<p>Basically, I am afraid that this year (sophomore) I will get a B in one of my electives as it is harder than every one of my honors or core classes and the teacher above this is a very harsh grader.</p>
<p>GPA at my school is calculated starting at junior year, however, will having a B in an elective sophomore year kill my chances at ivies?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>… and you’re under the impression that only 4.0 students attend Ivy league schools? Really?</p>
<p>relax. It’s OK</p>
<p>Of course i’m not in the impression that only 4.0 students attend Ivy’s…
What i’m worried about is that they’ll think that I don’t try hard enough in my electives and will disregard me for someone who would achieve an easy 98+ at any other school in that class.</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, what is this incredibly hard elective?</p>
<p>Prepare to amuse yourself: Theater Tech and Design!</p>
<p>Last year the class was a joke and many students took it in order to get the art credits to graduate from my school. However, when I signed up, I never found out that the teacher who made the class easy was leaving and a new one was coming.</p>
<p>This new teacher takes the class VERY seriously, and recently we were separated into pairs to design the ENTIRE middle school play. Everything from prop sections (description of all props, which side of the stage they enter, in which act and scene, which character brings them in and in which act and scene do they leave, a rundown of ALL props to see which ones are available and which ones we’d need to buy and build. If we’d have to buy, who would it be from and what would we need to built it), a 3d model of the set design with all of the support areas for lights and sounds, all the light and sound cues with descriptions for the lights and sounds and the levels and speeds that they are at, all costumes with a detailed description for every character (18 characters), a visual representation of the character and an explanation for the reason to dress such characters in that way … the list goes on and on that i’ve worked harder on this than any of my other subjects COMBINED up until this point. Today was our presentation of this project, which was around 53 PAGES OF WRITTEN WORK (FOR A THEATER ELECTIVE). We got graded on our presentation by the Middle School Drama teacher (who is the director of the play) and of course was super harsh (gave us an 82.5, lol) even though we had a 4-page 1,300 word Outline of everything we’d say and we’re required to say.</p>
<p>I can’t stress how I honestly have more work here than in all my other classes</p>
<p>A 4.0 won’t get you in and a 3.7 won’t keep you out. What the Ivies want to know is what else ya got, kid?</p>
<p>Also, what’s this new teacher going to do next year when nobody takes Theater Tech and Design?</p>
<p>yes, you are done for, no respectable colleges will want you now that you have acquired a B in theater tech. start looking at community colleges and your state universities. good luck.</p>
<p>state universities? maybe thats too much ?? i say community colleges and below</p>
<p>@OP:</p>
<p>No, it won’t if in the context of your “application package”, it simply indicates you tried something new and it didn’t “fit” you well. Ivy League schools do <em>not</em> exclusively recruit 4.0+ applicants, as you know. Hang in there!</p>
<p>Thanks for the replies everyone.</p>
<p>@spdf - Word already spread out about how the new class works. At least everyone in my grade who is currently enrolled for second semester is going to drop out on Nov. 1st (the first day to change second semester courses)…
I don’t know about the other grades though, maybe they’ll suffer as well… who knows?</p>
<p>One B won’t kill you.</p>
<p>However, when you look back on it – you may ultimately decide that this was the best course you have taken in High School from the point of view of standards and academic preparation.</p>