okay so I’m probably going to get either a C- or a D in PreCalculus Honors. I’ve literally tried my hardest in that class but things went awry and it just has not ended up well for me. My guidance counselor said she’d write an explanation in her recommendation saying that the teacher and I had issues etc. But I’m still very concerned about it.
My GPA including the D would be about a 3.5 UW. Weighted it’s about a 4.12. I have all A’s and 2 B’s and this C-/D in my school career. 've also taken 3 APs so far and gotten 4/5/5 on them(I’m a Sophomore) and take the most difficult classes my school offers (planning to take 7 APs my Jr Year) both my PACT and PSAT scores are high 32/1450 respectively. and I will be playing 3 varsity sports next year along with involvement in speech and debate and several other activities.
I’m honestly just very concerned that this one grade will completely eliminate top schools as a choice for me. Thank you in advance 
side note: my top school choices are at the moment-
hella reach: UPenn
idk about these: UNC, Wake Forest, Colgate, NYU, UVA, Roanoke, BU, BC, William and Mary, Georgetown, Villanova and Connecticut College
A 3.5 GPA will make it very difficult for you to be admitted to most of those schools anyways
Where are you in-state?
Difficult for Roanoke? Conn Coll? Villanova? Doubt it.
Would you consider top unis in Canada/UK/Ireland or the university colleges in the Netherlands?
They would care mostly about AP and SAT scores.
You won’t be denied on the basis of the grade for one course.
You should make an appt w/your guid counselor or use the SuperMatch tool on the left panel of this page to broaden your search list. A 3.5 GPA makes most of those colleges unattainable. Not simply the single D – but your cumulative GPA is the single most important factor – especially for competitive schools (like most you’ve listed). Penn simply isn’t viable whatsoever
I recognize at the moment that my gpa is not good however I have an entire year and a semester left to bring it up so with my junior year grades I should have about a 3.75 which I know is competitive for all of those schools I only added my gpa to show how the grade would effect it all I was wondering is if a C or D would completely ruin my chances for those schools thanks though for not actually -answering- the question
Taking 7APs when you’ve only taken 3 so far may also lower your GPA if you don’t do well in all of those classes. You can’t accurately predict what your GPA is for next year. What grades for each of your classes did you use to factor your GPA? All As and 2 Bs in a much less rigorous schedule does not mean that you’ll be able to maintain those grades with 7AP classes.
in all of my AP classes so far I’ve received an A, A+ and an A respectively. The only reason I no longer have a 3.756 GPA that I had maintained throughout this and last year is because of this PreCalc class. All I am wondering is if a C or D will affect my entire chance of admission.
Most likely it will affect your chance of admission because it affects your overall GPA. Junior year is usually the most difficult year academically.
If your current cum GPA is 3.5 and you get 4.0s for the next 3 semesters (your last semester doesn’t count), then the best GPA you can have is 3.71, assuming equal nos. of classes. No, a single D doesn’t automatically put you out of the running. The problem is the D along with many other non-As in your first four semesters has locked you into a 3.5 GPA.
Look, getting great grades in your past APs and hitting three more semesters of all As would be wonderful and you’ll be super prepared for college. But you’ve asked about tippy top schools who can and do reject tons of 4.0 students. You’re asking a lot – that’s just the reality. Does this mean your time and effort are being wasted? Heck no. There will be tons of GREAT schools that will love to have you. Simply not those that have very small admit rates.
Best of luck to you.
Please be kind to those who are willing to share their wealth of knowledge. Yes, sometimes it is hard to accept news that you don’t want to hear. But the folks who have THOUSANDS of posts under their name might just know what they are talking about. Being rude to those that are taking time to respond will only guarantee you don’t get any more help.
It is better to adjust your list of colleges now, to include a wider range of safety colleges you are more likely to be admitted to, than to end up posting her in the spring of your senior year when you have been shut out of all the schools you applied to. It doesn’t mean they are saying you can’t possibly get into a school on your list, but that it is unlikely. And so you can still apply to those reach schools if you have enough money for all the application fees, but you also want to open your mind to other, less selective possibilities now.
Life Lesson…don’t be rude to people when you are asking for their help.
While it is true you won’t be denied on the basis of one course, it can make your chances of admission at certain schools more unlikely especially if they have highly qualified applicants and limited spots. This is especially true for schools like Penn, which seems a bit out of reach at the moment. Most students that get accepted have stellar grades ontop of other achievements. However it is only your sophomore year, you still have junior year and part of senior year to really prove to them that you can handle the course load and excel academically for your other schools. Try your hardest to at least get a C, which is infinitely better than a D.
I got into college with some C’s, including some of the schools that you listed above. However you must maintain high grades for the rest of your high school records, get good recommendations, do well on standardized tests, write thoughtful essays, and really be engaged in your extracurriculars. All these things will factor into how college look at you “holistically” and if all these other factors are good, then you still have a shot at those schools.
I would also caution you about taking that many APs at once. I took 4/5 APs at one time and I thought that was enormously stressful. You may not be able to keep your grades that high while taking such a demanding course load and may stress yourself out. A 3.75 GPA seems like a “best case scenario” sort of GPA because it assumes you are going to get better grades than you have currently ontop of a more challenging curriculum, which is not impossible, but the transition might be steep. Just be aware of that.
Best of luck.
With holistic admissions, no one can say for certain whether a single weak grade will doom an applicant. In theory, if if a student did well in 11th and 12th grade math classes, as well as other classes, then the single low grade could be seen as an aberration and could be dismissed as insignificant. If the OP is truly a 3 season varsity athlete, and already has scores from 3 AP exams – meaning they took the exams as a freshman – then it is possible that the OP is indeed a competitive applicant for schools like U Penn, Wake etc.
However, 7 APs next year plus a varsity sport each season sounds like overkill and a recipe for panic and more gpa slippage. While a weighted grading system means there is a race for APs to maximize the gpa/class rank, every school we talked to said the first thing they do with the transcript is un-weight the gpa and look separately at course rigor. So there may not be compelling reasons to take 7 AP classes in a single year.
Getting a bad grade can feel terrifying to a high achieving student. But getting it in 10th grade, while there is still time to recover, is not the end of the world. I would encourage the OP to make decisions about classes and ECs based on their interests, not on what their college application will look like. Every spring, it is disheartening to read the threads from high achieving students who did not get in to their super selective preferences, and who wonder why they sacrificed their nights and weekends studying, doing test prep etc., while their friends were out actually enjoying their lives.
7 APs and three varsity sports? Not a good recipe for maintaining all A grades. I think your grades are being sacrificed in favor of ECs. If you really want a shot at merit aid, and/or admission to top schools, then you need high grades. Prioritize grades my friend. That’s what colleges want to see first.
“I should have about a 3.75 which I know is competitive for all of those schools” – Not true. If you are OOS for UVA or UNC, or William & Mary, then you are going to have some problems.
“All I am wondering is if a C or D will affect my entire chance of admission.” – A “D” is going to hurt you; a “C”, not necessarily, it depends on the circumstances, and perhaps on whether you are an IS or OOS student for the public schools that you mention.
Adcoms will look at your transcript to see what you got lower grades in. D in precalc H? That’s going to be mighty tough on a stem wannabe aiming for a tippy top (Penn)and maybe W&M and Gtown, So what were the B’s in and what do you hope to study in college? This isn’t just about gpa. Nor is it about bringing up everything in your last two years, unless you get an A in AP calc and AP sci and then the rest of your record is what they want to see. The competition is that tough.
Nor does loading up on AP erase a poor grade. So I agree you need to consider cutting back on the number of AP next year, taking the ones in the relevant cores and those related to your possible major. And definitely not stuffing in more, just to get quantity in.
Is the C- or D for a full year or one quarter?
I got into an Ivy with a D one quarter of an AP class, C overall. 5 on the respective AP exam, so that may have saved the situation.
My kid had 5 AP/IB tests this year with a spring varsity sport. I do not recommend it. If you truly plan to take 7 AP tests next year and want to drop one sport, look at the spring sport.
I have a question to ask all of you. If the OP had a C in a non core academic class such as an elective would the responses be the same? I always wonder if the colleges look at everything or just the “main” classes.