is grade deflation really hurting college admissions this year?

[Anonymous]

ED admissions has been a disaster for NCS.

Girls aren't even getting into safeties like W&M and GMU.

What the heck is happening?

[Anonymous]

Anyone familiar with UChicago Law’s grading system? It’s not A, B, C or 4.0 or X/100. I am not that familiar with it but if these schools want to deflate grades they need to develop a new system that they can argue better measures ability. It would take the ability of universities to cut students for certain gpa metrics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought all of the colleges knew about and respected the rigor of the big 3. Or are publics getting more rigorous and now colleges believe they are comparing apples to apples?

The issue is that raw incoming GPA matters more than before for a lot of colleges because (a) ranking systems (which colleges still care deeply about even though they might moan about them publicly) use incoming GPA in the rankings and (b) the increase in test-optional and no tests considered at all means incoming GPA is much more heavily weighted. Then Covid changed grading substantially in a lot of public schools in particular, leading to these schools where over half the class has 4.0+ and if they even calculate valedictorian (and a lot don’t), there are 100+ of them. Plus, a lot of the public schools have removed any barriers to AP classes, so kids can easily take 10-12 AP classes. Public schools aren’t getting more rigorous (as someone with kids in both, I’d argue the opposite is true), but grade inflation and the impact of the grade inflation has gone up.

Rigor depends on what the student chooses. But, if one child starts Algebra in 6/7 and another in 8/9, one child obviously has a more rigorous education.

yes, but the courses are heavily gate-kept. There is no "choosing" courses at NCS. You can't "choose" to take Algebra in 6th grade. In my daughter's class there was not a single current student who took Algebra 1 before 8th grade. NOT ONE. The school heavily gate keeps the courses. Then about 10 girls were allowed to take geometry before 9th grade in order to accelerate by one grade. You could not petition or beg to be allowed into this cohort. Parents got involved but could not sway the system--the SCHOOL CHOSE. You were either selected or you were not. These 10 girls were allowed to take a summer geometry course (of their own payment) and then were allowed to enroll in Algebra 2 in 9th grade.
Math is the only subject in which girls are accelerated or allowed to choose their classes prior to APs (which have since been eliminated). So there is now really no choice at all except in what subjects one takes as electives but there are not levels of courses with more or less rigor.

No, you also choose the school and if you want more rigor, you choose a more flexible school. That sounds pretty terrible for really smart kids. That doesn't sound like in the girls best interests to make really smart kids wait till 8th for Algebra. Is that for the school's needs or the girls? You have to assume all these girls are very smart to get into that school, so it makes no sense not to offer more. But, we found that pretty typical at most privates when we tried to transfer our child to a private. They said we'd have to hold our child back and they'd have to repeat math, do it privately or pay them extra for a tutor/private class.

Those of us with seniors chose NCS before APs were eliminated, before college admissions went TO, etc. It is an entirely different admissions landscape that our daughters are now trying to navigate. I know intellectually that there are a lot of great colleges that aren’t highly ranked. However, it is hard when you think about that fact that you spent $200,000 on a high school education (which is an unbelievable education!) and your daughter is scoring in the 99% on entrance exams and the best college admit they have is ranked around 150 on USNWR. The lower NCS GPAs are not reflective of their ability, effort and intelligence.

Can we refer back to this thread and this bolded sentence whenever someone says they aren't sending their kids to private schools solely for college admissions? That they don't care where their kids go to college, they just want their kids to have the great private education?

[Anonymous]

"Refer back" all you want but more than one person sends their kids to private school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought all of the colleges knew about and respected the rigor of the big 3. Or are publics getting more rigorous and now colleges believe they are comparing apples to apples?

The issue is that raw incoming GPA matters more than before for a lot of colleges because (a) ranking systems (which colleges still care deeply about even though they might moan about them publicly) use incoming GPA in the rankings and (b) the increase in test-optional and no tests considered at all means incoming GPA is much more heavily weighted. Then Covid changed grading substantially in a lot of public schools in particular, leading to these schools where over half the class has 4.0+ and if they even calculate valedictorian (and a lot don’t), there are 100+ of them. Plus, a lot of the public schools have removed any barriers to AP classes, so kids can easily take 10-12 AP classes. Public schools aren’t getting more rigorous (as someone with kids in both, I’d argue the opposite is true), but grade inflation and the impact of the grade inflation has gone up.

Rigor depends on what the student chooses. But, if one child starts Algebra in 6/7 and another in 8/9, one child obviously has a more rigorous education.

yes, but the courses are heavily gate-kept. There is no "choosing" courses at NCS. You can't "choose" to take Algebra in 6th grade. In my daughter's class there was not a single current student who took Algebra 1 before 8th grade. NOT ONE. The school heavily gate keeps the courses. Then about 10 girls were allowed to take geometry before 9th grade in order to accelerate by one grade. You could not petition or beg to be allowed into this cohort. Parents got involved but could not sway the system--the SCHOOL CHOSE. You were either selected or you were not. These 10 girls were allowed to take a summer geometry course (of their own payment) and then were allowed to enroll in Algebra 2 in 9th grade.
Math is the only subject in which girls are accelerated or allowed to choose their classes prior to APs (which have since been eliminated). So there is now really no choice at all except in what subjects one takes as electives but there are not levels of courses with more or less rigor.

No, you also choose the school and if you want more rigor, you choose a more flexible school. That sounds pretty terrible for really smart kids. That doesn't sound like in the girls best interests to make really smart kids wait till 8th for Algebra. Is that for the school's needs or the girls? You have to assume all these girls are very smart to get into that school, so it makes no sense not to offer more. But, we found that pretty typical at most privates when we tried to transfer our child to a private. They said we'd have to hold our child back and they'd have to repeat math, do it privately or pay them extra for a tutor/private class.

Those of us with seniors chose NCS before APs were eliminated, before college admissions went TO, etc. It is an entirely different admissions landscape that our daughters are now trying to navigate. I know intellectually that there are a lot of great colleges that aren’t highly ranked. However, it is hard when you think about that fact that you spent $200,000 on a high school education (which is an unbelievable education!) and your daughter is scoring in the 99% on entrance exams and the best college admit they have is ranked around 150 on USNWR. The lower NCS GPAs are not reflective of their ability, effort and intelligence.

NCS has not eliminated APs in language, math or science. That had been the plan, but they reversed course. Or has there been an announcement that I missed?

And no one at NCS chose NCS for upper school and had the rug pulled out from under them with APs. They kept them in place for four years after the announcement. You could have moved to public school so your daughter could take 16 AP classes to get that weighted GPA

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is certainly something very widely discussed.
TO and Covid grade inflation at many schools has turned everything on its head.
We will have to wait until RD but you are not the only one noticing this.
At another private school we are familiar with, the school recalibrated the grades so that what was a B+ is now an A to keep in line with other schools which grade more easily.
Time will tell I guess

Which school is this? Is it one of the big3?

No, a highly regarded private in another state

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought all of the colleges knew about and respected the rigor of the big 3. Or are publics getting more rigorous and now colleges believe they are comparing apples to apples?

The issue is that raw incoming GPA matters more than before for a lot of colleges because (a) ranking systems (which colleges still care deeply about even though they might moan about them publicly) use incoming GPA in the rankings and (b) the increase in test-optional and no tests considered at all means incoming GPA is much more heavily weighted. Then Covid changed grading substantially in a lot of public schools in particular, leading to these schools where over half the class has 4.0+ and if they even calculate valedictorian (and a lot don’t), there are 100+ of them. Plus, a lot of the public schools have removed any barriers to AP classes, so kids can easily take 10-12 AP classes. Public schools aren’t getting more rigorous (as someone with kids in both, I’d argue the opposite is true), but grade inflation and the impact of the grade inflation has gone up.

Rigor depends on what the student chooses. But, if one child starts Algebra in 6/7 and another in 8/9, one child obviously has a more rigorous education.

yes, but the courses are heavily gate-kept. There is no "choosing" courses at NCS. You can't "choose" to take Algebra in 6th grade. In my daughter's class there was not a single current student who took Algebra 1 before 8th grade. NOT ONE. The school heavily gate keeps the courses. Then about 10 girls were allowed to take geometry before 9th grade in order to accelerate by one grade. You could not petition or beg to be allowed into this cohort. Parents got involved but could not sway the system--the SCHOOL CHOSE. You were either selected or you were not. These 10 girls were allowed to take a summer geometry course (of their own payment) and then were allowed to enroll in Algebra 2 in 9th grade.
Math is the only subject in which girls are accelerated or allowed to choose their classes prior to APs (which have since been eliminated). So there is now really no choice at all except in what subjects one takes as electives but there are not levels of courses with more or less rigor.

No, you also choose the school and if you want more rigor, you choose a more flexible school. That sounds pretty terrible for really smart kids. That doesn't sound like in the girls best interests to make really smart kids wait till 8th for Algebra. Is that for the school's needs or the girls? You have to assume all these girls are very smart to get into that school, so it makes no sense not to offer more. But, we found that pretty typical at most privates when we tried to transfer our child to a private. They said we'd have to hold our child back and they'd have to repeat math, do it privately or pay them extra for a tutor/private class.

Those of us with seniors chose NCS before APs were eliminated, before college admissions went TO, etc. It is an entirely different admissions landscape that our daughters are now trying to navigate. I know intellectually that there are a lot of great colleges that aren’t highly ranked. However, it is hard when you think about that fact that you spent $200,000 on a high school education (which is an unbelievable education!) and your daughter is scoring in the 99% on entrance exams and the best college admit they have is ranked around 150 on USNWR. The lower NCS GPAs are not reflective of their ability, effort and intelligence.

Can we refer back to this thread and this bolded sentence whenever someone says they aren't sending their kids to private schools solely for college admissions? That they don't care where their kids go to college, they just want their kids to have the great private education?

Are you always unable to distinguish between one person and multiple people? That’s an unfortunate lack of sophisticated thought processes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought all of the colleges knew about and respected the rigor of the big 3. Or are publics getting more rigorous and now colleges believe they are comparing apples to apples?

The issue is that raw incoming GPA matters more than before for a lot of colleges because (a) ranking systems (which colleges still care deeply about even though they might moan about them publicly) use incoming GPA in the rankings and (b) the increase in test-optional and no tests considered at all means incoming GPA is much more heavily weighted. Then Covid changed grading substantially in a lot of public schools in particular, leading to these schools where over half the class has 4.0+ and if they even calculate valedictorian (and a lot don’t), there are 100+ of them. Plus, a lot of the public schools have removed any barriers to AP classes, so kids can easily take 10-12 AP classes. Public schools aren’t getting more rigorous (as someone with kids in both, I’d argue the opposite is true), but grade inflation and the impact of the grade inflation has gone up.

Rigor depends on what the student chooses. But, if one child starts Algebra in 6/7 and another in 8/9, one child obviously has a more rigorous education.

yes, but the courses are heavily gate-kept. There is no "choosing" courses at NCS. You can't "choose" to take Algebra in 6th grade. In my daughter's class there was not a single current student who took Algebra 1 before 8th grade. NOT ONE. The school heavily gate keeps the courses. Then about 10 girls were allowed to take geometry before 9th grade in order to accelerate by one grade. You could not petition or beg to be allowed into this cohort. Parents got involved but could not sway the system--the SCHOOL CHOSE. You were either selected or you were not. These 10 girls were allowed to take a summer geometry course (of their own payment) and then were allowed to enroll in Algebra 2 in 9th grade.
Math is the only subject in which girls are accelerated or allowed to choose their classes prior to APs (which have since been eliminated). So there is now really no choice at all except in what subjects one takes as electives but there are not levels of courses with more or less rigor.

No, you also choose the school and if you want more rigor, you choose a more flexible school. That sounds pretty terrible for really smart kids. That doesn't sound like in the girls best interests to make really smart kids wait till 8th for Algebra. Is that for the school's needs or the girls? You have to assume all these girls are very smart to get into that school, so it makes no sense not to offer more. But, we found that pretty typical at most privates when we tried to transfer our child to a private. They said we'd have to hold our child back and they'd have to repeat math, do it privately or pay them extra for a tutor/private class.

Those of us with seniors chose NCS before APs were eliminated, before college admissions went TO, etc. It is an entirely different admissions landscape that our daughters are now trying to navigate. I know intellectually that there are a lot of great colleges that aren’t highly ranked. However, it is hard when you think about that fact that you spent $200,000 on a high school education (which is an unbelievable education!) and your daughter is scoring in the 99% on entrance exams and the best college admit they have is ranked around 150 on USNWR. The lower NCS GPAs are not reflective of their ability, effort and intelligence.

Can we refer back to this thread and this bolded sentence whenever someone says they aren't sending their kids to private schools solely for college admissions? That they don't care where their kids go to college, they just want their kids to have the great private education?

Are you always unable to distinguish between one person and multiple people? That’s an unfortunate lack of sophisticated thought processes.

Right - I’m sure you would be fine with your 1500 SAT kid attending Ole Miss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought all of the colleges knew about and respected the rigor of the big 3. Or are publics getting more rigorous and now colleges believe they are comparing apples to apples?

The issue is that raw incoming GPA matters more than before for a lot of colleges because (a) ranking systems (which colleges still care deeply about even though they might moan about them publicly) use incoming GPA in the rankings and (b) the increase in test-optional and no tests considered at all means incoming GPA is much more heavily weighted. Then Covid changed grading substantially in a lot of public schools in particular, leading to these schools where over half the class has 4.0+ and if they even calculate valedictorian (and a lot don’t), there are 100+ of them. Plus, a lot of the public schools have removed any barriers to AP classes, so kids can easily take 10-12 AP classes. Public schools aren’t getting more rigorous (as someone with kids in both, I’d argue the opposite is true), but grade inflation and the impact of the grade inflation has gone up.

Rigor depends on what the student chooses. But, if one child starts Algebra in 6/7 and another in 8/9, one child obviously has a more rigorous education.

yes, but the courses are heavily gate-kept. There is no "choosing" courses at NCS. You can't "choose" to take Algebra in 6th grade. In my daughter's class there was not a single current student who took Algebra 1 before 8th grade. NOT ONE. The school heavily gate keeps the courses. Then about 10 girls were allowed to take geometry before 9th grade in order to accelerate by one grade. You could not petition or beg to be allowed into this cohort. Parents got involved but could not sway the system--the SCHOOL CHOSE. You were either selected or you were not. These 10 girls were allowed to take a summer geometry course (of their own payment) and then were allowed to enroll in Algebra 2 in 9th grade.
Math is the only subject in which girls are accelerated or allowed to choose their classes prior to APs (which have since been eliminated). So there is now really no choice at all except in what subjects one takes as electives but there are not levels of courses with more or less rigor.

No, you also choose the school and if you want more rigor, you choose a more flexible school. That sounds pretty terrible for really smart kids. That doesn't sound like in the girls best interests to make really smart kids wait till 8th for Algebra. Is that for the school's needs or the girls? You have to assume all these girls are very smart to get into that school, so it makes no sense not to offer more. But, we found that pretty typical at most privates when we tried to transfer our child to a private. They said we'd have to hold our child back and they'd have to repeat math, do it privately or pay them extra for a tutor/private class.

Those of us with seniors chose NCS before APs were eliminated, before college admissions went TO, etc. It is an entirely different admissions landscape that our daughters are now trying to navigate. I know intellectually that there are a lot of great colleges that aren’t highly ranked. However, it is hard when you think about that fact that you spent $200,000 on a high school education (which is an unbelievable education!) and your daughter is scoring in the 99% on entrance exams and the best college admit they have is ranked around 150 on USNWR. The lower NCS GPAs are not reflective of their ability, effort and intelligence.

Can we refer back to this thread and this bolded sentence whenever someone says they aren't sending their kids to private schools solely for college admissions? That they don't care where their kids go to college, they just want their kids to have the great private education?

I don't care where my kids go to college but they will go where we can afford which will be a state school as I am not ok with them taking out loans/debt. If we can do more great but I'd rather pay for graduate school. My spouse went to a no name school and has a good career. It really depends on the major.

We go back and forth about transferring to private school. We've done summer private classes and some are good and some, like last summer were the worst we've ever had so I cannot imagine spending $50-60K for that. And, we have the math issue since like those here are saying our child would have to backtrack math and they don't want to and I'd never force them to (nor did I push going this advanced but they choose it).

I want my kids to have a great education, public or private. My concerns with private are college admissions as schools only take in so many students per high school and you are competing against 100-200 or more similar students, some with far more money and connections who will get the edge. Let's be real. In public, you have 600-1000 in a graduating class with a huge mix of students so there is a better chance of getting into a school numbers-wise.

Private to me is better if they have a more formal education with books and textbooks which the public is very much lacking (but the last summer class we took did away with textbooks and it was awful at the private and the private school blew off complaints and didn't do anything so it cost us more money to hire a tutor to get through the class - in hindsight we should have just dropped the class as it was that bad). My child learns better with textbooks and a more formal style. But, the math track is a serious issue. But, after that class my child doesn't want private.

But, really, you are competing against 200 girls who are pretty similar so money, connections, and extra talents/sports will get chosen first.

You send your child to that school as it's a good fit for them and your family and it provides them a good strong high school experience. Not for college admission.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought all of the colleges knew about and respected the rigor of the big 3. Or are publics getting more rigorous and now colleges believe they are comparing apples to apples?

The issue is that raw incoming GPA matters more than before for a lot of colleges because (a) ranking systems (which colleges still care deeply about even though they might moan about them publicly) use incoming GPA in the rankings and (b) the increase in test-optional and no tests considered at all means incoming GPA is much more heavily weighted. Then Covid changed grading substantially in a lot of public schools in particular, leading to these schools where over half the class has 4.0+ and if they even calculate valedictorian (and a lot don’t), there are 100+ of them. Plus, a lot of the public schools have removed any barriers to AP classes, so kids can easily take 10-12 AP classes. Public schools aren’t getting more rigorous (as someone with kids in both, I’d argue the opposite is true), but grade inflation and the impact of the grade inflation has gone up.

Rigor depends on what the student chooses. But, if one child starts Algebra in 6/7 and another in 8/9, one child obviously has a more rigorous education.

yes, but the courses are heavily gate-kept. There is no "choosing" courses at NCS. You can't "choose" to take Algebra in 6th grade. In my daughter's class there was not a single current student who took Algebra 1 before 8th grade. NOT ONE. The school heavily gate keeps the courses. Then about 10 girls were allowed to take geometry before 9th grade in order to accelerate by one grade. You could not petition or beg to be allowed into this cohort. Parents got involved but could not sway the system--the SCHOOL CHOSE. You were either selected or you were not. These 10 girls were allowed to take a summer geometry course (of their own payment) and then were allowed to enroll in Algebra 2 in 9th grade.
Math is the only subject in which girls are accelerated or allowed to choose their classes prior to APs (which have since been eliminated). So there is now really no choice at all except in what subjects one takes as electives but there are not levels of courses with more or less rigor.

No, you also choose the school and if you want more rigor, you choose a more flexible school. That sounds pretty terrible for really smart kids. That doesn't sound like in the girls best interests to make really smart kids wait till 8th for Algebra. Is that for the school's needs or the girls? You have to assume all these girls are very smart to get into that school, so it makes no sense not to offer more. But, we found that pretty typical at most privates when we tried to transfer our child to a private. They said we'd have to hold our child back and they'd have to repeat math, do it privately or pay them extra for a tutor/private class.

Those of us with seniors chose NCS before APs were eliminated, before college admissions went TO, etc. It is an entirely different admissions landscape that our daughters are now trying to navigate. I know intellectually that there are a lot of great colleges that aren’t highly ranked. However, it is hard when you think about that fact that you spent $200,000 on a high school education (which is an unbelievable education!) and your daughter is scoring in the 99% on entrance exams and the best college admit they have is ranked around 150 on USNWR. The lower NCS GPAs are not reflective of their ability, effort and intelligence.

Can we refer back to this thread and this bolded sentence whenever someone says they aren't sending their kids to private schools solely for college admissions? That they don't care where their kids go to college, they just want their kids to have the great private education?

Are you always unable to distinguish between one person and multiple people? That’s an unfortunate lack of sophisticated thought processes.

Right - I’m sure you would be fine with your 1500 SAT kid attending Ole Miss.

Ole Miss, no as I will not let my kid go down south but I want them at our state school so we can comfortably afford college and graduate school and hopefully help them with their first car and possibly house. Nothing special about the Ivy's except if you are big law, business or medicine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought all of the colleges knew about and respected the rigor of the big 3. Or are publics getting more rigorous and now colleges believe they are comparing apples to apples?

The issue is that raw incoming GPA matters more than before for a lot of colleges because (a) ranking systems (which colleges still care deeply about even though they might moan about them publicly) use incoming GPA in the rankings and (b) the increase in test-optional and no tests considered at all means incoming GPA is much more heavily weighted. Then Covid changed grading substantially in a lot of public schools in particular, leading to these schools where over half the class has 4.0+ and if they even calculate valedictorian (and a lot don’t), there are 100+ of them. Plus, a lot of the public schools have removed any barriers to AP classes, so kids can easily take 10-12 AP classes. Public schools aren’t getting more rigorous (as someone with kids in both, I’d argue the opposite is true), but grade inflation and the impact of the grade inflation has gone up.

Rigor depends on what the student chooses. But, if one child starts Algebra in 6/7 and another in 8/9, one child obviously has a more rigorous education.

yes, but the courses are heavily gate-kept. There is no "choosing" courses at NCS. You can't "choose" to take Algebra in 6th grade. In my daughter's class there was not a single current student who took Algebra 1 before 8th grade. NOT ONE. The school heavily gate keeps the courses. Then about 10 girls were allowed to take geometry before 9th grade in order to accelerate by one grade. You could not petition or beg to be allowed into this cohort. Parents got involved but could not sway the system--the SCHOOL CHOSE. You were either selected or you were not. These 10 girls were allowed to take a summer geometry course (of their own payment) and then were allowed to enroll in Algebra 2 in 9th grade.
Math is the only subject in which girls are accelerated or allowed to choose their classes prior to APs (which have since been eliminated). So there is now really no choice at all except in what subjects one takes as electives but there are not levels of courses with more or less rigor.

No, you also choose the school and if you want more rigor, you choose a more flexible school. That sounds pretty terrible for really smart kids. That doesn't sound like in the girls best interests to make really smart kids wait till 8th for Algebra. Is that for the school's needs or the girls? You have to assume all these girls are very smart to get into that school, so it makes no sense not to offer more. But, we found that pretty typical at most privates when we tried to transfer our child to a private. They said we'd have to hold our child back and they'd have to repeat math, do it privately or pay them extra for a tutor/private class.

Those of us with seniors chose NCS before APs were eliminated, before college admissions went TO, etc. It is an entirely different admissions landscape that our daughters are now trying to navigate. I know intellectually that there are a lot of great colleges that aren’t highly ranked. However, it is hard when you think about that fact that you spent $200,000 on a high school education (which is an unbelievable education!) and your daughter is scoring in the 99% on entrance exams and the best college admit they have is ranked around 150 on USNWR. The lower NCS GPAs are not reflective of their ability, effort and intelligence.

Can we refer back to this thread and this bolded sentence whenever someone says they aren't sending their kids to private schools solely for college admissions? That they don't care where their kids go to college, they just want their kids to have the great private education?

I don't care where my kids go to college but they will go where we can afford which will be a state school as I am not ok with them taking out loans/debt. If we can do more great but I'd rather pay for graduate school. My spouse went to a no name school and has a good career. It really depends on the major.

We go back and forth about transferring to private school. We've done summer private classes and some are good and some, like last summer were the worst we've ever had so I cannot imagine spending $50-60K for that. And, we have the math issue since like those here are saying our child would have to backtrack math and they don't want to and I'd never force them to (nor did I push going this advanced but they choose it).

I want my kids to have a great education, public or private. My concerns with private are college admissions as schools only take in so many students per high school and you are competing against 100-200 or more similar students, some with far more money and connections who will get the edge. Let's be real. In public, you have 600-1000 in a graduating class with a huge mix of students so there is a better chance of getting into a school numbers-wise.

Private to me is better if they have a more formal education with books and textbooks which the public is very much lacking (but the last summer class we took did away with textbooks and it was awful at the private and the private school blew off complaints and didn't do anything so it cost us more money to hire a tutor to get through the class - in hindsight we should have just dropped the class as it was that bad). My child learns better with textbooks and a more formal style. But, the math track is a serious issue. But, after that class my child doesn't want private.

But, really, you are competing against 200 girls who are pretty similar so money, connections, and extra talents/sports will get chosen first.

You send your child to that school as it's a good fit for them and your family and it provides them a good strong high school experience. Not for college admission.

Which school had the terrible summer class and what kind of class was it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought all of the colleges knew about and respected the rigor of the big 3. Or are publics getting more rigorous and now colleges believe they are comparing apples to apples?

The issue is that raw incoming GPA matters more than before for a lot of colleges because (a) ranking systems (which colleges still care deeply about even though they might moan about them publicly) use incoming GPA in the rankings and (b) the increase in test-optional and no tests considered at all means incoming GPA is much more heavily weighted. Then Covid changed grading substantially in a lot of public schools in particular, leading to these schools where over half the class has 4.0+ and if they even calculate valedictorian (and a lot don’t), there are 100+ of them. Plus, a lot of the public schools have removed any barriers to AP classes, so kids can easily take 10-12 AP classes. Public schools aren’t getting more rigorous (as someone with kids in both, I’d argue the opposite is true), but grade inflation and the impact of the grade inflation has gone up.

Rigor depends on what the student chooses. But, if one child starts Algebra in 6/7 and another in 8/9, one child obviously has a more rigorous education.

yes, but the courses are heavily gate-kept. There is no "choosing" courses at NCS. You can't "choose" to take Algebra in 6th grade. In my daughter's class there was not a single current student who took Algebra 1 before 8th grade. NOT ONE. The school heavily gate keeps the courses. Then about 10 girls were allowed to take geometry before 9th grade in order to accelerate by one grade. You could not petition or beg to be allowed into this cohort. Parents got involved but could not sway the system--the SCHOOL CHOSE. You were either selected or you were not. These 10 girls were allowed to take a summer geometry course (of their own payment) and then were allowed to enroll in Algebra 2 in 9th grade.
Math is the only subject in which girls are accelerated or allowed to choose their classes prior to APs (which have since been eliminated). So there is now really no choice at all except in what subjects one takes as electives but there are not levels of courses with more or less rigor.

No, you also choose the school and if you want more rigor, you choose a more flexible school. That sounds pretty terrible for really smart kids. That doesn't sound like in the girls best interests to make really smart kids wait till 8th for Algebra. Is that for the school's needs or the girls? You have to assume all these girls are very smart to get into that school, so it makes no sense not to offer more. But, we found that pretty typical at most privates when we tried to transfer our child to a private. They said we'd have to hold our child back and they'd have to repeat math, do it privately or pay them extra for a tutor/private class.

Those of us with seniors chose NCS before APs were eliminated, before college admissions went TO, etc. It is an entirely different admissions landscape that our daughters are now trying to navigate. I know intellectually that there are a lot of great colleges that aren’t highly ranked. However, it is hard when you think about that fact that you spent $200,000 on a high school education (which is an unbelievable education!) and your daughter is scoring in the 99% on entrance exams and the best college admit they have is ranked around 150 on USNWR. The lower NCS GPAs are not reflective of their ability, effort and intelligence.

Can we refer back to this thread and this bolded sentence whenever someone says they aren't sending their kids to private schools solely for college admissions? That they don't care where their kids go to college, they just want their kids to have the great private education?

Are you always unable to distinguish between one person and multiple people? That’s an unfortunate lack of sophisticated thought processes.

Right - I’m sure you would be fine with your 1500 SAT kid attending Ole Miss.

Unable to understand statistics too? That’s rough, buddy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:[mastodon]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought all of the colleges knew about and respected the rigor of the big 3. Or are publics getting more rigorous and now colleges believe they are comparing apples to apples?

The issue is that raw incoming GPA matters more than before for a lot of colleges because (a) ranking systems (which colleges still care deeply about even though they might moan about them publicly) use incoming GPA in the rankings and (b) the increase in test-optional and no tests considered at all means incoming GPA is much more heavily weighted. Then Covid changed grading substantially in a lot of public schools in particular, leading to these schools where over half the class has 4.0+ and if they even calculate valedictorian (and a lot don’t), there are 100+ of them. Plus, a lot of the public schools have removed any barriers to AP classes, so kids can easily take 10-12 AP classes. Public schools aren’t getting more rigorous (as someone with kids in both, I’d argue the opposite is true), but grade inflation and the impact of the grade inflation has gone up.

Rigor depends on what the student chooses. But, if one child starts Algebra in 6/7 and another in 8/9, one child obviously has a more rigorous education.

yes, but the courses are heavily gate-kept. There is no "choosing" courses at NCS. You can't "choose" to take Algebra in 6th grade. In my daughter's class there was not a single current student who took Algebra 1 before 8th grade. NOT ONE. The school heavily gate keeps the courses. Then about 10 girls were allowed to take geometry before 9th grade in order to accelerate by one grade. You could not petition or beg to be allowed into this cohort. Parents got involved but could not sway the system--the SCHOOL CHOSE. You were either selected or you were not. These 10 girls were allowed to take a summer geometry course (of their own payment) and then were allowed to enroll in Algebra 2 in 9th grade.
Math is the only subject in which girls are accelerated or allowed to choose their classes prior to APs (which have since been eliminated). So there is now really no choice at all except in what subjects one takes as electives but there are not levels of courses with more or less rigor.

No, you also choose the school and if you want more rigor, you choose a more flexible school. That sounds pretty terrible for really smart kids. That doesn't sound like in the girls best interests to make really smart kids wait till 8th for Algebra. Is that for the school's needs or the girls? You have to assume all these girls are very smart to get into that school, so it makes no sense not to offer more. But, we found that pretty typical at most privates when we tried to transfer our child to a private. They said we'd have to hold our child back and they'd have to repeat math, do it privately or pay them extra for a tutor/private class.

Those of us with seniors chose NCS before APs were eliminated, before college admissions went TO, etc. It is an entirely different admissions landscape that our daughters are now trying to navigate. I know intellectually that there are a lot of great colleges that aren’t highly ranked. However, it is hard when you think about that fact that you spent $200,000 on a high school education (which is an unbelievable education!) and your daughter is scoring in the 99% on entrance exams and the best college admit they have is ranked around 150 on USNWR. The lower NCS GPAs are not reflective of their ability, effort and intelligence.

Can we refer back to this thread and this bolded sentence whenever someone says they aren't sending their kids to private schools solely for college admissions? That they don't care where their kids go to college, they just want their kids to have the great private education?

Are you always unable to distinguish between one person and multiple people? That’s an unfortunate lack of sophisticated thought processes.

Right - I’m sure you would be fine with your 1500 SAT kid attending Ole Miss.

Ole Miss, no as I will not let my kid go down south but I want them at our state school so we can comfortably afford college and graduate school and hopefully help them with their first car and possibly house. Nothing special about the Ivy's except if you are big law, business or medicine.

Okay- no Ole Miss. So you are okay with your 1500 SAT kid going to Christopher Newport or Mary Washington? Because UVA, W&M and VT are not going to let your 3.2 kid in, but maybe JMU will if you get REALLY lucky. I am just saying that it is different when you are actually experiencing the rejections and deferrals.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:ED admissions has been a disaster for NCS.

Girls aren't even getting into safeties like W&M and GMU.

What the heck is happening?

Maybe ED slots are being given to athletes, URM, and legacies. They will get in for regular decision of it is anything like last year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ED admissions has been a disaster for NCS.

Girls aren't even getting into safeties like W&M and GMU.

What the heck is happening?

Maybe ED slots are being given to athletes, URM, and legacies. They will get in for regular decision of it is anything like last year.

To clarify the above is for many colleges and not just NCS students. Last year that was the trend. URM, first gen college kids, athletes, and legacies go the ED spots. Many kids got in regular decision but the thing is you have to take a chance and be patient and that can be difficult to wait.