MCPS transcript questions - what do colleges see?

[Anonymous]

Debated about whether to post this in the College and University Discussion forum but landed here instead since my questions seem to be MCPS-specific.

DC is a high school junior and, with the third quarter closing soon, it's crunch time for grades, with an eye toward shoring up the transcript for college applications in the fall.

Some questions:

- In terms of what colleges see and care about, should DC be focused on final semester grades or full-year course grades? DC's most recent Student Grades and Graduation Credit Report shows only semester grades for each class, for all classes taken so far in high school. No full-year final class grades show up. Perhaps that is because DC is taking all one-semester courses (e.g. Honors Chemistry A the first half of the year and Honors Chemistry B the second half)?

Trying to be strategic about which borderline classes DC should devote more time and energy to in the fourth quarter; if what counts is the final year-long grade then DC has more wiggle room in several classes. If it's the semester grade, then in some classes where DC had a bad third quarter it is more of a long shot for DC to pull up second semester grades with a strong fourth quarter.

- GPA and Weighted GPA are based on the semester grades, correct? How do final year grades enter into it, if at all?

- Is it correct that it remains the case that if a student has an 89.5 percent average for, say, a semester grade, then that semester grade rounds up to 90, which would be an "A"? Or would the 89.5% get marked on the transcript as a "B"?

I hate the hyperfocus on grades but since everything we encounter about the college admissions process suggests that colleges care a lot about GPA and rigor, then it seems sensible for DC to try to be strategic about how to approach fourth quarter work in classes where DC could maintain or reach an A.

TIA!

[Anonymous]

Transcripts do not have year end grades. That is not a thing in MCPS. Only semester grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Transcripts do not have year end grades. That is not a thing in MCPS. Only semester grades.

Thanks, PP.

That was my impression, too.

Which is why I was a little confused by MCPS Regulation IKA-RA on Grading and Reporting:
https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/detail.aspx?recID=224&policyID=IKA-RA§ionID=9

The PDF of the most recent version of this regulation is here: https://ww2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/departments/policy/pdf/master%20ika-ra.pdf

Toward the bottom of page 4 (of 19 pages in the PDF), it reads, in part:

e) The final course grade is determined by calculating the average of
the numeric grades from each marking period.
i. Missing work is assigned a numeric grade value of zero and
included in the calculation.
ii. For semester-long courses, the final grade is the average of
the two marking period grades. This is calculated by adding
the numeric grades from both marking periods and dividing
the sum by two.
iii. For full-year courses (or courses spanning four marking
periods), the final grade is the average of all four numeric
grades, calculated by adding the grades and dividing the total
by four.

But then I didn't see anything corresponding to a full-year grade on DC's previous transcripts. I know they changed the grading policies in MCPS last year so I was wondering if this was a thing.

Thanks for your response. I'm going to assume semester grades are what matters and what colleges see.

[Anonymous]

DP. There are some full year courses in middle school. But high school courses, including those taught during middle school, are all semester length.

[Anonymous]

89.5 for the semester rounds up to an A.

[Anonymous]

This may be helpful:

[Anonymous]

Thank you, PPs!

-OP

[Anonymous]

Do you all know when the student has to make the election of whether HS classes taken in MS count in the GPA? I assume for some kids even As in middle school foreign language would drag down their weighted GPA if they are considered non-honors classes. But it might not be obvious if the effect would be positive or negative in 8th/9th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you all know when the student has to make the election of whether HS classes taken in MS count in the GPA? I assume for some kids even As in middle school foreign language would drag down their weighted GPA if they are considered non-honors classes. But it might not be obvious if the effect would be positive or negative in 8th/9th grade.

The default setting now is that the unweighted middle school classes are listed on the transcript, but they are excluded from the WGPA calculation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do you all know when the student has to make the election of whether HS classes taken in MS count in the GPA? I assume for some kids even As in middle school foreign language would drag down their weighted GPA if they are considered non-honors classes. But it might not be obvious if the effect would be positive or negative in 8th/9th grade.

The default setting now is that the unweighted middle school classes are listed on the transcript, but they are excluded from the WGPA calculation.

Clarifying: the unweighted middle school classes for high school credit (such as Algebra 1 and first and second year languages) are listed on the transcript but the grades are excluded from the WGPA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you all know when the student has to make the election of whether HS classes taken in MS count in the GPA? I assume for some kids even As in middle school foreign language would drag down their weighted GPA if they are considered non-honors classes. But it might not be obvious if the effect would be positive or negative in 8th/9th grade.

Isn't it that they're automatically excluded if they decrease the HS GPA and automatically included if they increase it?

[Anonymous]

A few things that might help
1. only semester grades count
2. Middle school courses for HS credit show up on the transcript unless they are retaken for credit later. E..g my kid got a B on one semester of Spanish 2 in MS that showed up on official transcript.
3. Colleges may recalculate the WGPA themselves.
4. Having a 4.0 unweighted in college admissions is not the slam dunk you think it is. Other admissions factors like a high SAT + high rigor + essay can make up for a be Bs. Likely with new grading system there will be less grade inflation so even more the case moving forward.

[Anonymous]

lso, in addition to the transcript you might want to have a look at your high school's school profile. This will give you an idea on the GPA bands that are (unfortunately) provided.

One of my kids was at a magnet school that had 68% of the kids in the upper WGPA band. At my other kids non-magnet, this band was only 20%. So in the end, even though my older kid had a 4.0 UW their GPA helped them less than my 3.9 UW kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A few things that might help
1. only semester grades count
2. Middle school courses for HS credit show up on the transcript unless they are retaken for credit later. E..g my kid got a B on one semester of Spanish 2 in MS that showed up on official transcript.
3. Colleges may recalculate the WGPA themselves.
4. Having a 4.0 unweighted in college admissions is not the slam dunk you think it is. Other admissions factors like a high SAT + high rigor + essay can make up for a be Bs. Likely with new grading system there will be less grade inflation so even more the case moving forward.

Wouldn't the new grading system provide colleges with more assurance that a high GPA in MCPS truly is reflective of exceptional work, since it made it harder to get an A?

In general, though, I agree that SATs, essays and ECs are all important pieces of the admissions puzzle at most selective colleges and universities.

- OP