Fall Semester Grades

SkyeUSMA

5-Year Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2013
Messages
3
Hello, I was just wondering what your opinion may be on this situation: I am a receiver of an LOA and a congressional nomination to West Point. However, something is troubling me: fall semester of my senior year. I have been a very strong student in high school up until this recent semester, I was in AP/IB courses and managed a 3.9 GPA throughout high school while doing 3 sports a year and community service. In order to further challenge myself senior year, I undertook many courses and extracurricular activities (ex. Academic Decathlon). Doing Acdec took a strain on my performance in school and in particular, my AP Calculus grade. I stayed after school every day and studied 4+ hours a day to try and understand it but honestly, I didn't balance my time correctly and I just didn't have time to learn AP Calculus. I ended up not passing =/ This is the first time in my life that I have ever failed ANYTHING much less a class. What I want to know is, will I be denied acceptance into WP now? For messing up one semester in school? Normally, I am actually a good math student (nothing below a b+) I'm not an incapable student. This was just a result of bad time management...
 
Hello, I was just wondering what your opinion may be on this situation: I am a receiver of an LOA and a congressional nomination to West Point. However, something is troubling me: fall semester of my senior year. I have been a very strong student in high school up until this recent semester, I was in AP/IB courses and managed a 3.9 GPA throughout high school while doing 3 sports a year and community service. In order to further challenge myself senior year, I undertook many courses and extracurricular activities (ex. Academic Decathlon). Doing Acdec took a strain on my performance in school and in particular, my AP Calculus grade. I stayed after school every day and studied 4+ hours a day to try and understand it but honestly, I didn't balance my time correctly and I just didn't have time to learn AP Calculus. I ended up not passing =/ This is the first time in my life that I have ever failed ANYTHING much less a class. What I want to know is, will I be denied acceptance into WP now? For messing up one semester in school? Normally, I am actually a good math student (nothing below a b+) I'm not an incapable student. This was just a result of bad time management...

I can't really say one way or the other. I do know you picked the worse course possible to screw up... AP Calculus. It was probably the best indicator of how you would do plebe year at the academy. Also, once you saw you were in trouble, why did you not drop other stuff to focus on the Calculus? Poor judgement there.

I don't mean to pick on you, but potentially others will be saying and asking these things. You need to be well prepared with your answers... if it even comes to that.

In the meantime can you repeat it this semester? Or is it too late.
 
It was too late to drop anything. I had to finish the semester. And I tried to get out of Acdec but that was also too late. I had to stick it out. And you don't need to apologize, I deserve the scolding. I'm disappointed in myself. All I could do was go to tutoring and try and understand it with the little time I had. This could bite me in the butt. But that F makes me look like I'm a bad student and I'm not. All I needed was time to understand it. You're right, such a good time to screw up... =\
 
Grades...

Thats a slug in the gut kid thats going to hurt. That grade will affect you in a few ways. It brought down your grade in a subject that is highly regarded. Two , your class standing has more weight than GPA. This could bring down you standing. Remember, that LOA is a golden ticket with conditions. There are cadets being separated left and right for not meeting academic standards at WP. Many post have said, they are not giving out many second and third chances at WP holding a very high standard at WP.

So in two weeks the flood gates will open and lets see what happens. I don't think anyone here on SAF can give an absolute answer.

Good Luck, really!

Push Hard, Press Forward
 
It was too late to drop anything. I had to finish the semester. And I tried to get out of Acdec but that was also too late. I had to stick it out. And you don't need to apologize, I deserve the scolding. I'm disappointed in myself. All I could do was go to tutoring and try and understand it with the little time I had. This could bite me in the butt. But that F makes me look like I'm a bad student and I'm not. All I needed was time to understand it. You're right, such a good time to screw up... =\

The problem is at the academy you have less time than high school to "understand" it. We go through what you all do in a semester in AP Calc in 1 month. Even to those of us who have never taken the course before.
 
The problem is at the academy you have less time than high school to "understand" it. We go through what you all do in a semester in AP Calc in 1 month. Even to those of us who have never taken the course before.

Exactly. If you can get overwhelmed and not be able to manage time to pass a class in HS, then the same thing can happen while at the Academy. Many people are being separated without second chances in academics due to downsizing now and "I just needed more time to understand and I'm a good student" did not save them.

You should learn from the experience and not let it happen again. Hopefully it was a one-time. It's probably too late to add it to your schedule if you haven't by now but I hope you decided to retake the class to show them that you learned from your mistakes and can perform well in the class.
 
Have you taken AP Chemistry or AP Physics? If you earned an A in either/both, that may help your case a little bit.

If I were in your shoes, this is what I would do ASAP. Get a tutor; study like crazy over the next 3 weeks and then take the Calculus CLEP test or preferably the College Board SAT Subject Test covering Calc. Neither of those 2 things will give you college credit, but if you score well they will show 2 things: 1. In the face of failure you work even harder and get it done 2. Show proficiency in Calc.

Neither of those things will make up for the F, but they will show a lot about your resolve to take care of business. Now is the time to stop making excuses for why you failed and start executing your plan to make it right.
 
No one can say for sure but I have seen people lose their appointment for similar actions. You want to be in the Army and West Point - I am not being mean but saying "I am a good student but had a time management problem" will not be looked on as a legitimate excuss.
It all depends on what your RC thinks. One solution is to talk to him (no weak excuses) and tell him what active, strong, effective steps you are doing to learn calculas.
Your time management issues will be 100 times more difficult at WP than your HS.
 
Your time management issues will be 100 times more difficult at WP than your HS.

@BigNick is right. By design, as a cadet at WP you will be asked to fit 20 lbs of workload and duties into a 15 lb day, and it will be up to you to make it all happen. DS is a plebe (Class of 2016) and tells us that personal time management is one of the top skills, if not the top skill, that has helped him survive at WP thus far. If you have not developed strong time management skills through the normal execution of your high school life -- academic, EC, athletic, or part time job commitments -- then you'll need to figure something out if you decide to go to USMA (or USNA, or USAFA, or USCGA ... any of the academies). You will get quickly buried if you don't.
 
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