The Eagle's Nest

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Dear Babs,

I got into my top choice col­lege, Vil­lanova Uni­ver­sity, early ac­tion. I’m super-​​excited, but this year I’m not do­ing too well in cal­cu­lus. I have mostly A’s with some B’s for all my other courses, but I’ve been get­ting a steady C+ in calc this year, even though last year I got a B in trig. It said in my ac­cep­tance let­ter that it was pend­ing my fi­nal tran­script. Do you think they will re­scind my offer?

—Calc Co­nun­drum

Dear C.C.,

Schools al­ways in­clude the clause that col­lege ad­mis­sions de­ci­sions are pend­ing your fi­nal tran­script. This is to en­sure that you don’t to­tally slack off se­nior year and barely pass. While you should aim to main­tain your GPA, one bad course shouldn’t hurt your col­lege ad­mis­sions chances. Cal­cu­lus is hard; you’re not the first per­son to get a C+, trust me!

You do want to make sure your GPA stays within their col­lege ac­cep­tance rates re­quire­ments. If you need a 3.2 to get in, don’t let your GPA drop be­low that. If you’re still re­ally wor­ried, you can ask your school coun­selor to in­clude a let­ter ex­plain­ing why you had such dif­fi­culty along with your tran­script at the end of the year. Men­tion that you went af­ter school for ex­tra help and stud­ied hard, but that cal­cu­lus was just very chal­leng­ing. They should understand.

Got a ques­tion for Babs? E-​​mail her at dearbabs@campuscompare.com, or log on to read more at www​.cam​pus​com​pare​.com.

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Dear Babs appears every Thursday on The Eagle's Nest