Hello, I applied to Fordham for regular decision and I am wondering how much will my gym grades affect my application. My gym grades from the last 4 years of high school aren’t good and I have received like 68s and 75s for the highest. I am really worried. Are gym grades given careful consideration or are the other subjects only considered?
Putting aside the question of how badly one needs to mess up to get consistent 68’s, they’re not generally ignored, but are not the key metric.
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What is the key metric then? Are they going to reject me if I have this situation with the bad gym grades? I have received good grades in every other subject execpt for gym.
Anecdote: I heard one admission answer this question by saying that if a student gets one bad grade in gym it doesn’t really matter but if there is a consistent pattern of not making a reasonable attempt to succeed in even a non-core class it will be noted. Will you be rejected solely due to a gym grade? Likely not. But it will not be a positive in your application.
It begs the question – why not put forth some effort in gym even if it may not be your forte?
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Academic courses are generally considered with more weight than electives. But it’s going to raise a question as to why, over 4 years, you struggled to get above a 75. It’s probably not going to ruin your chances at a school like Fordham, but they might consider it along with your teacher recommendations. Fordham is rigorous and they want to be sure you can do the work.
Is there a compelling reason you haven’t gotten good grades in gym? Some physical limitation? Illness? If so, discuss with your guidance counselor. Perhaps they can mention it in their letter.
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The sad part is I already sent out the application to review with the idea that the colleges will recalculate the GPA based on core academic courses. That’s why I didn’t give it much importance. Also, I can’t give them a medical note.
If my other grades are strong, will it cover the bad grades up?
No.
How much it will impact you for Fordham is unknown. But it is what it is at this point.
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To be blunt, as everyone else is saying, I think anyone looking at your transcript closely, which usually happens at selective holistic review colleges without auto admissions before they actually admit someone, is going to at least wonder why this happened.
You have not answered those questions here yet, which is OK, but leaving it unanswered for colleges as well is risky. It might also be that you have no choice but to take that risk. But in some circumstances, there might be something you could do to at least put the situation into a somewhat better light.
I actually can’t think of a single example. If there was a medical issue, accomodations should have been made.
Putting aside my opinion that gym should be graded P/F, I know of few examples in this century where the course isn’t a guaranteed A, provided you show up, wear proper attire, and make believe you’re trying. I can’t imagine an exception that would result in 4 years of grades between 68 and 75.
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I just emailed all the schools with a pdf saying this “Context for Physical Education Grades
During the last four years of high school, I received very low
grades in physical education. This is due to my severe asthma
condition. When I completed activities such as running and
playing in sports, I used to have difficulties in breathing and
coughed heavily. Even though I explained this to the physical
education instructors, they did not excuse me from any of the
exercises and gave me a low passing grade instead”.
Does this look okay to explain them why I got those grades?
I could make up some scenarios, but it wouldn’t be helpful without knowing if they even remotely applied to the OP’s real world situation.
So again to be very blunt, that story without any verification is probably going to lead to some additional questions on the part of admissions officials/committees.
If you had asked us in advance of emailing anything, I think we would have encouraged you to try to get some help explaining this to schools. Like, for example, possibly your school counselor could help you communicate this message. Possibly you would also want to include some sort of medical record. And so on.
It may still be possible to do some of those things. But in general I would suggest slowing down and making sure you have a good comprehensive plan in place before taking any further action.
I do have medical records of that but it’s from 4-5 years ago. I haven’t visited the doctor in a long time because of my situation of going in and out of the country due to my mom’s job. Because of going out of the country, I also haven’t done the very best on my state exams, but I think they can tell based on my transcripts that I gave them.
I would not send that note: 1) it highlights a negative in your application; 2) without verification from a doctor, it sounds like an excuse; 3) excuse making is never a good look; 4) if you have debilitating asthma verified by a doctor, why did you not get an IEP for gym?
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I did not because this is a mandatory class and I also have old medical records of this. I did explain in that context that I told this to the instructors but they told me that I will get a low passing grade. Also, because I went in and out of the country due to my mom’s job, I was never able to get for this fully.
At this point it is what it is.
It does not. Medical accomodations should have been handled at the school level in advance. Having not done that, you’re simply making excuses.
So I go back to my earlier comment: I don’t know if these grades will impact your chances, but it is what it is at this point
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IEPs are an American thing, I believe.
Yes, also I did this when I was attending school in a different place. I also received low gym grades there.