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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

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). [/quote]

DCUM wisom on minimum acceptable grades in rigorous classes?[/quote]

Not sure the question?

No one can really tell "how bad of a grade is too bad".  However, most T20-T30/elite schools have admission rates of 5-10%.  So they do not need to accept someone who gets a D or C in a rigorous course.  There are plenty of students who never get below a B even in rigorous courses to select from; heck there are plenty who never get below an A/A-. And there are plenty of students who manage this while taking 4-7 AP/IB courses in a single year.  Unless your student can truly "own the grade" and has a truly valid reason for why it happened (ie. Parent was ill/student was ill/ major family issues etc that were the direct cause), the grade WILL impact them in college admissions.  That's just where we are in life.  However, I'd argue that it's been that way for a long time.  Even 30 years ago, a C/D on your transcript would impact you at elite colleges.  
However, there are still plenty of GREAT schools your student will get into.  It's not the end of the world as DCUM would make it out to be.

I'd argue that if your kid cannot get at least a B-/B in a "rigorous course in HS", that perhaps they are not cut out for a T20 school and that is OK. Because for example, IB calculus or AP Calculus BC are just the beginning of "rigorous courses", and Calc 3/4/Diff EQ and beyond are much harder courses and [b]you can still get a sucky professor at a Top University [/b](had plenty myself along with really good ones too).

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Cool observation. Plenty of awful profs teaching tough subjects at major universities.[/quote]

Yup!  I think "teaching" is typically better at SLAC (even non-elite), or any school with much smaller class sizes or simply at a school where teaching is the focus versus research.  At most T20 and really T50, research is the bigger focus for most professors.  I went to a T10 and the Math and physics dept was notoriously terrible for low level courses.  The best Profs were the "lecturers", not the actual professors.

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