B in a DE course - Is this a big deal?

[JazzyMom]

Ds is a rising sophomore.  He reclassified 9th grade year for athletic reasons.  Without that, he’d be a junior next year. He has A’s in DE engl 1, hist 1, hist 2.  These were taken in person.

Took DE engl 2 online this semester where you watch videos, read prof’s notes, and turn in assignments.  The prof was slow grading things, so ds was often turning in assignments with no feedback on previous assignments.  He had an A going into the final, but she dumped a few grades in there right before final grades were due, and he ended up with a B.  I don’t think this was an issue of ability but more of class format and not being able to make adjustments.

I am fine with it, but thinking about the future.  My dd took a bunch of DE but it was super important for her to have all A’s because she’s premed.  Ds is planning on majoring in engineering and not interested in medicine, so it doesn’t seem A’s are as crucial.

Ds a strong student and would prefer all DE courses.  I am requiring one more year of co-op for precal,  physics and history.  He’ll also do 4 DE courses (2 per semester).

After that, he wants to do all courses at the CC.  I *think* as a non premed, stem major it should be fine if he ends up with a few more B’s in DE courses, but wondering what you all think???

He has some really great stem EC’s but is not applying to any competitive schools. He’ll try for scholarships and if nothing comes back affordable, he can apply as a transfer.  Several public u’s in our state have auto admission for 3.5 CC gpa and above.

Edited May 17, 2023 by JazzyMom

[freesia]

I don’t think a B in a DE class in ninth grade will make any difference at all. FWIW, my do’s had a B on his transcript from a regular homeschool high school class in ninth grade and he got into several selective ( one very selective) schools and got amazing scholarships. I wouldn’t worry about it even one minute. 

[Gil]

No, a B in a DE course isn't a life-ruining event. I think that you're right to not worry about it.

If he's Preengineering, then he should be sure to guard his GPA in his core STEM courses as the Engineering school that he's aiming toward will care a lot more about his grades in classes like Calculus, Diff. EQ, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, etc than they will care about his grades in English, African American Literature, and Humanities.

[ByGrace3]

I asked this question last year and got mixed answers. Now that my dd is graduating, I am glad we continued with DE and didn't panic because of a B. My dd now has 38 college credits, all A's with one B in a lab and one B in A&P 2. Those are her only B's on her high school transcript and she took several rigorous online honors classes as well. I don't think it has anything to do with her ability to do the courses, she is just a kid who will occasionally get B's in hard courses. I do think future plans matter most. If you are headed to highly selective schools then it might matter, but for the rest of us, I can't see a random B hurting long term. 

My second child will have 2 B's from homeschool classes this year for 10th ugh. it is what it is. 

[JazzyMom]

37 minutes ago, ByGrace3 said:

I asked this question last year and got mixed answers. Now that my dd is graduating, I am glad we continued with DE and didn't panic because of a B. My dd now has 38 college credits, all A's with one B in a lab and one B in A&P 2. Those are her only B's on her high school transcript and she took several rigorous online honors classes as well. I don't think it has anything to do with her ability to do the courses, she is just a kid who will occasionally get B's in hard courses. I do think future plans matter most. If you are headed to highly selective schools then it might matter, but for the rest of us, I can't see a random B hurting long term. 

My second child will have 2 B's from homeschool classes this year for 10th ugh. it is what it is. 

Thanks so much for sharing this.  I went and found your thread.  Very helpful!

Ds feels he gets a lot more out of DE classes than co-op classes, and he wants to continue taking DE.  So I’ll just vet his classes and profs more closely in the future.

Someone brought to my attention that sometimes there is a gpa admission requirement for stem majors that is higher than the auto admit gpa, so that’s something I’ll have to look at and monitor, as well.

[Dmmetler]

Usually DE classes are weighted in public school. Check the schools he ends up applying to and see if they look at weighted GPA. If they do, make sure you weight his DE courses on his high school transcript. 

[Serenade]

On 5/17/2023 at 1:43 PM, JazzyMom said:

 I *think* as a non premed, stem major it should be fine if he ends up with a few more B’s in DE courses, but wondering what you all think???

He has some really great stem EC’s but is not applying to any competitive schools. He’ll try for scholarships and if nothing comes back affordable, he can apply as a transfer.  Several public u’s in our state have auto admission for 3.5 CC gpa and above.

FWIW, my son made a C in Calculus II when he was dual-enrolled,  and then another C in Calculus III as a full time student at the community college.   He still managed to get accepted directly into a decent mechanical engineering program, and he has done quite well there. He had a very good resume and application other than for those two C's.  He did NOT get into his first choice school, NC State, where he was waitlisted. He DID apply to engineering school as a transfer student with an Associate Degree with honors, and I know that helped him get accepted.  Just sayin' that a couple of B's (especially in non-technical classes!) shouldn't hurt your son if he is not applying to any of the extremely competitive schools.   

[EKS]

Unless he is trying for tippy top schools, it shouldn't matter.

It does mean that his college GPA will never be a 4.0.

[JazzyMom]

1 hour ago, Serenade said:

FWIW, my son made a C in Calculus II when he was dual-enrolled,  and then another C in Calculus III as a full time student at the community college.   He still managed to get accepted directly into a decent mechanical engineering program, and he has done quite well there. He had a very good resume and application other than for those two C's.  He did NOT get into his first choice school, NC State, where he was waitlisted. He DID apply to engineering school as a transfer student with an Associate Degree with honors, and I know that helped him get accepted.  Just sayin' that a couple of B's (especially in non-technical classes!) shouldn't hurt your son if he is not applying to any of the extremely competitive schools.   

Thanks for sharing!  This is helpful to hear.

[Corraleno]

On 5/19/2023 at 7:10 AM, EKS said:

It does mean that his college GPA will never be a 4.0.

Most colleges don't count grades from transferred classes in their GPA though, so once OP's DS is at the school where he will do his Bachelor's, he could still graduate with a 4.0 if he gets all As at that school. If he applies to grad/professional schools, they'll want to see the DE transcript, but I don't think grades for courses taken in HS are going to carry any weight compared to the GPA from the degree-granting school.

[EKS]

2 minutes ago, Corraleno said:

Most colleges don't count grades from transferred classes in their GPA though, so once OP's DS is at the school where he will do his Bachelor's, he could still graduate with a 4.0 if he gets all As at that school. If he applies to grad/professional schools, they'll want to see the DE transcript, but I don't think grades for courses taken in HS are going to carry any weight compared to the GPA from the degree-granting school.

I hope this is true.

[cintinative]

1 minute ago, Corraleno said:

Most colleges don't count grades from transferred classes in their GPA though, so once OP's DS is at the school where he will do his Bachelor's, he could still graduate with a 4.0 if he gets all As at that school. If he applies to grad/professional schools, they'll want to see the DE transcript, but I don't think grades for courses taken in HS are going to carry any weight compared to the GPA from the degree-granting school.

Can you elaborate on this a little? How would someone know how the courses are handled by a specific school? I always assumed that the grades would transfer with the courses.

 

[Corraleno]

1 hour ago, cintinative said:

Can you elaborate on this a little? How would someone know how the courses are handled by a specific school? I always assumed that the grades would transfer with the courses.

I think that policy is standard at most, if not all, schools. Both of my kids transferred courses for credit and that's how it was handled, and it's also what a lot of the general applying-to-colleges type websites say. For example, from bestcolleges.com:

"Will transfer credits impact my GPA? No, transfer credits will not impact your grade point average (GPA) at your new school. Although your previous grades matter for admissions decisions, transfer credits don't come with a grade designation. Your GPA will be a blank slate at your new institution."

It makes sense because most colleges that accept transfer credits either list the credit in terms of their own equivalent course (e.g. HIST 101 Western Civ 1 at School 1 gets credited as the closest equivalent, say HIST 201 Ancient and Medieval Europe, at School 2), or if there is no equivalent course it's just listed as General Credit. Either way, they're not going to list a grade for that course because the student didn't take the actual course that is listed on the transcript at the 2nd school. 

Here's a section of DS's transcript from his first semester. He transferred Western Civ 1 and Human Origins from ASU, and they are just listed as general History and Anthro credits with a grade of "K" which is what they use for transfer courses. The SOC 1101 credit was a CELP test, and the grade is listed as EM (Exam). (Note: the course listed as "Klingon" was actually titled "Klingon, Elvish, and Dothraki: The Linguistics of Constructed Languages," but it cracks me up that the shortened title makes it look like he studied Klingon as a foreign language, lol)

[Corraleno]

This is how the transfer credits from ASU are listed on DD's transcript. The course titles are those of the equivalent courses at her current school, not the original ASU titles, and the grades are listed as "TA" for transfer.

[Lori D.]

Agreeing with @Corraleno -- yes, often the credit transfers, but the grade/GPA does NOT transfer

When DS#1 did his MechE degree, he did the first 2 years at the local CC (as a college student, not DE), and then transferred to the local university. All of the credits transferred -- but with no GPA. Which is a shame, because he had a 4.0 GPA from the CC. He ended up doing very well at the university and had over 3.9 GPA for his university degree, so all was well. 😉

[Frances]

On 5/19/2023 at 7:10 AM, EKS said:

It does mean that his college GPA will never be a 4.0.

In general, I think that is a good thing. In my experience, some students let the quest for a 4.0 have undue influence on the courses they take or don’t take and this impacts the education they receive. I think it can be very freeing to get that first grade that is less than an A.

[Corraleno]

7 minutes ago, Frances said:

In general, I think that is a good thing. In my experience, some students let the quest for a 4.0 have undue influence on the courses they take or don’t take and this impacts the education they receive. I think it can be very freeing to get that first grade that is less than an A.

Totally agree with this!

[Corraleno]

On 5/17/2023 at 10:43 AM, JazzyMom said:

He reclassified 9th grade year for athletic reasons.  

A bit off-topic but is he in an NCAA-controlled sport and is he aiming for D1 or D2? If so, are you aware of all the NCAA requirements for homeschoolers?

[JazzyMom]

3 hours ago, Corraleno said:

A bit off-topic but is he in an NCAA-controlled sport and is he aiming for D1 or D2? If so, are you aware of all the NCAA requirements for homeschoolers?

He is in an NCAA controlled sport, but I’m not sure he will go D1 or D2.  I looked at all the NCAA stuff for my dd a few years ago, but probably need to look again just in case.  Thanks for mentioning it!