. |
Anonymous
OP here. Absolutely 100 % on your last comment. We have a meeting soon with his counselor and will have a discussion on how DS will explain and take 100% ownership. Full IB, junior year 1st semester, more As vs Bs. 2’d semester more even split As & Bs except for the 1 D (IB History) 9th & 10th grade took 7 Honors & 2 AP including AP NSL. Currently interested in Journalism but hasn’t ruled out data analytics or applied math as a minor or focus area (got an A in IB Applied Statistics Calculus) He has 1 legacy top tier school he will apply to and is an URM. Pitt and Northeastern are on his list as targets. At the end of the day, this may be a great lesson for him. Thanks all |
Anonymous
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Neither Pitt nor Northeastern are targets anymore.
For Pitt, get the application in as early as you can. For Northeastern, they had an absurd number of applications this past cycle, so expect it to be a single digit admission rate going forward. |
Anonymous
I think Pitt is still in the target range for those stats. Northeasetrn is obviously not, although this year's single digit was special and I think it'll settle between 10%-14% admission rate for the coming years. |
Anonymous
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Journalism is pretty good at Northeastern, and it's a kind of major benefited a lot with the COOP program.
They are also flexible with minors and combined majors. Consider ED to Journalism and Data Science combined major. https://catalog.northeastern.edu/undergraduate/computer-information-science/computer-information-science-combined-majors/data-science-journalism-bs/ This would make you a pretty competitive |
Anonymous
Get over it! Btw, a D, even in a rigorous class, is not a good thing for anyone. But I agree that retaking course senior year shows perseverance. Student (and counselor) need to come up with a viable explanation for why it happened. It wont stop you from getting into most schools, but it will for the T20-30/elite schools, unless there is a really good reason (family death, major illness, etc). |
Anonymous
Yep. My kid had 2 C’s in rigorous math classes and it impacted her. She may have been able to overcome one, but I think 2 was too much. She ended up at a great school and is very happy, but the reaches were out of the question. |
Anonymous
DCUM wisom on minimum acceptable grades in rigorous classes? |
Anonymous
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You have to model for your son how to regroup/cope after a disappointment. They are inevitable in life.
This will impact his GPA somewhat, so it could make the difference in theory for schools that put a lot of weight on that. But you and he both know that. I would not blame yourself or the teacher or the fact that your son is a teen. Move on. Your son's list should always have been informed by his GPA, when that changes, the list may change. It really is not a big tragedy. I don't mean to sound unsympathetic, but how you handle this could make a difference if your son goes into the process with low self esteem and depression or is able to keep on keeping on. What matters in the grand scheme of things are his happiness and health, not the ranking of the school that he gets into. |