Is it wise or unwise to explain a bad grade?

[Anonymous]

At the most competitive schools where a C would take the student out of the running for acceptance, an explanation isn't going to change things. The really competitive colleges have so many applications that they don't need to make exceptions.

It might help for less competitive schools. But agree with the PPs that the student needs to acknowledge they had a hand in this and not just blame the teacher.

[Anonymous]

Another consideration if you are worried about the C in 1st semester... not all transcripts show the semester/quarter grades. My kids' HS only shows the final grade. DD (who has ADHD) had some bad ups and downs throughout the school year and seeing all her quarter grades would definitely be problematic but she pulled it together later in the year and ended up with all As and Bs. That fine for the colleges she's applying to and nothing to explain despite a couple quarters with Ds in a couple classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kid earned a C in a key subject one semester. The following semester, they met with the new teacher frequently to get extra help and earned an A. The final grade was a B or B-.

When kid received a C, other high-performing students (probably also top 10% of class) were also struggling and received lower than normal grades. The teacher had been good and supportive the previous year but turned into an unhelpful teacher. It’s like she became a different person and told the honors class they could not do retakes or any extra credit because they were in honors. She let the regular class do test retakes to learn from mistakes and earn extra credit.

Eventually, the teacher was likely fired and the new teacher arrived. New teacher was really helpful.

Basically the story is: had bad grade, sought help and practiced, earned A second semester, teacher and GC delighted. Math teacher is writing a recommendation letter.

Is it wise to share a narrative about the grade and show what was done to learn and improve? It was a hard but good lesson! Kid saw there was a space to do on the Common App.

[Anonymous]

Your kid will come off as a whiny brat trying to explain his grade. What’s he going to say? His mean teacher wouldn’t give a retake? He’s not going to get retakes in college so nobody wants to read that. He learned a great life lesson. He struggled so he sought extra help and he improved. End of story.