Dropping a middle school B+

[Anonymous]

If middle school grades don't count, this whole thread is moot

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is weird is that you are so desperate for your child to appear perfect. Let it go.

100%. What is the point of this post? Your child is perfect and will have zero issues getting acceptances at great schools. Leave this forum to us that have legitimate questions like my 3.3 student! Your 4.0 student is probably great so why are you worrying?

I am not worrying. I’m simply asking a question. Again, I do not care that they have a B. It has been communicated as an option and we hadn’t considered it until finding out about this option so was asking if anyone had experience with it. Again, I am not trying to make my child be perfect nor do they feel that way. They are not perfect and have their struggles just like everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If middle school grades don't count, this whole thread is moot

HS classes taken in middle school DO COUNT 100%. I’m sitting here looking at my kid’s transcript and those grades are on there.

[Anonymous]

Yes, fight it.

To those who are horrified, I understand. But I also guess that you don't have kids in the throes of college applications. Unfortunately the volume of applications is so large now that MANY schools use algorithms to screen applicants. As a parent of a kid who is not remotely competitive for top schools, I've seen that a single decimal point up or down on GPA makes a huge difference in terms of college options.

And yes, some college admissions processes will recalculate only to academic GPA and/or strip out MS grades. But definitely not all schools, so you can't count on that. And no kid's college options should be constrained over a B in 6th grade French.

BTW MCPS changed its policy a few years ago to address this issue head-on. However, it was only applied to students entering MS. They've just changed it so that it applies to all students who were in MS at the time of the change: https://go.boarddocs.com/mabe/mcpsmd/Board.nsf/files/C3VMNQ5A0290/$file/20210610%20Resolution%20Reg%20IKC-RA.pdf

[Anonymous]

In FCPS, there is a 9 week window at the start of freshman year when you can expunge any middle school grades from the high school transcript. After that 9 weeks, they are on there forever.

[Anonymous]

Reading this because I randomly clicked on it. I have a 6th grader and we're being warned against middle school algebra since it will count on college applications. We are APS, to the extent that matters. Seems unclear whether it does or doesn't count based on this thread.

[Anonymous]

We are APS. OP here. You can remove the grades later in HS. Son is a rising junior and this is why I posted here. Most 8th graders take algebra if not advanced for 7th grade algebra. I would not wait until 9th for Algebra unless your child has a specific weakness in math.

[Anonymous]

Whether it appears on your transcript/gets included in your GPA is going to depend on your particular school system and how they handle grades for middle school classes with high school credit. But regardless of that, most colleges only care about grades from high school itself, and they will recalculate the applicant's GPA for the core HS courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Woah. My oldest is going into 7th grade. I wasn't even going to start worrying about anything until HS. Do colleges look at MS grades? And if so, why in the name of god would they do that???

HS level courses do count towards your HS GPA, even if taken in middle school. Foreign languages, math starting at Algebra, and World Geography (in APS). Plus some other electives like computer science I think.

Understood. I had no idea.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son has straight A’s and a 4.2 GPA (with AP extra point) in all HS classes. However he got one B+ in 8th grade French 2. If he drops the grade/credit he will still have 4 (maybe 5) years of French including one year of AP. Would it be weird that his transcript would be missing French 2? Would it be worth it for this one small GPA bump?
He’s a rising junior.

Since when can parents go in and adjust a kid's transcript? That's the strangest concept I've ever heard of. OP, you shock me. Let it go! Do you really think a (just) good grade in 8th grade French is going to sink your kid???

[Anonymous]

There is a process in place to drop middle school grades if you want. Parents don’t just go in and do it. It’s been around for a while and it’s an option available to all APS high schoolers. You don’t have to retake the class to reject the grade. When I was at a freshman orientation someone was asking about rejecting a B and was told you could still go on to the next level of class (for example, geometry) and reject a B from algebra as long as you had enough math credits for the diploma at the end. You don’t have to retake the class because a B shows you are proficient enough to move on, even if you don’t like what it does to your GPA.

[Anonymous]

To freak everyone out more, we dropped all high school classes taken in middle school and the grades were all As. Even too many As will bring the GPA down.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To freak everyone out more, we dropped all high school classes taken in middle school and the grades were all As. Even too many As will bring the GPA down.

? Can you explain how GPA is affected by too many A's?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To freak everyone out more, we dropped all high school classes taken in middle school and the grades were all As. Even too many As will bring the GPA down.

? Can you explain how GPA is affected by too many A's?

They water down AP/IB As which get extra point

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Relax people! Not trying to send any message to my kid. I don’t care if they got a B. But the option is there to take it off and it may be worth it to do that depending on where they decide they want to go to college. That’s all. Thx.

We are always sending messages to our kids.

Some parents just don't realize that.