Will colleges revoke one's acceptance if he or she switched from IB HL to SL during 2nd semester?

Applying to College
1

My daughter had a long conversation with her IB Art teacher, her counselor and the IB coordinator and finally came up with the conclusion to allow my daughter to switch from IB Art HL to IB Art SL by her 2nd semester as a senior.

Some were due to her personal reasons but the main reason revolved around her desire to spend more time in pursuing her independent projects that she’s been wanting to work on for a long time. She also wanted to be involved in the industry more, which meant spending more time outside of school pursing her artistic career.

I think the problem is, before making this decision, she had already put down HL for her Common App and she, as of a few weeks agos, sent her application to one of her universities. I’ve heard stories of students getting revoked because of major grade drops (multiple C’s, D’s and even worse F’s) but I’m wondering if switching from HL to SL would really make the admissions department consider rescinding someone’s application?

2

HL or SL art won’t matter one bit to colleges

3

Agreed, but any schedule change should be communicated to the colleges in question; they tend to not like surprises.

4

@skieurope Is it too late for her to e-mail them now or should she wait until she gets a notification on her application status?

5

It could make a difference if this means she will not be getting her IB diploma and she is accepted to a school that assumed she’d have it. This scenario is most common at foreign universities.

6

@gardenstategal she doesn’t intend to get an IB diploma.

7

Without knowing all the details, I would guess it won’t make a difference. I would, however, send an update to the schools she’s applied to. It would be awful to get caught up on this further down the road.
Taken to a different extreme, what would keep kids from starting senior year with a pile of AP classes and then dropping down to general education levels after they’d submitted applications?

8

It’s not too late. I’d send it now rather than waiting.

9

Agree, it is just good form to email the college admissions offices now so they will not be surprised when the final transcript arrives. She could also briefly (in a couple of sentences) explain the reason she made the change.

10

Better to inform the colleges before their decisions of the schedule change. Otherwise, there is risk of rescission if the student has changed schedule from what was previously reported as being in progress or planned, particularly in a less rigorous direction (IB HL->SL).

If a college has already made a decision (ED, EA, early rolling), it would be best to contact the college to find out if such a change will be acceptable (versus putting the student at risk of rescission).