How bad is it to get a “C” in a DE class?

[JazzyMom]

A close friend had her 9th grade daughter take biology for science majors at the local community college.  Her dd is bright but had not taken any high school science before.  She worked hard but ended up with a C.

My friend is trying to figure out how to mitigate this for college applications.  Her dd wants to go to an elite school, majoring in theater, film, journalism, or some other non STEM major.

She has been told by various people that you don’t have to include the grade on the homeschool transcript, you can do extra things and improve the grade, etc.

Is there a way for her to make this look better or does she just accept that there will be a C on the transcript and move on?

I don’t know how to advise her as none of my kids have applied to elite schools.

Edited June 4, 2022 by JazzyMom

[JazzyMom]

Weighting the grade was another idea given since it was a DE course.  Would that help?

Would weighting it 1 point change from C to a B?

Again, I don’t know how to help as I don’t do weighted grades on transcripts.

[madteaparty]

She can weigh the grade on her homeschool GPA calculation, sure, but she has to report the C. And the college transcript has to be reported, there’s no getting out of that. Sorry.

My community college permits you to retake a class in order to improve the GpA there, but the prior grade doesn’t get erased. So that doesn’t get her anything.

sorry to be negative but I guess the one bright spot is that I’ve read some schools “discount” 9th grade grades a bit if student shows continual improvement. I don’t know that I believe that, but it shows that she took a risk and is not afraid to do hard things.

my DS started taking college classes in 7th and not at community college. It ended up well for him but I can’t believe we did that, it was rather nuts. 

[JanetC]

Do not hide the grade. Anything that looks like lying or leaving an application incomplete, including failure to send transcripts from all schools attended, can be grounds for rescinding admissions later.

 

[regentrude]

Leave the grade and address the issue in the school philosophy/counselor letter. If the transcript is organized by year and the class clearly marked as DE, and if the student does much better in subsequent courses, it will be obvious that enrolling her in that class was a misjudgement of her abilities and she simply wasn't ready for a college science course in 9th grade. I would explicitly bring it up and take the blame as the parent who made that decision. 

The college will report the grade since she must provide all transcripts. So the admission folks WILL see the C. Not fudging the homeschool grade seems the better option, so it doesn't look like they're trying to lie.

Edited June 4, 2022 by regentrude

[JazzyMom]

Thanks, all!  I shared this info with her.

I am really out of my realm when it comes to selective admissions, so I recommended she speak to a college consultant re: future course selection, etc.

Do any of you know of consultants who work with homeschoolers and selective admissions?

She is also going to ask around locally.

Edited June 4, 2022 by JazzyMom

[daijobu]

Everyone loves a redemption story.  (Something for her to think about when she enters film school.)  Applications may even specifically ask for an essay on the topic of overcoming a challenge or failure.  

In any case, your student should write about what she learned from the experience.  Did she over extend herself?  Did she change her study habits going forward?  Did she need to read RMP first?  😉

Edited June 5, 2022 by daijobu

[Lori D.]

10 hours ago, JazzyMom said:

...Her dd wants to go to an elite school, majoring in theater, film, journalism, or some other non STEM major...

4 hours ago, JazzyMom said:

...I am really out of my realm when it comes to selective admissions, so I recommended she speak to a college consultant re: future course selection, etc. Do any of you know of consultants who work with homeschoolers and selective admissions?...

Both @Sebastian (a lady) and @Barbara H on these boards are certified homeschool college consultants.

Posters above have already addressed the grade issue. My contribution is a bit of a tangent ;):

I really would encourage this family to consider WHY the big push for an "elite" or "selective" school? The student doesn't even know what she wants to major in at this stage. There's a really good chance that once she does decide on what she wants to do that an elite/selective school will NOT necessarily have the best program for that college major, or may not have the best additional opportunities to help her expand her studies.

As a result, I would suggest that their time, money, and efforts for the next few years of high school would be FAR better spent on career exploration, and exploring opportunities, extracurriculars, volunteering/community service, and other methods of discovering and building interests -- which in turn, may be the very thing to open doors to the perfect future college (elite/selective or not). 

Also, it would be a good idea for the family to explore college costs now, and determine what fits their budget. Unless this is a high income family where money is no object, elite/selective schools generally come with a very high price tag, and only the very top academic scholars and the low income/minorities tend to land the scholarships. Even good liberal arts colleges come with a hefty price tag any more -- but there are often more opportunities for scholarships there.

Edited June 5, 2022 by Lori D.

[JazzyMom]

Thank you both!  Good advice!

[easypeasy]

Agreeing with everyone above - the colleges will see the "C" so she needs to learn from the experience and move on... making sure they don't make that error in judgment again if they truly want her to apply to selective schools!

Colleges do love a redemptive story arc, so hopefully she can create that story line for her applications! 🙂

[catz]

I mean the vast majority of schools will require an official transcript out of a DE institution.  You can do everything perfectly and not get into an elite school.  You may perfectly fit into some niche, have some unique piece of your app and have a less than stellar transcript and you may get in.  It's just hard to know.  

I do think if the rest of her transcript from DE is very high and she has 1 C, I do think every school has some hard graders and it won't matter too much.  I highly recommend checking rate my prof before registering for classes.  We forgot to do that last semester and my dd got one B after a sea of As and it was ALL over RMP about how his tests are poorly written and inconsistently graded.  🙄

As always, love thy safeties and go into the application process with an open mind.  I have found as a parent it's not great to focus on a particular school.  If this is a student that needs a lot of FA for college, that is a different consideration than just thinking a kid "needs" an elite school to succed.  Because that is just false.  

[mathnerd]

On 6/4/2022 at 6:55 AM, JazzyMom said:

Her dd wants to go to an elite school, majoring in theater, film, journalism, or some other non STEM major.

Her transcript from the college will contain that grade, so she could try addressing it as a Theater major who celebrates "Curiosity" (this is a big thing in admissions in elite schools these days, I hear) by venturing into areas like Biology and learning for the sake of learning even though she will be applying to colleges to specialize in the Humanities and Arts. That is one way for her to write about her experience, like @daijobu says, and thankfully her low grade this is in a subject not relevant to her Major at college.

[Farrar]

I actually think a kid messing up a bit (and this is not terrible for 9th grade DE) and then making big improvements almost looks better than just getting A's throughout. And that includes for these super competitives. It's WAY better than the other way around, that's for sure. 

Do not listen to any advice that suggests that you can change the grade for a DE course on a homeschool transcript. You CAN do this to some extent with other classes. Like, if your kid takes a co-op or semester online class, gets a C, but then you do additional components at home, you can combine the grades. But you can do that because there's nothing official about a homeschool course. With college, it's done. You'll just undermine your whole transcript to try to be like, we added to the college course. 

If she's really aiming high, especially in the arts, then having a big project or possibly an audition or portfolio, is going to be so much more key than the coursework or GPA. Which is not to say that those won't matter a lot too, just that they have more room for some foibles there than a student heading into a more academic major. In fact, a LOT more if she ends up going for film or drama where it's really all about the experiences and portfolio/audition in that area at most top schools.

[Roadrunner]

I would say if you wanted to major in Biology and got a C, probably not great, but for an arts kid, work on the portfolio. 
This is another reason so many recommend taking college classes in the areas of strength. Sorry you are dealing with this, but for a 9th grader art kid, you are probably fine. 

[JazzyMom]

Well, thankfully, it’s not my issue this time.  I told her I would ask because I wasn’t sure about the advice she was getting.  She has found all of the comments really helpful.

My oldest got a C in DE government.  Thankfully, it was 2nd semester of senior year, so it didn’t affect anything, but I learned to be careful with DE! 

Edited June 6, 2022 by JazzyMom

[easypeasy]

13 hours ago, JazzyMom said:

My oldest got a C in DE government.  Thankfully, it was 2nd semester of senior year, so it didn’t affect anything, but I learned to be careful with DE! 

I was always most nervous for my kids' DE grades in that second semester of senior year!! lol They are just DONE and even my very Type A kid had a couple assignments slip through unnoticed because she was so very over it already. 😁

[EKS]

My son got a C+ in DE Calculus 2.  I was horrified, but he got into his first choice fairly selective engineering school.

[Eos]

On 6/7/2022 at 3:53 AM, easypeasy said:

I was always most nervous for my kids' DE grades in that second semester of senior year!! lol They are just DONE and even my very Type A kid had a couple assignments slip through unnoticed because she was so very over it already. 😁

Senioritits is real!  Fourth and final kid I've made sure she will be done all coursework after three DE classes this fall.  I require a "senior project" for our homeschool so dd will do that, choir, and theater in winter.