I currently am a high school sophomore and I have two B’s (one in multi var. calc and one in spanish 3). My mom already enrolled me to retake spanish 3 in hopes that I will get an A (I will most likely get an A). This recalculates my GPA from a 3.90 to a 3.95, and assuming if I don’t get anymore B’s, my official GPA will be a 3.98 instead of a 3.96. Do most colleges consider the 3.98 to be valid or do some consider the first grade only?
I don’t think this will have the effect you hope it will on college admissions. I think it will look more like grade grubbing. Generally you retake classes if you get below a C minus. In that case, credit recovery is possible, But not for a B. You’re better off moving on.
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I think mom is wrong and I can’t imagine a school will let you retake a B.
Guess what - life isn’t perfect. You needn’t be. No one is. I don’t know the goal but retaking Bs is not good for you or college admissions.
What you need to understand is the material as classes progress. Forget the Bs.
The other question is why were you in this math class so young ??
Work with the teacher to learn the materials b4 progressing.
But mom is wrong. And I would hope the schools will block you from repeating.
And a 3.96 or 3.98 is the same likely in most every situation.
The math level though is off the charts and maybe why you struggled.
Getting through any Cal through 12th grade is advanced.
Tell mom to stop stressing and to let you be a kid.
But forget the grade - make sure you learn what material kept you away from an A so you are better prepared moving forward.
Get a job at McDonals or a grocery store collecting carts.
That will be impactful too. And hang out with your friends - to nourish your ‘social’ mind.
My mom already paid for the class fees and I’m already enrolled in the class online. I heard from my senior friends that it might reflect negatively on my application, is that true?
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Yes, as I said, it could be perceived as grade grubbing. You probably won’t be directly penalized, but some AOs won’t be super happy to see it.
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My school lets you retake any class, and my parents already paid for the class.
I took Calc BC last year as a freshman and got an A, so I assumed I would be okay in multi.
Since I’m already enrolled, I don’t think I can unenroll because it also cost money.
Okay I see. I’m just worried it will affect how I look during the selection process.
I would unwind my retaking. Withdraw etc. b4 it starts.
Why are you taking classes on line?. Are you home schooled or you school doesn’t offer ?
Math online is hard.
You need to learn what you are not understanding.
Taking the class again won’t help, could hurt, but you are so advanced it’s likely neutral.
But makes zero sense.
Mom is pushing you too hard.
My mom put down Spanish 3 to retake because it is available online and it is easier.
Are you in regular school ?
Why the online classes.
This is all not necessary.
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I am in regular school, but she thought it was a hassle to fill a spot with the same class again, so she signed me up for online spanish. She wanted my GPA to be higher in hopes of a better application in college. Would it look bad though? It would recover my GPA, but another commenter said some admissions officers wouldn’t like it.
I don’t think it looks anything.
I think you have a regular load. Now two more classes on line.
It’s not helping.
And one doesn’t need to be perfect.
You are already more advanced than 99.9% of kids.
You need to learn material. An A or B or C isn’t that.
Colleges will see a kid who has rigor.
You need to be more than that.
But you don’t get bonus points for repeating like this. And at an online school no less.
What was the next Spanish class at school. That’s what you should be in.
You need to learn the material you missed. Not get an A.
Mom is far off base here in my opinion.
Yes. You’d be perceived as a grade grubber who has no interest in learning to learn. And shame on any high school that allows this.
Here is a list of the colleges that will ignore the first grade:
- None
The way to show improvement is to get an A in Spanish 4.
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So I think the other posters are right and your mom is wrong.
That said, I would not panic. I think if possible you should try to convince your mom you should withdraw, even if that will mean “wasting” some money (which I note is the sunk cost fallacy, meaning just because this has cost your mom something already does not mean you should continue if it will have a net negative effect for you). But if you can’t, just do your best, and I don’t think just one incident like this will necessarily make a difference in your eventual college outcomes.
But then try very hard to make sure this doesn’t happen again. Like, your grades may not be perfect after this either. Please understand that your goal is to reasonably challenge yourself and do your reasonable best, where reasonable means having a healthy balance between classwork and all the other things kids need to be doing to develop in a healthy way.
If that does not mean perfect grades, that will not be a barrier to going to a great college. And in fact, this is a small example of a bigger issue, which is that you will actually be best positioned for college applications with imperfect grades but having developed well, including ethically.
OK, so this was an imperfect grade, followed by your mom making a mistake in terms of how to handle it. But neither of those things are fatal, and if you can’t persuade your mom to change her mind this time, just try to make sure she does not do it again should you get another imperfect grade.
Two B grades are not something you should be worried about. There will be plenty of colleges that will welcome you with two B grades.
I do have to ask…you say you are a HS sophomore who took multi variable calculus? Why? This means you are accelerated in math by more than two years.
This is NOT a reason for retaking a course in which you got a B grade.
The ONLY reason I can think of for retaking a course is if you didn’t understand the material presented and plan to take additional courses in that area. But in both of your examples…you shouldn’t be retaking.
Go ahead and retake, but I’ll put it out there…if you don’t get an A in the retake, it’s going to look worse than just those B grades. In a retake, it’s expected your grade will be an A grade if you started with a B. After all, you have already been exposed to the course material…it should be easier the second time around.
So my free advice…
-
Slow down with the math acceleration.
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Don’t retake any of these courses.
I’m not sure why your parent wants you to do this. If it’s to gain admission to some elite college, you need to know…kids with perfect GPAs do not get accepted and kids with a couple of B grades do.
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Since any school will see your original grade as well as the retake, I don’t see this as a great plan. Any very slight increase in gpa (which will mean little) is going to be overshadowed by the fact you retook two classes where you already got a solid grade. A perfect gpa is not necessary to be accepted to a good school, moreover, a perfect gpa isn’t going to guarantee anything.
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Are you homeschooled? If not, does your HS replace the old grade with the online class and grade on your transcript? Colleges will see the B if it’s not replaced by the online class and use it in their GPA calc (if they recalc GPA). Lastly you are not assured of getting an A in online spanish…what if you don’t?
Don’t put this much pressure on yourself, especially because you are now being more challenged with math and have 2-2.5 years of HS math to go post MV.
I actually also agree with the posters who have said to not repeat the class and accept the $ loss. Retaking Bs does not look good and the only time I recommend remediating even a C is for athletes who need to get their NCAA GPA up.
Concentrate on doing well in the classes you do have this term as well as your ECs. And take time to enjoy life.
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You have taken higher level math. Is there a significant difference between a 3.96 and 3.98 GPA. I’ll help. The answer is NO.
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Yeah, I don’t want to get too down in the weeds here, but basically it is quite clear that at highly selective colleges, they do not actually trust GPAs anyway. They are going to look at your whole transcript and process it as they see fit.
And in fact, it is pretty clear many will do some version of first getting an overall sense of your academic competitiveness, and for that initial look it is NOT required your grades be perfect.
Then assuming you get through that part of the process, they will start really looking closely at “the story” your transcript tells.
And this is basically the mom’s mistake. A minor difference in GPA is extremely unlikely to make any difference at that initial overlook phase. But then retaking a B grade can potentially tell a story you do not actually want told at the second in-depth phase.
Again, I don’t want the OP to panic about this, but I do think understanding a bit about how this works can maybe help the OP avoid similar issues in the future.
OP- reach out to the online provider of this class and ask if you can apply the credit to something else. Maybe take Art History over the summer? Music Theory? Something that will have some joy to it, and not just a “grinding out another fractional point on my already terrific GPA”???
I’m going to assume that your mom doesn’t understand college admissions very well. And that’s OK. But colleges won’t “rack and stack” and take someone with a marginally higher GPA over someone else-- they will look at the entire application and see a kid with terrific rigor who does very well academically.
Retaking it sounds like insanity. Surely you have better ways to spend your time?
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