How does having all A’s all and one D look like on a transcript. I am asking for my friend. All throughout high school he received A’s and last year for junior year he got a D in AP English because he decided to leave the state for two weeks. This resulted in him missing an essay and just dropped his grades. How would colleges look at this? I am not talking about Ivy league’s or anything, just the average state schools.
This story doesn’t make sense. How does missing 2 weeks of class result in a D in just that class? Even if he neglected to turn in something that was due and he got an F on it, there were presumably other assignments all semester that should have pulled up his grade to at least a C. And if he talked to the teacher in advance, it probably could have been managed pro-actively, especially if he is an A student. This just doesn’t sound like the whole story.
The teacher has one essay or project a semester that counts for 40% of the grade. I don’t know why, but this is the only assignment he puts in the assessment category. He also got a job and for the second semester managed to get a 60% on that category because he neglected to read Walden and did poorly on the project. Other than that, he received A’s on all his other AP classes.
Schools will look at it as a D. They will wonder if he can handle the work for highly competitive schools. What else would they think? And if he got a 60% on another section due to not being able to juggle work and school they may be right.
Agree with Erin’s Dad. Your friend is going to have to explain why he was unable to balance his work and academic commitments, especially in junior year, when he is expected to have the maturity to manage this appropriately. I’d opt for the full on ‘I screwed up’ and ‘I learned an important lesson’ version of the mea culpa that he will need to deliver.