<p>Okay, you’re both right.
D2 was a math-sci kid and dropped out of AP calc as a hs senior (early in the semester) because a new teacher…some reason I now forget…maybe intended to teach BC instead of AB. D dropped back to honors and started college as STEM. Couldn’t keep up with (severe, the usual horror story) weeder freshman chem or calc and then bio. Could have applied herself more, long story, but was basically having her commitment tested. Math-sci had been her refuge up to this point. Turns out that, in exploring alternate academic paths, she’s thrilled, excited, enthusiastic, you name it. She had never realized, with the typical limited high school curriculum and same old teachers, that there was a whole other world of academic opportunity out there. Transformed, as a student and as a young adult.</p>
<p>So, some kids will stick with the path, find their stride, one way or another- and some learn it’s simply not their direction.</p>
<p>Btw, has mild add. For her, that was one reason math-sci ws so attractive (the layers of challenge and organization of thoughts required.) Rx over the past two years has enhanced her openness to new academic possibilities, opened her thinking processes, etc. A win.</p>
<p>“Oh, I think you can discover things from one particular field VERY quickly…”</p>
<p>Sure - about THAT PARTICULAR field, and maybe just about that narrow piece of that field. Science is a very diverse subject. Let’s look at “chemistry”. There is polymer, organic, inorganic, bioinorganic, analytical, etc. chemistries, just to name a few. A bioanalytical chemist might hate inorganic chemistry, and so on.</p>
<p>"…that’s precisely what happened to me, and in calculus as well"</p>
<p>I agree, that for someone who was not sure if science was his/her calling, a bad grade in a disliked class could be the turning point. For someone like me, it was just a necessary evil, a hoop that I needed to jump through to continue on with studying what I loved.</p>
<p>OK, back to the subject of the thread… :)</p>
<p>OP, I do not think that one C- (I hope that your son will be able to pull his grade up) will torpedo his chances of admission to the colleges in the mentioned rank range. I agree with others that it might hurt his chances of getting merit scholarships at some of these colleges. Might.</p>
<p>Other approaches used in our family to improve a single bad grade in a weak subject: </p>
<p>Summer school. I’m a big fan. One of my kids said clearly that he learned he did much better when math was his only course, not jammed in among 7 other subjects each day. There’s a lot of homework nightly, but it’s the only homework. </p>
<p>Retake the class in summer, and don’t be concerned if the rest of the summer classes are made up of students who flunked entire grades. Just go! This was the situation when we lived in a cruddy school district. On the transcript, one of my kids went from D to B in Chemistry thanks to summer school retake.</p>
<p>Then, after we moved to a better school district, one of mine took summer school math class in advance of the next school year. The entire rest of the class was made up of other bright lights, taking it early to waive things. Do go to the teacher to explain why you’re in the class. Don’t be embarassed when everyone else in the class is swift at math. Go after class to ask all the questions, lest the other kids hate you for unpacing the class rhythm. This takes some personal confidence, but it’s doable. </p>
<p>When retaken, the old grade was erased and replaced with the new grade, but only if it was an improvement. </p>
<p>Find out where your kid is sitting in the classroom, and have him insist he be moved front-and-center. It makes a huge difference with ADHD.</p>
<p>We are waiting to see the impact of one bad grade on an otherwise pretty good record. S is a senior. Not applying to any Ivys, but applied ED to a selective LAC.</p>
<p>In our case, it had nothing to do with ADHD (S doesn’t have). It was not figuring out what a tough teacher wanted. Class was Honors Algebra II. First Parent Teacher conference his grade was a low B. We discussed this, wondered if he should switch classes. Teacher insisted that S knew the content, but just didn’t answer it in the format she wanted, and she did not award partial credit. She was confident he could pull up his grade.</p>
<p>The harder he worked the more his grade slipped. We hired a tutor, who confirmed S knew the content. He finished the semester with a D, then at semester was able to switch to another teacher for a non-honors Algebra II class. He got an A the second semester. When he switched classes, he realized the other class was full of his former classmates who had also switched. The second teacher was not a native speaker of English. S said her accent was not easy to understand, but was able to teach math better than the first teacher. S is taking AP Statistics this year and is doing well.</p>
<p>His counselor is addressing the situation in her report for the Common App. He has a few isolated Bs on his transcript, but no Cs. And one D. He’s in the top 5% of his class and has strong test scores, excellent ECs, state awards, national competition, and several leadership positions.</p>
<p>Of course, if he doesn’t get in ED, we won’t know if it’s because of the D. But if he does get in, we’ll know if it’s possible to have a blemish on the record and still do okay.</p>
<p>Our school district offers summer school only for remedial reasons, and only Algebra and Geometry are offered.</p>
<p>Just be sure whether or not the better grade will be included in the GPA. My dd had to do credit recovery for her F. Her school canceled summer school for that class due to low enrollment. Her only choice was to do it online. She got an A+ (seriously - this was a smart kid, who got a 4 on the AP exam and who’d already learned the material - anything less than that would be ridiculous) with Keystone, but because the class wasn’t taught at her school, they recorded the grade on her transcript, but it wasn’t reflected in her GPA. </p>