Is a C on a high school transcript the death knell for college admissions at reputable schools?

[Anonymous]

DC is in a highly competitive math/science middle school magnet, and has had mostly As, some Bs, and this year, a C in math for the first quarter. It is looking as if DC will likewise get a C this quarter (due to missed homework, which has me steamed at him beyond belief, but that's another story). DC is very bright but somewhat lazy and about as disorganized and forgetful as your average middle-schooler.

Certain classes (math, foreign language) that DC is taking now, in middle school, will count for high school credit and therefore appear on DC's high school transcript in all of their glory (or not).

We have a tutor and will help him work to bring up the grade during the second half of the year. But the first half of the year shows a C in this class.

Is this the death knell for admission to good schools? Or if his other transcript grades are As and Bs, and if he brings this grade up in the second half of the year, is he still on track to be admitted to reputable colleges?

(I will add that it pisses me off that MCPS has in place a system wherein middle schoolers - in some cases, 11 year olds in sixth grade - are doing work and earning grades that will follow them for the duration of their school careers vis-a-vis grades, because developmentally speaking, they should be "practicing" for high school during this time. But, that's a rant for another post.

[Anonymous]

You need to relax. Let your son learn his lesson. He sounds very bright, and he will get into a good school.

[Anonymous]

http://questions.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/12/17/qa-college-admissions/

I don't think so - I read this whole thread recently which I thought was really interesting - I would be willing to bet its the progression of grades - i.e. do they improve over time, is he in classes that challenge him, etc.

Now, if you want him to go to Harvard, maybe, but I would keep some perspective.

[Anonymous]

OP, I could have written this post myself!! I think it's the final grade for the class that matters more than the quarterly grades. I'm trying to step back and let my own DC learn a lesson about not doing homework and keeping up with class, but having a 'C' in a high-school level class does really concern me. Perhaps someone here can give us both some reassurance!

[Anonymous]

Thanks to you both. I don't have huge ambitions for him (e.g. Harvard or the like). But I don't want stupid mistakes he is making as a 12/13yo to follow him so far into his future, YK?

I do hope that an upward trajectory (assuming of course that he is on one) will work in his favor and reduce the impact of this C.

[Anonymous]

Math is important please make sure you assist him so he doesn't become an unemployable lib arts occupy wall street freeloader

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Math is important please make sure you assist him so he doesn't become an unemployable lib arts occupy wall street freeloader

This is helpful.

[Anonymous]

It of course depends on the school system and the college. I have one kid at a competitive private school who got C's in 9th grade, then a mix of mostly As and Bs in later grades, and was accepted at several selective liberal arts schools. Other kid is in a competitive public school and will likely receive a first B this semester which I am more concerned about since 4.0s are pretty common.

OP I'd take a look at the whole picture rather than just the college admissions angle. What subjects are the Bs in? Why isn't he doing his homework? If he needs tutoring is he too accelerated in math? Is a competitive magnet the right fit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It of course depends on the school system and the college. I have one kid at a competitive private school who got C's in 9th grade, then a mix of mostly As and Bs in later grades, and was accepted at several selective liberal arts schools. Other kid is in a competitive public school and will likely receive a first B this semester which I am more concerned about since 4.0s are pretty common.

OP I'd take a look at the whole picture rather than just the college admissions angle. What subjects are the Bs in? Why isn't he doing his homework? If he needs tutoring is he too accelerated in math? Is a competitive magnet the right fit?

My apologies to the "not answering OP's post" police but I just want to remind pp that there's lots of grade weighting that goes on, at least in the public high schools. Our HS graduates 20+ kids with 4.0+ but I cant even guess how many AP courses these kids took to help boost their grades. Not saying it's easy or necessary or desirable or right, just saying that a few Bs does not mean that your kid can't graduate with above a 4.0

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It of course depends on the school system and the college. I have one kid at a competitive private school who got C's in 9th grade, then a mix of mostly As and Bs in later grades, and was accepted at several selective liberal arts schools. Other kid is in a competitive public school and will likely receive a first B this semester which I am more concerned about since 4.0s are pretty common.

OP I'd take a look at the whole picture rather than just the college admissions angle. What subjects are the Bs in? Why isn't he doing his homework? If he needs tutoring is he too accelerated in math? Is a competitive magnet the right fit?

My apologies to the "not answering OP's post" police but I just want to remind pp that there's lots of grade weighting that goes on, at least in the public high schools. Our HS graduates 20+ kids with 4.0+ but I cant even guess how many AP courses these kids took to help boost their grades. Not saying it's easy or necessary or desirable or right, just saying that a few Bs does not mean that your kid can't graduate with above a 4.0

Obviously I mean 4.0 unweighted. My DCs weighted GPA is like a 4.8. But many colleges don't take weighted GPAs into account.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It of course depends on the school system and the college. I have one kid at a competitive private school who got C's in 9th grade, then a mix of mostly As and Bs in later grades, and was accepted at several selective liberal arts schools. Other kid is in a competitive public school and will likely receive a first B this semester which I am more concerned about since 4.0s are pretty common.

OP I'd take a look at the whole picture rather than just the college admissions angle. What subjects are the Bs in? Why isn't he doing his homework? If he needs tutoring is he too accelerated in math? Is a competitive magnet the right fit?

OP here. Thank you. He does (by and large) do his homework, but dropped the ball occasionally this quarter and now that the tallying is approaching the end of the quarter, it is clear that the missed homeworks is what is biting him in the a$$.

The Bs are in English here and there as well as math (sometimes; other times he's earned As). In foreign language, science, social studies, computer science, electives he has mostly earned As. So the big picture is generally acceptable.

The math classes he has been taking are magnet math which is higher-level than honors math (because he is in the magnet). (I don't know how magnet math classes are weighted. I imagine that they are weighted the same way that honors math is but I don't know that for a fact, just guessing.) I do think that the magnet is the right place for him because he has been successful there 100% of the time, until this quarter. The math in particular seems to get harder and harder, more and more intense, and require more and more work. Indeed, we talked to three tutors before hiring the one we did, because the others were familiar with MCPS honors-level math, but not this (magnet) math. It is bona fide hard. On the other hand, this is what he/we signed up for, so here we are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Math is important please make sure you assist him so he doesn't become an unemployable lib arts occupy wall street freeloader

This is helpful.

And ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

The final grade for the year is the only one that's used to compute the GPA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Math is important please make sure you assist him so he doesn't become an unemployable lib arts occupy wall street freeloader

This is helpful.

And ridiculous.

Actually it's more helpful than it is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The final grade for the year is the only one that's used to compute the GPA.

Yes, a quarterly grade doesn't matter at all (if the grade is brought up by the final grade).

Also, when our kids took HS courses in middle school, we followed the school's general recommendation to transfer that grade to the HS transcript only if it was a B or higher. One of my kids got a C in Algebra in 8th grade so we chose not to have the credit transferred to HS and she took it again in high school. She currently has a 97 average in the class, so I don't know that she needed to repeat it but at least her GPA won't suffer because of the middle school C.