Colleges for students with a C average?

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Are there any colleges or post-secondary programs in the United States at all that would accept students with a C average? Or colleges/post-secondary programs that may accept students who haven't done AP or honours classes, or are on a reduced course load and/or who will graduate from special education programs that are less demanding than regular classes? From what I have found it seems like the majority of colleges in the USA other than community colleges or open admissions colleges want students with at least a B average....

Personally I don't really think college is a 'must' even for students with good grades, but there may be students with lower grades or learning an adapted or reduced curriculum who want to go to college, and there are also certain professions that require a college degree.

Also, is there a limit on how many hours a week can you work while studying at university, especially if you are working to help pay for tuition and expenses?

How hard or easy is it to get accepted to college in the United States if you are applying as a mature student with work experience? Are there any colleges in the United States that may take into account work experience and/or waive application requirements for a mature student? If so, does the work experience have to be relevant?

Which colleges in the United States offer more specialised study even in the first semester, and which colleges offer more generalised study or only specialise starting in the third semester?

*In case anyone is considering college/post-secondary or post-high school programs for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, such programs do exist (e.g. University of Iowa REACH, Think College). Such programs usually seem to focus more on practical and life skills and not lead to a degree, although in a few colleges/universities there may be additional support services beyond the typical ADA accommodations available for typically admitted college students pursuing a degree who have disabilities such as autism, ADD/ADHD or learning disabilities, usually for an extra fee in addition to college tuition (e.g. Hofstra University PALS, Pace University OASIS, CSU East Bay College Link Program).
 
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Take Heart

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You can always upgrade your marks like I did : )
For me, I upgraded my marks by taking a program (in college btw) which they called "Pre-Health". That program was only 3 months long and by the help & grace of God, helped me get great marks and into the honor roll. So from there, the college applied my marks to get into the nursing program at the same college that I took the prehealth program which included math, bio, chem, and English. So look into your college website or even better, call their office number and inquire about any programs to upgrade your marks so that you can apply to whatever program you're interested in. Definitely pray for guidance in what He wants you to pursue. <3
 
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You can always upgrade your marks like I did : )
For me, I upgraded my marks by taking a program (in college btw) which they called "Pre-Health". That program was only 3 months long and by the help & grace of God, helped me get great marks and into the honor roll. So from there, the college applied my marks to get into the nursing program at the same college that I took the prehealth program which included math, bio, chem, and English. So look into your college website or even better, call their office number and inquire about any programs to upgrade your marks so that you can apply to whatever program you're interested in. Definitely pray for guidance in what He wants you to pursue. <3

Well, I can't really upgrade my marks until my final exam.

If you have a relatively decent SAT score, would colleges be more likely to accept students with lower grades?
 
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tampasteve

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Ok, that is a lot of questions together, I will try and answer them as best as I can.
Are there any colleges or post-secondary programs in the United States at all that would accept students with a C or even D average?
Colleges and Universities generally will not accep students with a C or D average. Some Community College or State colleges might accept students with a C average, but it varies by school.

Secondary programs likely will accept C average students. Think vocational programs like medical progams for CNA (nursing assistant), EMT (emergency medical technician), mechanics programs, etc. B

Or colleges/post-secondary programs that may accept students who haven't done AP or honours classes, or are on a reduced course load and/or who will graduate from special education programs that are less demanding than regular classes? From what I have found it seems like the majority of colleges in the USA other than community colleges or open admissions colleges want students with at least a B average....

You are correct, they want a B average. Special education progams and university admission is different, but you still have to have good grades in those classes and meet the minimum requirements by the school.
Personally I don't really think college is a 'must' even for students with good grades, but there may be students with lower grades or learning an adapted or reduced curriculum who want to go to college, and there are also certain professions that require a college degree.
I agree. A college or university degree is not a necessity, but education of some sort generally is. One can make a great living as an AC technician, electrician, paramedic, etc. - but these do require education.
Also, is there a limit on how many hours a week can you work while studying at university, especially if you are working to help pay for tuition and expenses?
There is a pracical limit, but that depends on the person. Many people work full time and attend school at night full time. I personally could not commit to that schedule. If I were working full time and going to school I think I could max out at around 9 credit hours a semester. Some grants/scholarships dictate the amount of hours one can work.
How hard or easy is it to get accepted to college in the United States if you are applying as a mature student with work experience?
You still have to provide your high school transcripts, diploma or GED, and any relevant college transcripts.

Are there any colleges in the United States that may take into account work experience and/or waive application requirements for mature student? If so, does the work experience have to be relevant?
Yes some so, and yes the experience must be relevant to the program you are trying to get into. Some schools accept real world experience, but in general you will still need to test into the program you are trying to get into. Most schools allow you to test out of some classes and receive credit. I tested out of my history requirement in university by passing a test to receive the credit for the class.
Which colleges in the United States offer more specialised study even in the first semester (which is what I think I would want if I go to college next year), and which colleges offer more generalised study or only specialise starting in the third semester?
Mostly vocational or certificate programs. Colleges or university programs are not designed that way, in general.
 
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Dave-W

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Most community colleges (2 year) will take any resident within their city/county as long as they graduated high school. If your grades are good there you can transfer to a 4 year institution.
 
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tampasteve

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Well, I can't really upgrade my marks until my final exam. Also, I am not in the U.S. High School system, and I don't know why you need 70% to get a C in the U.S (which seems relatively high to me), or why in some schools in the US apparently you get an F even if you get more than half of the test correct
Because even at 70% that means you did not understand 30% of the material. If you get less than that you likely cannot continue to build on that material. Education is a process of building, if 30% or more of your foundation is lost, then you can't keep building.
If you have a relatively decent SAT score, would colleges be more likely to accept students with lower grades?
Decent SAT and poor grades will not get one into a college. At minimum you need decent grades and a good SAT or ACT score.
 
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tampasteve

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Most community colleges (2 year) will take any resident within their city/county as long as they graduated high school. If your grades are good there you can transfer to a 4 year institution.
That's true, but even then if you made poor grades in high school, you likely will not make it in community college. One is better off to go for a certificate or vocational program in something that will earn decent money than fail out of a 2 year school, IMO.
 
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Because even at 70% that means you did not understand 30% of the material. If you get less than that you likely cannot continue to build on that material. Education is a process of building, if 30% or more of your foundation is lost, then you can't keep building.

Decent SAT and poor grades will not get one into a college. At minimum you need decent grades and a good SAT or ACT score.

What would be considered 'decent' grades and a 'good' SAT or ACT score?
 
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dgiharris

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I have to be brutally honest... If you graduated high school with a C or D average college just isn't for you.

You might as well say, "Hey, I'm fat and out of shape and I can barely walk-trot-run-trot-pant-jog-walk a mile in 15 minutes. Are there any college level Division I basketball teams that will let me join???

Yes, you can find exceptions to the rule, you can dig deep and find some lazy smart kid who coasted through high school with a C-average then got serious in college and graduated top of his class... Or you can find an anecdote of some high school drop-out who went on to form his own company and make millions...

Yes, there are always exceptions.

but for the vast majority of us mere mortals, sorry, we are not the exception to the rule, the brutal honest statistics apply to us. And the truth is, if you graduate high school with a C or D average the odds are 20 to 1 that you would be destroyed in college.

High School spoon feeds you-- College does not. College does not care whether you do your homework or not, they will fail you without blinking and without the Dead Poet's Society speech about reaching deep within yourself to find your spirit animal and give it the good ol college try...

Not only is college harder, but the bell curve shifts 1/2 to 1 standard deviation to the right. What I mean is that in high school, you've got a decent percentage of kids that really don't care, who are really just going through the motions because society says they must go to school.

When high school ends, those kids go to Vocational Schools, join the military, work a trade job, get into construction, etc etc. So the majority of the kids that got the bad grades or so-so ho-hum grades leave the population pool. Thus, college is filled with the Scholastically Smart kids and/or kids that are highly motivated and want to go to school. Not to say there aren't slackers in college, sure there are, but no where near the number that exists in highschool, it is easily a factor of ten less.

What this means is that if you are a C or D high school student and you go to a typical college, you are actually at the far left of the bell curve and have a serious uphill battle to climb.

So what can a C or D high school student do?

Go to Community college and/or a prep school. Essentially, you need to retake all your high school senior level courses and get A's and B's in them. Now, in Community College they will give those courses different names, but they will just be dressed up versions of High School senior level courses. Get A's and B's in those courses and now you've caught up to the next cycle of high school graduates. Then you can start at a normal college more on a level playing field.
 
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dgiharris

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Decent SAT and poor grades will not get one into a college. At minimum you need decent grades and a good SAT or ACT score.

Not true.

If you get a good SAT or ACT score there are colleges that will admit you if you have a C average. To be clear though, I'm not talking about a slightly better than average SAT or ACT score. No, you need a SAT or ACT score that puts you in the top 25% or better. Do that, and there are plenty of colleges that will shrug and admit you.

Not saying you'll get a scholarship, and not saying you'd get into the really competitive colleges, but a good SAT or ACT score is good enough to get you into many "okay" colleges. You'd need to have a really good essay about how/why your grades sucked so bad and how you will do better in college.

FWIW, I used to teach an SAT prep course (back in the 90s) and the best I could do with a student with a C or D average was add 250 points to their score which sad to say would barely get them to the average (and this took serious round the clock studying for 8 weeks). Back when I took the SAT the max score in each category was 800. 800 for the math and 800 for the verbal/quantitative for a perfect score of 1600 (not sure what it is nowadays).

The minimum that colleges would take back then was 800, and that was mostly for athletes. for "normal" kids the minimum a lot of colleges would take was 900 and the average was around 1000. The C and D kids I tutored struggled to get to 900 and 1000 was more or less the best they could do with months and months of studying.

I tutored around 20 kids total, most of them athletes and most of my athletes struggled to make that minimum 800 (sad to say) :(
 
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If a student with a C average in high school gets accepted into a college (e.g. state university), and attends, what can that student do to increase their chances of passing university courses and reduce their chances of being academically disqualified? How hard do you think university would be for that student, assuming they tried hard in high school courses and had no significant family and/or personal responsibilities or circumstances that affected their academic performance in high school?
 
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Mtol117

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Generally colleges won’t accept C-D students

“Generally”

I was accepted into a good school and I had a 2.3 GPA in high school and an 1110 on the new SAT. In high school I was in remedial classes.

Ever here I am struggling, the last 2 semesters I was on the verge of being kicked out or not having the financial means to go back but I prayed to god and I’m still here.


I don’t think there is a limit to how much you can work, but I work for my university and they limit us to 15 hours a week

I don’t think many colleges offer specialized courses during the first semester. That’s something you start doing your junior year and for good reason. You need the intro courses and core classes to set a foundation for your studies
 
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Generally colleges won’t accept C-D students

“Generally”

I was accepted into a good school and I had a 2.3 GPA in high school and an 1110 on the new SAT. In high school I was in remedial classes.

Ever here I am struggling, the last 2 semesters I was on the verge of being kicked out or not having the financial means to go back but I prayed to god and I’m still here.


I don’t think there is a limit to how much you can work, but I work for my university and they limit us to 15 hours a week

I don’t think many colleges offer specialized courses during the first semester. That’s something you start doing your junior year and for good reason. You need the intro courses and core classes to set a foundation for your studies

Thanks, I'm glad things worked out for you so far!

I believe some universities offer financial aid or partial scholarships which may not necessarily have a GPA requirement to apply (just in case that is something anyone wants to look into), or you can apply for student loans which you have to pay back.

I believe that some state universities may consider a C average at least for in-state students, but one may need a higher SAT score.

I think university courses in some places such as the UK are more specialised. Also, in the UK you can apply to a foundation degree or a degree with a foundation year (which is an extra year preparing you for Year 1 of your degree) if you don't meet the regular admission requirements for Year 1 entry of a Bachelor's degree (just in case anyone is considering studying in the UK).
 
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Like others have said, community colleges accept you if you have a highschool diploma or ged.
To stay in the university you would need to maintain at least a C average and some programs may require higher grades.

At least in my community college I was usually able to retake any classes I failed or dropped which were replaced with the new grades and only reflected that other grade in my gpa and transcript.

There are electives you can take that can help raise gpa a little as well by getting an easy A if you participate.

The best step is probably trying to raise your gpa and getting a C is fine, unless the class only counts in your program if it’s an A or B.

I don’t understand why people don’t like community colleges. Mine was good and I saved so much money by attending community college before transfering to a university. I also improved my grades in the time that I attended community college.
I was asked to join the honors program by my professor but my gpa was too low. So after that I worked to get my gpa up. I never got to join the honors program but at least I got my gpa up which helped in getting some grade based scholarships at my university.

I never took the SAT, because community colleges don’t require that.

If you want a specialized program then I would look around to different programs in the area. I did a specilized program at a community college where most people there were in their 40s or older. I was 20-21 years old and the youngest there. It could be done as a certificate or if general ed was completed it could be an Associates degree. I’ve seen a lot of programs like that offered around.
If you know what you want you can probably look around and see if there are any programs like that that interest you. There are a lot more online programs now too.
 
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Ada Lovelace

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Are there any colleges or post-secondary programs in the United States at all that would accept students with a C or even D average? Or colleges/post-secondary programs that may accept students who haven't done AP or honours classes, or are on a reduced course load and/or who will graduate from special education programs that are less demanding than regular classes? From what I have found it seems like the majority of colleges in the USA other than community colleges or open admissions colleges want students with at least a B average....

Personally I don't really think college is a 'must' even for students with good grades, but there may be students with lower grades or learning an adapted or reduced curriculum who want to go to college, and there are also certain professions that require a college degree.

Also, is there a limit on how many hours a week can you work while studying at university, especially if you are working to help pay for tuition and expenses?

How hard or easy is it to get accepted to college in the United States if you are applying as a mature student with work experience? Are there any colleges in the United States that may take into account work experience and/or waive application requirements for mature student? If so, does the work experience have to be relevant?

Which colleges in the United States offer more specialised study even in the first semester (which is what I think I would want if I go to college next year), and which colleges offer more generalised study or only specialise starting in the third semester?

*If anyone who is considering college options for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, such programs do exist (e.g. University of Iowa REACH, Think College). Such programs usually seem focus more on practical and life skills and not lead to a degree.

To echo what others have suggested, community college is a very viable option. The purpose of a community college is to make it accessible to the community as a whole, so they welcome the majority who are interested in attending with few barriers; the tuition is substantially more affordable; and there's a significantly higher portion of mature students and people who are holding full-time jobs. Many have partnerships with four-year universities in their state to make it simpler for students to transfer. In California it's called the TAG (Transfer Admission Guarantee); you must earn a strong GPA and fulfill the requirements to be eligible, but you essentially are starting with a fresh opportunity to build upon instead of your high school performance dragging you down.

If you're not interested in a community college, then look at colleges with high acceptance rates. Many Christian colleges admit more than 75% of those who apply. Houghton in NY, Wheaton in Illinois, Stamford in Alabama, Biola in California are all only mildly competitive for admission. Since they are private, they are more expensive.

Many Americans who are wanting to attend a residential college immediately but haven't been admitted to more competitive schools in the US have gone to Canada. Even as international students, the total cost of attendance is oftentimes lower than at many private colleges in the US or out-of-state tuition and fees. Universities that have high global rankings such as University of Toronto and UBC are still very competitive for admission, especially for specific majors. But there are some decent Canadian schools that will happily welcome in students who haven't performed as well in high school, especially in the province of New Brunswick. One of my friends who was rejected by 11 elite colleges in the US not only was admitted to the University of New Brunswick and Mount Allison but offered full scholarships at both.
A high school college admissions adviser actually described them as "do-over" schools for students with C averages who had the ambition to do better in college.
 
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I agree that it's probably not a good idea. But you need to look at the situation in your state. In mine, anyone can attend a community college, and if they do OK, transfer to any state university after 2 years. The universities have to accept credits from the community colleges, even if the courses aren't as rigorous.
 
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Well, I can't really upgrade my marks until my final exam.

If you have a relatively decent SAT score, would colleges be more likely to accept students with lower grades?

Yes. More likely to accept a student with a good SAT at a level of grade score than a student with a poor SAT at that same level. Why, may I ask, do you want to attend college? and Why would you say you ended up with a C average in High School? Some people here have seemed to assume that your grades in High School are predictive of your college performance but that is not really a sure predictor of college success or failure. There are many possible factors that might lead one to have lower scores in High School than they might be capable of earning and many factors that contribute to academic success at any particular educational level.
 
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Yes. More likely to accept a student with a good SAT at a level of grade score than a student with a poor SAT at that same level. Why, may I ask, do you want to attend college? and Why would you say you ended up with a C average in High School? Some people here have seemed to assume that your grades in High School are predictive of your college performance but that is not really a sure predictor of college success or failure. There are many possible factors that might lead one to have lower scores in High School than they might be capable of earning and many factors that contribute to academic success at any particular educational level.

I haven't graduated secondary school yet, so I don't know what my grade average would be yet.

As for going to college, frankly I am not completely sure whether I want to or will go to college/university next academic year or not yet, however other than the fact that there are some career paths I am considering that requires at least an associate's to bachelor's degree, I would also like to learn more about a certain subject. This may be quite silly, but I am also curious about what college (including the academic difficulty) is like and if I don't go I don't think I would know what college is like.

While there are also career paths that I have seriously considered, that while may not pay a large income, I think I may enjoy, do not require college I personally do not think college if I were to complete a degree would necessarily be a waste even if the career I end up doing does not require a college degree, since I could transfer knowledge to it especially if my chosen college major somewhat relates to the career. Were I to complete a college degree, although I am aware not all university graduates may necessarily be able to get jobs that require a college degree it may possibly also mean I have more options in terms of career choices.

I am aware that many colleges would academically disqualify you if your college GPA does not meet their requirement.

Another thing is, I feel like time is going somewhat fast, and I feel like I want some time before working in the same field for most of my life, though I know people often change jobs. I don't think this is really the issue I am facing since I do have some focused career interests, but I guess one way to decide what job to do is to try many different jobs, but I don't see how an employer would want to hire someone who only wanted to work for them for a month to see if it was right for them or for the experience, and I personally don't want to take years to decide what career field I am interested in.

A career path I have considered and which I think I may be interested in pursuing definitely requires at least a Bachelor's degree, though I guess I can work in lower-entry areas in the same field without college.

I do know that nearly nothing is guaranteed, including a college degree or career path.

Another factor is my parents' expectations (which I don't exactly know what they are) and whether or not they want me to go to college. If I were to go, it seems one of my parents would fund my college education as long as it is a college/university they would be happy to fund for.

So basically, one of the reasons, but not the only reason, I want to go to college is because one of the career paths I may be interested in pursuing requires a university degree.
 
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