Senior Year Grades Dilemma

USNA1985
Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:26:48 +0000

First the disclaimer that I’m not your BGO and thus am not familiar with you entire situation. However, assuming you are doing well in your other classes, it is extremely unlikely that USNA would take away your LOA/appointment because you are struggling in one high-level course. (If you have gone from an all-A student to an all-D student with no reasonable explanation (i.e., death in the family), that might be a different story.)

My personal view is that you should stick with your math course. What you are experiencing is not uncommon at USNA. Had it happen to me with Calc III. I studied harder for that course than any course in my life and still got a D. Because Calc III was (and I believe still is) a required course, I couldn’t drop it. Learning to deal with not doing as well as you expect/hope is something almost everyone deals with at service academies – you are simply experiencing it a bit early. Overall, I think you will ultimately learn more from “struggling” through a difficult course than dropping it.

The one caveat to this advice is whether you are in danger of failing and whether that (or earning a D) would potentially impact your graduation or other high school programs, issues, scholarships, etc. If so, you may want to reconsider.

Not only should you discuss this with your BGO, I suggest discussing it with your school counselor and your math teacher. They are in a better position to advise you with respect to your personal circumstances than the people on this board.