One bad grade

[Anonymous]

How much does one bad grade hurt? Like say at the time of applications, your kid had a B- or C+, an A- or two, the rest solid As. 9 APs completed at time of apps and enrolled in 5 or 6 more senior year.

[Anonymous]

It depends. How selective are the schools on his list? How does his GPA compare to admits? Were the grades in jr year or earlier? in what classes? was there a reason? etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It depends. How selective are the schools on his list? How does his GPA compare to admits? Were the grades in jr year or earlier? in what classes? was there a reason? etc.

+1. Best thing to do is ask the counselor at the high school because they might be able to place the grade in better context and have an idea of what schools would be fine with that.

[Anonymous]

What was the one bad grade in, and has the kid taken the next level of that subject (and achieved a higher grade in that subject) to show that it was a fluke? Or was is something like P.E.?

[Anonymous]

Depends what is normal at your school. At some private, this is very normal. At some public it’s not. Ask your counselor.

Also depends on if you are talking about ivies vs T50s.

[Anonymous]

Two A- is nothing to worry about for any admission. A B- or C+ in a core class, or any class really, will probably cut you from a top 20 school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Two A- is nothing to worry about for any admission. A B- or C+ in a core class, or any class really, will probably cut you from a top 20 school.

A single B- in 9th grade from a well know private or public magnet is not insurmountable. B-/C+ in 11th grade or from any grade in a normal good public where half the class gets straight As will mean shutout from T30

[Anonymous]

I know kids with B- in 9th or 10th grade who have gotten into CMU. C grades may be tougher to overcome but if its in a non major related subject, it should be fine.

[Anonymous]

C look odd. Otherwise they are looking for evidence of consistency. They won't spend more than 5 seconds on your mid-year grades. Bs are fine.

[Anonymous]

We had this happen to DS, but it was a very rare extenuating circumstance that we got the teacher to write a recommendation letter for him. He’s now at an Ivy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We had this happen to DS, but it was a very rare extenuating circumstance that we got the teacher to write a recommendation letter for him. He’s now at an Ivy.

Was it a serious illness or death in the family? If not, I am curious how that could work

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:C look odd. Otherwise they are looking for evidence of consistency. They won't spend more than 5 seconds on your mid-year grades. Bs are fine.

If a school is semester based will they look at the grades from first semester or only those from second.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We had this happen to DS, but it was a very rare extenuating circumstance that we got the teacher to write a recommendation letter for him. He’s now at an Ivy.

Was it a serious illness or death in the family? If not, I am curious how that could work

It essentially was an event that was deeply traumatic and harmed multiple members of our family and nearly harmed DS. Illness isn’t gonna cut it, unless it’s very harmful. He didn’t get a C, because he was too distracted. He was missing too many courses and the class was project based, so teacher couldn’t budge on grades.

[Anonymous]

I was thinking of asking here as well about one B+ in first semester senior year transcript. The rest are 4 A+ and 2 A's. The B+ is in AP Calc BC. DC is deferred in a T20 and I am worried this B+ might hurt them. Applying to school of science in biochemistry.

DC has a 35 superscore ACT and an UW 4.02 GPA from a strong private HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:C look odd. Otherwise they are looking for evidence of consistency. They won't spend more than 5 seconds on your mid-year grades. Bs are fine.

If a school is semester based will they look at the grades from first semester or only those from second.

Almost always they will see only the final grade for the course, so if the course is a year long (which is most core classes), they will only see the final year grade. If it’s a one-semester class (like many electives) they will see the final semester grade.

It’s what shows on the student’s final, formal transcript. You can usually view an unofficial pdf version in the grade portal if you’re not sure.

Now, if the college asks for interim grades from senior year, then they’ll see the quarter or semester or whatever for that, but not for all previous years.