<p>D2 is a 9th grader, and due to some unfortunate circumstances, she so far has an F in one class. (All the other classes are As.) Anyway, I want her to drop the class and get a W. There’s no way she can get this back on track to get a decent grade. The school is insisting that she stay in the class, even with the high probability of an F. They said that when she retakes the class, the new grades replace the Fs in computing GPA. However, the Fs remain on the transcript. Also, they “say” that she won’t be allowed to retake the class in the summer (which would be best), as summer school is only for kids who got a D or F. Withdrawing doesn’t count. (Summer school there isn’t essential, but it would be nice.)</p>
<p>What would you do? Let the Fs be on the transcript, or go with a W? (And is their motivation really about state funding?)
How do colleges view this?</p>
<p>I really don’t know, but a lot of colleges recalculate the GPA according to their own rules. There’s no guarantee that X college won’t use all letter grades on the transcript in their computation.</p>
<p>And I would guess, they do receive less money if a student W (but of course, this really could depend on the state/district)</p>
<p>In college, the choice is really easy - take the W. Professors tell you to consider withdrawing after the midterm results come in if you’re in danger of failing so that you can protect your GPA.</p>
<p>Can she take the class at another public or private school for a fee?</p>
<p>D1 had a W in her sophomore year of high school in Band. Granted it wasn’t an academic class and she had to withdraw to take a different class. This didn’t keep her from being accepted to many schools. She ended up at Emory. As far as I know, no admissions even asked about the W.</p>
<p>Yes, she can take the class elsewhere, or take it again at her school next year. I’m just surprised that her school wants her to stay and take an F, claiming that all colleges they know of will ignore it and replace the F with the new grade. I just don’t buy it.</p>
<p>Frankly I’m surprised the school is even considering allowing her to withdraw. In my experience, most high schools aren’t equipped to give a ‘W’, except for illness, etc. Where would she go during that class period if she drops the class? Most schools are concerned about students being supervised,etc. during school hours.</p>
<p>We had open campus when I went to high-school. When you weren’t in a class, you could be wherever you wanted to be - in the village square area, hitting tennis balls outside, just hanging around outside the school or even at home if you lived close enough. There were also study halls and the library if you wanted to study.</p>
<p>My son has a friend who received a D in math in his junior year. He retook the class in summer school and they averaged the 2 grades together! I don’t know if the D showed up on the transcript. I do know that the grade was not entirely the student’s fault bc the teacher was new, and the high school did not renew this teacher’s contract for a second year. There seemed to be many students who struggled to master what was expected in that class with that teacher. Bottom line is that this student was still accepted to some nice private colleges as a business major (math is an important grade for a business major), but he is also a full paying student (did not apply for financial aid). His overall gpa was probably in the 2.8-3.1 range.</p>
<p>The window to add a course is very short, so we didn’t realize how severe the problem was at the time to do an add/drop. So we talked to the school weeks ago, they encouraged staying with the class and getting an F. The deadline for Ws is coming up, so…I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that they put school funding over the best interests of the student.</p>
<p>I really appreciate everyone’s comments on this. The school made it out to be that a W is worse than an F. Didn’t make sense to me, but who knows where the world is going these days?</p>
<p>worse than the GPA thing, if I saw four A’s and an F on a transcript, I would suspect that the F was a disciplinary grade for cheating.</p>
<p>Again, I don’t really know, but I would find some summer class (online or at another school) that they would take credit for, if it were me in that situation.</p>
<p>Oh, my. The suspicion of cheating never occurred to me, but you’re right.
D has an IEP, and the other teachers have been very helpful, supportive, FLEXIBLE. This particular teacher is extraordinarily rigid, overly strict and tactless. (There’s only so many little points you can cover in one of those IEP things.)
So a W it is. With the world going upside down, I wasn’t sure if I was missing something.
Thank you all so much for your replies.</p>