OP, I'm sorry but it's very unlikely that she will get in RD to an Ivy. Her GPA and SAT were on the low side for an unhooked female at UVA. Last year, the incoming class had a 1510 at the 75th percentile, meaning 25% of the rest of the class had a higher score. Also, the 75th percentile for GPA was a 4.51 and a 4.38 at the median, which puts her in the bottom half of the class. Bear in mind also that the stats of the accepted (not those that actually show up) class is even higher because some of those student do peel off and go to Ivy or elite SLAC. I'm sorry but that's just the way it is. Didn't your counselor show you SCHEV? Where did your student compare to others in their own high school class on Naviance?
FWIW my UVA kid had a 36 and was no 1 in his class with top ECs. He got into UVA EA but not a single Ivy RD .... nor did his friends. White, unhooked. It's brutal out there. Start with talking to your counselor; submit more applications; if you have to, consider a gap year. Community college and the guarantee program is wonderful but gets poor play here. |
NP. FCPS certainly has some funky grading policies post-covid, but the impact of their policies on high acheiving students, the kind who would get into UVA, IMO is negligible. Unless the policy has changed since last year, retake grades max out at an 80%, even if a kid's score is 100%. Kids with high GPAs aren't typically the ones getting 80% on assessments and then pulling As in the classes. Also grade inflation is not the same thing as grade weighting. Just because you hear a student has a 4.3 GPA, that isn't inflation per se, that's weighting. In FCPS, to get into UVA, you have to be amongst the strongest students in your school. At Langley HS last year that GPA hovered around a 4.5. That's no different than local privates who might grade on a 4.0 scale. UVA also wants kids to take the most rigorous course load, which does lead to kids cramming in APs in FCPS. Which sucks. |
For SOME WEIRD REASON though super scoring is fine and taking the SAT seven times is okay too. If Larla can take the ACT twice and superscore why can’t she take the Chem final twice and superscore? It’s the same thing. |
They see how many times you took the test. Superscore includes all the full tests from every exam you are using scores from. And, honestly, nobody I know took the SAT/ACT more than twice--which is typical. But, yes, pay for a private college counselor, have the essay coach write your essay, craft 'your narrative', get your kid more time to take the standardized test which they don't need---then they bomb it and just apply TO with your inflated GPA. Scores are the least manipulated. Studies show it is not possible to raise your scores significantly. They are usually minor--and if there is big jump they will pull you up to review for cheating. |
Duh. False equivalents. A final exam after a full year spent in the actual course learning facts and concepts that will be on the Final exam is very, VERY DIFFERENT from basically an intelligence test covering a wide range of different skill sets. But, I would hope you understood that. |
Interesting take. Especially when it comes to the mandatory SAT/ACT purists. |
This may be true at some FCPS schools, but not where I teach. Students can retake and pull their grades up to an A. It's decided by CT so it could vary depending on the class. |
I hope you didn't go to UVA ![]() |
+1 Some really defensive parents on this thread. Same in APS. |
Kids who are out sick always get to retake tests, they turn a zero into a not-zero. Kids who don’t like their SAT score can retake no excuse needed all they like. Teachers love to give out “practice tests” and “open book tests” to high performers. How about grading curves where everyone failed the test but will you look at that B and A for everyone. I personally had those in AP classes. The real problem here is that if everyone can retake like that then what’s special about their kids - that they are great test takers - becomes meaningless. |
Can’t wait for the word salad where we all learn how letting a kid take Test A infinite times and throwing out the lowest score is DEFINITELY NOT like letting a kid take Test B several times and throwing out the lowest score. Hint: it will involve “special circumstances” for “high performers” and “you just don’t understand it’s okay when my kid does it because they are smart not like your ADHD snowflake who is cheating” |
Legit: -Super scoring -Multiple tries of SAT/ACT - Take both SAT and ACT and submit only the better performing tests -Just not taking the AP exam if you don’t feel like it or you know you will bomb it -Open book exam -Test optional applications to Ivies three years after COVID Not legit: -I was feeling really under the weather that day, I know that I know this material and you know it too from my class performance. Can I please have a limited do-over to bring my one bad score up? All my other tests went fine. |
I didn’t know it was an intelligence test! That can’t be studied for. Someone alert Kaplan and Princeton Review. We get it. The special smart kids always get all the retakes they want for their college admissions tests. Yeah, Duh. If everyone can take the test twice then there is zero advantage to being right first. The game changes completely, so people who are good game players suddenly can lose. If some kids in the class were actually dumber it wouldn’t matter how many times they took the test because they just couldn’t master the material. If JUST ONE EXTRA TRY for the poor performers is enough to equalize everyone’s scores then it turns out some of those kids aren’t actually smarter at all. |
+100 |
By allowing infinite bites at the apple and giving the answers for corrections, every snowflake looks identical. There are no longer different. This is why the college application process has become so crazy and there are so many more applicants at every school. Scores and grades pre-inflation era--used to weed out kids from applying to every school out there. Kids with scores and gpas nowhere in range for a university used to not apply. There were differences in applicants. Now everyone looks identical. You will have 250 out of 650 kids at a HS with above a 4.0 GPA, taking identical classes and then when not submitting scores---how are they distinguished? We give everyone single kid a trophy now, the true superstars no longer look any different from the masses. |