Do 9th grade grades really count?
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Anonymous
| Of course!! 12th grades don't really count. |
Anonymous
| Depends on the school. A while ago I heard Stanford didn't, but I don't know how accurate that was or if it is still the case. Ask the schools you're interested in. |
Anonymous
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They count. They aren't as important as the other grades, though. We went through this, with my son.
Plenty of kids struggle and figure it out. I'd worry more about why your kid isn't thriving than whether this counts for college. First you have to solve the immediate problem. If you were hoping for Harvard, that takes hitting the ground running. |
Anonymous
How sad is this that Bs in rigorous courses are a bad thing. |
Anonymous
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"9th grade counts the least. Junior year is the most important
This. A couple freshman Bs might not sink you if you stay on most rigorous course and sophomore and junior improve. A couple junior abs is a problem. How sad is this that Bs in rigorous courses are a bad thing." Some colleges will tell you that 9th grade counts the least, however, that comes with a large BUT. The but is that many HS won't let you into the most rigorous 10th grade classes with Cs in 9th grade. It's not sad that Bs in rigorous classes are a bad thing. It's just different than when parents went to HS. In my HS (and college and grad school) most grades were determined based on a curve. So 3 out of 30 got As, about 12 got Bs, about 12 got Cs and 3 got Ds or Fs. In that class, a B was not a bad thing. Today most class grades are set up so that an A means you mastered the material, a B suggests intermittent mastery (say no more than 50%) and a C partial mastery. Ds and Fs are likely students who show partial mastery but only attempt certain fractions of the material. Class difficulty is set so that the curve should be 15 As, 10 Bs and 5 Cs. I don't mean to imply that distribution is always or even often met. What I'm trying to point out is that in a 10 question test, the 2 hardest questions from our schooling are no longer asked. The test is not designed to separate good from great students. Both good and great students should get As. |
Anonymous
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They count.
HOWEVER, if you want to make lemonade out of lemons, another thing that counts is what the child's trend line looks like over time. College admissions people understand that sometimes kids "get it" at different times, and an upward trend line is going to be interesting to them. |
Anonymous
This is 1/2 correct. The second half of 12th grade counts the least |
Anonymous
For RD schools, first semester do. |
Anonymous
| Do 10th and 11th grades count? |
Anonymous
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A means excellent
B means good Don’t Believe everything the people on this forum say |
Anonymous
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If your kid has taken courses in middle school that earn high school credits then they will be included in the GPA that will go to the colleges. In MCPS, these are usually foreign language courses as well as Math courses that are usually a year or two accelerated, that students take in middle school, and some of them are Honors courses. Ask your counselor about it.
If you are applying to colleges for Early Admissions (EA) or Early Decisions (ED), in October and November, in the beginning of 12th grade, then the GPA will also include - HS credits earned in MS, 9, 10 and 11 grade grades. You will not be able to include the grades from 12th grade because no semester grades will be available, however, you will list the courses that you are taking in 12th grade. If you are applying to colleges for Regular Admissions, you GPA will include HS credits earned in MS, 9, 10, 11 and 1st Semester of 12th grade. You will also list the names of the courses you are taking in your 2nd semester of 12th grade. All grades count but trends are important too. So it is better to get a C in Math in 9th, a B in 10th and an A in 11th - rather than the reverse. In the college, the fluff courses will be discarded and the core subjects GPA will be recalculated, weighted in the way the college thinks is important. So the grades in PE and Art and Health will not be relevant. English, Math, Science, Foreign Language, History grades will be weighted and recalculated. |
Anonymous
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It's October! It's still a long ways from the end of the semester, let alone the year end grade. And really far away from even having a sense of what kinds of colleges might fit your DC.
The independent schools know that expectations have ramped up and the 9th graders have an adjustment period. It is vey common for students to suddenly get grades they've never seen before but end up with perfectly fine grades on their transcript. They'll let you know if they think there is an issue that needs attention and you'll get an update at the parent/teacher conference mid-term. |
Anonymous
At most places yes. At the very competitive schools, try getting in with all “goods”. |
Anonymous
| No one said all B’s |
Anonymous
| EXcellent schools look for excellent grades, it is really not that complicated |