Failed a college class

Hi everyone,

I am a high school senior taking community college courses while applying to four-year universities. I got accepted early action to UIC and deferred to regular decision by Michigan so far. Anyways, I found out I got a D in my calculus course that I was taking at a community college. I know I will have to report this grade, but how strong will the colleges take this grade? Will this grade get me rescinded from UIC? Do I have a chance at UC admissions or BU/Penn admissions? This is the first class I have not passed in high school or in college. However, I have multiple Cs on my transcript (high school: 6, college: 3). I am a bioengineering major. [The C’s were in accelerated and AP courses that had a high fail rate to begin with.]

For reference: my senior year schedule (my high school classes are not listed but they are projected to be all As)

FALL 2019-

  • Intro to Engineering: A
  • History of Rock and Roll: A
  • Introductory Physics: C+
  • Calculus II: D

my stats + ECs:

My HS GPA is a 3.5 UW and with the college courses, it will be 3.75. ACT score of 31.

EC:

  • LGBTQ+ club publicist (2 years)
  • two summer internships (one paid another unpaid)
  • afterschool teacher (paid, 9 months)
  • science lab instructor (2 years)
  • model UN club (4 years)
  • club soccer + martial arts (both 3 years)
  • job at a bagel shop (3 months)

Assuming that you’re OOS (from your mention of UIC), chances for a UC acceptance will be poor. Multiple C grades will not help and a D in any senior grade are grounds for rescinding acceptance.

@Sally_Rubenstone any thoughts ?

And with 9 total Cs throughout your academic career, chances are poor/nonexistent for BU and Penn.

Struggling in the first attempt at calculus isn’t terribly unusual, but in your case this isn’t the first bump in the road, and many of your weaker grades have been in the very STEM classes that colleges will look at to assess whether you’re likely to succeed in engineering.

You need to take the long view here. You want to major in bioengineering, but you’ve repeatedly gotten C’s (and now a D) in your math and science classes. Given your level of preparation, the more competitive a program you manage to get into, the more likely that you’ll wash out of your desired major once there. You need time to build a stronger foundation. UC’s and schools like BU/Penn would not be doing you any favors by accepting you, especially for engineering. They won’t, and that is okay, because they are not what you need.

If you really want to graduate from a UC, start planning a solid CCC-to-UC path. Retake calc and work hard to do well enough to enter your community college in its honors program. If what’s important to you is going away to school, then start making plans to attend a CCC that’s close to a UC. Establish yourself in Isla Vista or Irvine or Merced; take CC classes during the year and open-enrollment UC classes in the summer, and TAG into your target UC. (Or stay at home for the first year and focus on getting a stellar GPA in your GE classes.)

Or, if you are dead-set on a four-year school, aim lower. Did you already apply to at least one CSU where your major isn’t impacted? You can also still apply to affordable WUE schools like UNR/UNLV, NAU, Boise State, and Portland State. You don’t want to go someplace where you’ll be under huge financial pressure to finish in four years, because engineering is very tough and your past trends suggest that you may need the time-buffer to withdraw from classes that aren’t going well or repeat ones that don’t turn out well in the end. (Even if you don’t get rescinded from UIC, do the OOS costs there fit this parameter??) Also give due consideration to small, supportive programs that are a bit more off-the-beaten-path but could be exactly what you need to be successful - SD Mines, for example, is a smaller school (under 3000 students) with a very hands-on philosophy (similar to SLO) where you would not fall through the cracks.

It could also behoove you to revisit your choice of major - what about bioengineering appeals to you? Might there be alternatives that would be rewarding in the same way, but would call for different strengths that might be a better fit? If you’re certain that you want to give engineering a go, that’s great, but in that case, put all dreams of eliteness aside until you’ve achieved a strong GPA in the foundational STEM classes.

The trend is clear. It doesn’t mean you can’t be successful; but you’ll be successful only if you plan for the reality of what will make success possible, not a fantasy that doesn’t match the facts.

UMich doesn’t seem to rejected to many from EA so don’t let the deferral give you much hope. I don’t see you getting into UM engineering with your grades.

Agree with the above advice. Even if for some reason Michigan did accept you, you might not make it past first semester. First, it’s a crazy hard school. Students with 3.9 and 34 Act can struggle with classes first semester. Many have at least a full grade drop. But their supportive systems are great but it doesn’t seem you are using any now. Just because it’s AP doesn’t mean you should be getting “C” s. Regardless of what others do in those classes.

UIC might be your best bet and congratulations! But you need to get with tutoring and learning services like day one. Meet and do professor hours right away. Set yourself up for success with no excuses. If you want it then make it happen.

I am in-state for UC admissions. I am from the Bay Area, which is known for its competitiveness, which does give me a setback.

Why are you taking this many cc classes? You are practically part-time high school student and part-time college student. Anyway, I’m guessing your physics is calc-based? You should try to take an algebra-based physics course before because that would have told you that physics isn’t your strongest suit. Also, if you are taking calc 2 as a senior, you must be pretty advanced in math (like 2 levels ahead of your grade). How come the calc grade is so low? You really need to get a grasp of calc before moving on to calc-based physics as well as other calc-based engineering courses.

Calculus 2 is the equivalent of second semester AP Calculus BC.

Curious as to why the OP is taking it at a community college, unless it’s a class at early college. And there are several high schools in the Bay Area that have that option of taking the last 2 years of high school at a CC.

Biomedical/Bioengineering is pretty infamous at most colleges for being a weeder. Not the easiest major to survive.

Which UC’s did you apply? What are your UC GPA’s? https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/

As stated above, for the UC’s especially a D Senior year has to be reported then it will be up to the schools to determine if that D is grounds for rescinding any acceptances.

Going to a competitive HS is taken into consideration during the application review, but the UC’s are not very forgiving on D’s.

For the majority of the UC’s, you need to maintain a weighted 3.0 GPA with no D’s or F’s to keep your provisional admission.

For UCLA/UCB, it is an Unweighted GPA of 3.0, no more than 2 C’s and no D’s or F’s to keep your provisional admission.

From the UC website:
**If there are changes to your academic record: If you add or drop a course, fail to earn a C or better in a course or enroll in a new college after you submit your application, log back in and update your information online. If you receive an offer of admission, be sure to confirm with the campus admission office that they are aware of the deficient grade or schedule changes.

Keep in mind: We cannot guarantee that a campus can go back to review an application after correspondence has been received. Make sure to save a copy of your correspondence just in case.

Also, something else to consider is that the majority of UC’s are on the quarter system. You have 10 weeks to prove yourself. That is tough even with students who have higher GPA’s and don’t have C’s and D’s on their transcripts.

I also agree that you need to reevaluate your choice of major.

My daughter had to take a couple of bioengineering courses in her Engineering major. Something telling she told us about those courses: Her professors in those bioengineering classes advised the students that the bioengineering profession was limited with jobs because they hadn’t been fully developed yet by the industry, such that the students would have to wait a bit for those jobs to actually materialize.

I don’t understand why you are going to a CC for courses in tandem with your HS your HS courses.

@privatebanker -I avoid weighing in on “chances” because there is not adequate information provided in these threads to do so responsibly. However, in THIS case, as many other CC members have already noted, a student with not only a D but also with “multiple C’s” should consider Michigan, UC’s, Penn, BU and other most selective/highly selective institutions to be huge reaches.

@nitya2002 -As for the possibility of losing the UIC acceptance due to that D in calculus, I recommend that you contact your admissions rep at UIC as soon as the holidays are over and explain WHY you did so poorly in that class. Were you slacking? Were you just in over your head? Were there scheduling conflicts that kept you out of class? And did you try to get tutoring or any other type of extra help? IF the college folks feel that you WERE paying attention and took measures to stay afloat, they are going to be far more sympathetic to your situation than if they suspect senioritis.

You may be convinced that if you don’t bring this up to UIC now, your bad grade will slip by and no one will notice. But that won’t happen. And when the college folks DO notice, it might not be until summer, when they receive your final transcript, and when it will be very late for you to find another college if you’d planned to go to UIC and then you lose your spot.

So act promptly, act worried, and you will probably be okay. Good luck!

@Sally_Rubenstone thank you. I think I commented on the wrong thread or clearly misunderstood the original question. Thanks and sorry!