How bad does two D's look?

[SWATRACE]

Hey, i am on the pre-vet track. On my freshman, I got a D on my biology course. and since i shaped up and got mostly A and B until this semester on my junior year, I got a D on my orgo chem 2. I plan on retaking both courses and getting A's and continuing on my pre-vet track. I just want to know how bad this looks on transcript. I know this forum is brutally honest and idk.. i guess i just want someone to pep talk me and tell me to shape up. Bad grade guilt, I guess. Thanks for any response. Good luck on your studies

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[StartingoverVet]

How bad do 2 D's look?
Better than 3 D's
Not as good as 0 or 1 D's.

Honestly, there is no response here. Your application will be looked at overall, and if it is lacking then two D's will look bad, if it is a strong application then 2 D's can be ignored.

Focus on what you can control. Get good grades going forward, get good experiences, be a well-rounded applicant.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Two Ds in science classes is definitely not good, but it isn't a death sentence either as long as you retake them both, excel in them, and have a strong application otherwise.

 

[Skimble]

Some schools will accept your replacement grade to calculate your GPA while others will take an average between to the two courses, so if you got a 1.5 and a 4.0 the adcoms will see the class grade as 2.75. So you may want to focus on schools that allow grade replacement and make sure you do well in those retakes.

 

[LetItSnow]

I've always thought DDs looked pretty good, myself......

 

[Gemgrrrl]

I know this forum is brutally honest and idk.. i guess i just want someone to pep talk me and tell me to shape up. Bad grade guilt, I guess. Thanks for any response. Good luck on your studies

Shape up @SWATRACE! What were you thinking?? Two D's?? Damn... if I get a B I'm all like...

(Actually, I'm just kidding. You can recover. Just don't get any more bad grades.)

 

[LetItSnow]

Hey, i am on the pre-vet track. On my freshman, I got a D on my biology course. and since i shaped up and got mostly A and B until this semester on my junior year, I got a D on my orgo chem 2. I plan on retaking both courses and getting A's and continuing on my pre-vet track. I just want to know how bad this looks on transcript. I know this forum is brutally honest and idk.. i guess i just want someone to pep talk me and tell me to shape up. Bad grade guilt, I guess. Thanks for any response. Good luck on your studies

I liked SOV's response the most cause he kinda hit the nail on the head. Are the Ds bad? Well, yeah. Sure. Cause you could have gotten Cs, Bs, or As. But so what? Don't get any more, round out the rest of your app, and stick with what you can control. Maybe if it turns out to be a problem you can re-take them and focus on applying to schools that will replace the first grade. *shrug*

But don't feel guilty. Just look at it as a learning experience to apply yourself more.

 

[Minnerbelle]

How bad do ---- look?
Better than -----
Not as good as -----

+1000

Outside of drug issues, arrest records, and institutional action, I feel like this answers 80% of these types of questions.

Just fill in:

Withdrawals
Only x hrs of xxx experience
GRE score/gpa
Etc...

 

[LyraGardenia]

Maybe if it turns out to be a problem you can re-take them and focus on applying to schools that will replace the first grade. *shrug*

Most likely the OP will need to retake the classes if they're pre-reqs. A lot of schools require at least a C in all prerequisite courses.

 

[LetItSnow]

Most likely the OP will need to retake the classes if they're pre-reqs. A lot of schools require at least a C in all prerequisite courses.

Oh for sure. And I'm not really up on what pre-reqs are any more. But I don't recall orgo 2 being a requirement (at least, back when I went through), and the bio pre-req could be picked up by another bio class. But yeah, it goes without saying that they have to be re-taken if they are pre-reqs that can't be covered by other classes.

 

[battie]

I'll give you one better. An F in Organic I and a D in Developmental Biology, both retaken for a B and (unfortunately a C). Got waitlisted at Kansas.

The big deal is applying strong and smart. If you have a poor GPA (like me), you need to excel at other areas and apply to schools that play to your strengths.

 

[LetItSnow]

I'll give you one better. An F in Organic I and a D in Developmental Biology, both retaken for a B and (unfortunately a C). Got waitlisted at Kansas.

The big deal is applying strong and smart. If you have a poor GPA (like me), you need to excel at other areas and apply to schools that play to your strengths.

Don't even start trying to play the one-up game: I had to submit a transcript to UMN CVM from UMN (undergrad) with a GPA of 0.0. Needless to say, that was kinda embarrassing.

 

[battie]

Don't even start trying to play the one-up game: I had to submit a transcript to UMN CVM from UMN (undergrad) with a GPA of 0.0. Needless to say, that was kinda embarrassing.

There's a story here just waiting to be told. lol.

 

[LetItSnow]

There's a story here just waiting to be told. lol.

Nah, not really. I was mostly just teasing you. I mean, the transcript thing is true. But it was quite a number of years earlier. And UMN (at least when I applied) only looked at last-45 credits and pre-req credits - neither of which applied to that 0.0 transcript. So in the end, I was a great academic candidate in spite of a really super-checkered academic past. It was still embarrassing to have to send them that transcript, though. Along with my other early-undergrad transcript that had ... I forget ... something like a 1.5 GPA? But skip forward two decades and my recent transcripts were 4.0 or very close.

I will say this... recognizing that I'm just one data point... I applaud schools that evaluate like UMN does. They gave me a chance in spite of a really bad early academic background because I proved in my pre-reqs and last-45 credits that I could do sufficiently well academically. And I survived vet school just fine. I wasn't top of my class, wasn't bottom of my class. I got 2 C's in vet school and the rest were a mix of A's and B's. Won't impress anyone, but I was never in danger of failing or anything scary like that. I'm working (at least for now) at a place that rarely hires new grads.

So I think UMN's approach to evaluating a candidate's academic likelihood of success works well. And I think schools that insist on looking at your overall GPA are missing the boat on some potentially good candidates.

 

[battie]

I'll keep them in mind as I am making my final three choices for schools to apply to. .

 

[Jonah93]

Retake them and show marked improvement. As long as your grades show a general upward trend and they see you retook those classes and did much better you should be ok... Just don't make those D's a habit ok?

 

[Soon2bedogtor]

Some schools will accept your replacement grade to calculate your GPA while others will take an average between to the two courses, so if you got a 1.5 and a 4.0 the adcoms will see the class grade as 2.75. So you may want to focus on schools that allow grade replacement and make sure you do well in those retakes.

Do you know which schools do which?

 

[Skimble]

Do you know which schools do which?

I know Penn averages, I think Cornell does too. You'd have to check the websites of the school's you are interested in.

 

[rockatiel]

Improve, strengthen your app, that's all you can do. I made 3 C's in one semester, two in prereqs solely because I needed to grow up a little. 2.4 GPA. I worked pretty hard and I have two interviews this cycle. And I'll graduate cum laude. If you straighten up and put school first from here on out, you'll be fine. But the ball is in no ones court but yours. Don't depend on a fickle, ever-changing adcom to decide your future. Do every little possible thing on your end.