Someone posted 50 percent of HS Seniors have a 4.0?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe this true. My DS went to a public CA HS with 2000+ students. 3.8 uw was top 10%. 4.2 w was top 10%. But the majority of kids weren’t taking APs, maybe some honors. Top 50% was probably around 3.3 to 3.5 w, not much higher for w because kids take less APs and honors the farther down you go.

Even at so called most rigorous CA high schools, like Lynbrook in San Jose, 20% students have a 4.0 UW GPA. South Great Neck in Long Island have an unusually high percentage of straight A graduates as well. This is a nation-wide problem. Your HS is an outlier.

Lynbrook is majority Asian. No one steps into a classroom unless they have mastered the class through external means already. College admissions are too competitive to risk not getting straight As.

[Anonymous]

3 kids who have gone through the process. My take is kids are just smarter and more academically focused than my generation. Look at SAT scores. They are definitely higher than when I was in HS

The problem is not grade inflation. Kids are taking more academically challenging classes than ever before. Dual enrollment not really a think back in my day. There were maybe 8 AP classes, not the variety they have today. And all the DE/AP classes carry GPA bumps. Mathematically that’s going to increase GPAs over 4.0. I think the race to get into colleges that pushed kids to take many AP/DE classes to get the grade bump that did it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure source, if someone knows, I’d love to see. This is the problem, there is no way, if true, that there isn’t rampant grade inflation. Which does everyone a disservice, really.

If "someone posted" this it absolutely must be true!!

[Anonymous]

DD's school is on a 4.3 scale unweighted. That's because they have plus/minus grades and an A+ (97 or above) is 4.3. But if you compare that with schools on a 4.0 scale, it is unfair due to the fact that the window to achieve an A+ is so slim and getting straight A+ is virtually impossible. Plus you need a 93 to get an A, so if you get an A- (90-92), that weighting is 3.7.

She's currently a 4.3 weighted and in top 20% of her class (school doesn't rank) Her UW is 3.96. Both APs and honors only get a .5 bump. AP classes are not available to students until junior year, so my DD will only take 6 AP classes total.

This is why colleges really need to understand the school profile and grading system when evaluating applicants. If you compare her to an MCPS student without context, the MCPS student will blow her away in admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:3 kids who have gone through the process. My take is kids are just smarter and more academically focused than my generation. Look at SAT scores. They are definitely higher than when I was in HS

The problem is not grade inflation. Kids are taking more academically challenging classes than ever before. Dual enrollment not really a think back in my day. There were maybe 8 AP classes, not the variety they have today. And all the DE/AP classes carry GPA bumps. Mathematically that’s going to increase GPAs over 4.0. I think the race to get into colleges that pushed kids to take many AP/DE classes to get the grade bump that did it.

This is true in public schools. The race for APs is over the top. So glad my kid will top off at 6 APs because APs are restricted to juniors and seniors at her school. The public schools (the ones in wealthy areas) are true pressure cookers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:3 kids who have gone through the process. My take is kids are just smarter and more academically focused than my generation. Look at SAT scores. They are definitely higher than when I was in HS

The problem is not grade inflation. Kids are taking more academically challenging classes than ever before. Dual enrollment not really a think back in my day. There were maybe 8 AP classes, not the variety they have today. And all the DE/AP classes carry GPA bumps. Mathematically that’s going to increase GPAs over 4.0. I think the race to get into colleges that pushed kids to take many AP/DE classes to get the grade bump that did it.

SAT performance isn't higher. SAT scores dropped and the scoring scale inflated and the test got a lot easier and a ton of students got more time. (Note, I think everyone should get more time)

What's happening is that high achievrs at concentrating in a few small areas and competing with each other. It's not a large fraction of people. It's 3% at most, competing to be the 1%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe this true. My DS went to a public CA HS with 2000+ students. 3.8 uw was top 10%. 4.2 w was top 10%. But the majority of kids weren’t taking APs, maybe some honors. Top 50% was probably around 3.3 to 3.5 w, not much higher for w because kids take less APs and honors the farther down you go.

Even at so called most rigorous CA high schools, like Lynbrook in San Jose, 20% students have a 4.0 UW GPA. South Great Neck in Long Island have an unusually high percentage of straight A graduates as well. This is a nation-wide problem. Your HS is an outlier.

Lynbrook is majority Asian. No one steps into a classroom unless they have mastered the class through external means already. College admissions are too competitive to risk not getting straight As.

Every high school in the bay area have 20% or even higher % of straight As. Albraham Lincoln for example. Doesn't matter a high ranking or low ranking school, Asian or Latino majority. I mentioned Lynbrook afraid someone would say oh rigor schools are different. No they aren't different. It's a wide spread nation wide issue.