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3 years ago
Admissions Advice

Will my chances at getting into an Ivy league school be affected?
Answered

During 8th grade, I had a chance to take a summer class and I chose a language. I failed horribly because I wasn't really into it. My counselor told me that it would be on my transcript but won't accept my gpa. I'm currently in the IB program (pre ib, since Im a freshman), and taking a different language, which I'm passing. Will the failing grade ruin my chances?

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13
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2 answers

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Accepted Answer
3 years ago[edited]

Most colleges only consider your 9th -12th transcript so it depends on what summer you are talking about. The summer before 9th grade is considered 9th grade, not 8th grade. But the summer after 7th grade is considered 8th grade. If you failed the summer school class in your Summer 9th session, then colleges will see this on your transcript. However, if it was just 8th grade, then I don't think it will matter too much but you need a good explanation.

If you are applying to Ivy League schools, you must have a good reason for failing this subject. Stating that you "weren't into it" is not a good reason regardless of your maturity level at age 13. And when you state that you are taking a different language which you are passing, what exactly does that mean? Are you getting an A, B, C, or D? These are all passing grades BTW but 3 out of 4 of them are not Ivy League worthy.

"Just passing" is more worrisome than the 8th-grade debacle so you need to address this new problem before it gets out of hand. You do not wish for a dark cloud over your transcript that you will not be able to erase. Keep in mind that Ivy league schools prefer students with 4 years of language, 3 minimum.

Each year admission rates are getting tougher and tougher and there are always more students applying to Ivies so you really need a 3.9 minimum unweighted GPA to be competitive. That means about 1 or 2 Bs maximum depending on how many classes you take each year of high school. And typically, your higher-level IB classes are much much harder than a language, so you are not giving yourself much room for error in the rest of your high school coursework if languages are your weakness.

I wish you the best, but there is no way out of doing a better job in this area of your academic rigor if you want to be a contender.

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-6
3 years ago

Yes, if you are applying to an Ivy league.

NO if it's a subpar school, such as public universities like University of Michigan.

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