GUEST STUDENT OF THE WEEK: ski_racer, a high-achiever in high school, was rejected by some of the elite schools she applied to. This rejection was the best thing that happened to her as she got to choose her own path. Learn how she fell in love with her safety school, ASK HER ANYTHING!
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Replies to: When Do Colleges Rescind Acceptances?
You should insist that you’re definitely not slacking but have been crushed by a heavy course load. Be sure to include any measures you’ve taken to stay afloat, such as peer or professional tutoring, after-school help sessions with your teacher, extra hours of studying, etc. You should not, however, put a lot of emphasis on the impact that your extracurricular activities have had on your declining grades. Admission officials expect academics to take precedence over extracurriculars and aren’t going to cut you much slack because you’ve been busy planning the Key Club banquet or the senior prom.
Don’t wait until you hear from Tulane before writing. If you are proactive now, you will be sending a message that suggests, “I am paying attention and I’m not slacking, but I’m still having a tough time.”
Note also that Tulane will be focusing only on your FINAL grades and not on third- or fourth-quarter grades. So if these classes are two-semester classes and you did better in the first term, then the final grade that Tulane sees won’t be quite as heinous as the ones you’ve cited here. (When you mention “end of the year” grades, I can’t tell if you’re talking about the last quarter or your grade overall.)
Good luck on the home stretch, if you still have a few weeks to go. Keep your nose to the grindstone. If any of your teachers will let you do some extra-credit work to bring those C’s up to B’s, then grab it.
You’ll love Tulane. Make sure to get to Dat Dog on Freret Street for amazing hot dogs (even vegan ones if you must), to Atchafalaya on Louisiana Ave. for brunch, to Superior Seafood on St. Charles for Happy Hour oysters, and to Audubon Park across the street from campus to run it all off!
Meanwhile, best wishes to you as you face these stressful times. They will get better, I assure you, once your life is your own and you don't have the angst of others surrounding you.
It would be a good idea to write to Penn now and provide an explanation of the change, IF you have a good reason for dropping the Calc class. For instance, one student I know in your shoes dropped a calc class because the regular teacher left and the long-term sub didn't seem to understand the subject matter. Your situation may not be as clear-cut as this one, but if you can provide ANY reasonable explanation of the change, then telling Penn about it BEFORE they contact you would be worthwhile. ("I didn't like the class" or "I didn't like the teacher" do not count as reasonable explanations. If, however, you felt that the teacher was not just unlikable but also incompetent--like in the example I cited--it would be helpful to also provide corroboration of this from a school counselor. That's what the student in my example did. He was far from the only kid in that class who dropped it, and his counselor wrote to his college to say so.)
In your child's case, I don't see any downturn here that comes close to "significant," particularly because you say that there wasn't even a "B" until the second semester. So, if the B (or more than one) was earned in a full-year class, then the final grade should be higher than a B ... probably a B+ or A-. But even if it's simply a B, I still don't view the decline as one that a college would address.
You certainly should NOT call your child's college (nor should your child call) to inquire about this issue. Instead, you should try to put this on the back burner and stop worrying. If, however, it's keeping your child awake at night (and I don't mean YOU!!), then s/he can write to the admission office and briefly say what you've said here (i.e.,hard classes in subjects that won't be part of future plans and maybe some bad luck, too).
Although I can never respond to queries here with 100 percent certainty when I don't know the school or student involved, I really feel that you and your child have nothing to worry about, and the aforementioned letter to the admission folks is definitely optional ... which is not something that I always say on this thread.
I'm REALLY FREAKING OUT,
I noticed that I listed the same stupid mistake as I did before for my sophomore year class. Two of my electives were listed as full year courses rather than semester ones.
I filled out yet another form but I really don't want them to think I'm lying to them.
Do you think they'll rescind me?
The two classes in sophomore year were art and business studies.I justified the change with a confusion due to schedule changes in my school (a school wide policy that changed year long grading to semester grading).