I am a rising junior in HS, and I just found out that I failed my math final, now I have a C in the class. I got a C in math one semester last year too. I have straight As in all of my other classes-I’ve only ever struggled in math. What does this mean for college admissions? I still have a GPA close to a 3.7. I can try to not get a C in math next year and all, but what will two Cs mean for me when I’m applying? If I have high test scores, can I still aim for colleges like Amherst, Bowdoin, Pomona, and Smith?
Math is a subject where what you learn today is very much based on what you learned yesterday and last year, and what you are going to learn next year is based on what you are learning today. Thus it is a subject where keeping ahead of the work is very important. Also, math is the basis for a lot of other work going forward (such as most of the STEM fields, and even law and philosophy require “logical thinking” which has some resemblance to math). As such, I wonder whether some sort of math tutoring over the summer might be helpful.
Other than that, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Frankly I find the admissions process at Amherst and Bowdoin to be a complete mystery. I see very nice, kind, thoughtful and hardworking students with straight A’s for their entire lives rejected while students with two A’s for each B get in. However, there clearly are many very good universities that you can get into with one or two Cs sticking out among your many A’s.
Lol. Now you understand how it feels to fail. Grow up and move on. One C won’t hurt your chances