Any uva ED rejects who got into better/icy schools during RD?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Student was never going to Brown or Georgetown. Or GW due to cost. Parents were limiting attendance to instate Virginia schools. Just being sneaky about it.

Wrong.

Brown’s average admit GPA is 3.9 and 4.3 for weighted.

Yale and Princeton cite 3.9 as their average incoming GPA.

It’s the crazy publics—-MoCO with their 5.0 scale and some Nova schools with unlimited AP courses (which the kids then can’t score a 4 or 5 at the end of the year on the exam).

What am I missing? You are conflating weighted with unweighted grades. The average weighted grade at an Ivy is not a 3.9.

And it's not above a 4.3 either!! That's my point. If you have an unweighted 4.0 with a minimum of 6-8 AP courses--you are more than fine for the top 10 schools. At UVA a kid like that would be cutoff, even with high scores because of the serious grade inflation in VA public schools (and multiple chances to retake exams and bring grades up--not realistic) and the need to be a grind and take 12-15 AP courses even when you can't pass the AP exams for them. That's the kind of student that ends up there.

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.

Correct on the retake policy, it’s impossible to get an A on that exam retake.

It’s designed to take a failing grade and turn it into a merely lousy one.

An 80 under the FCPS grading rubric is a B-

I think people applying to UVA or other highly selective schools should not be concerned about too many wildly inflated B minuses and C pluses floating around out there.

Not true. At my FCPS high school, kids are able to retake up to a an A.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Student was never going to Brown or Georgetown. Or GW due to cost. Parents were limiting attendance to instate Virginia schools. Just being sneaky about it.

Wrong.

Brown’s average admit GPA is 3.9 and 4.3 for weighted.

Yale and Princeton cite 3.9 as their average incoming GPA.

It’s the crazy publics—-MoCO with their 5.0 scale and some Nova schools with unlimited AP courses (which the kids then can’t score a 4 or 5 at the end of the year on the exam).

What am I missing? You are conflating weighted with unweighted grades. The average weighted grade at an Ivy is not a 3.9.

And it's not above a 4.3 either!! That's my point. If you have an unweighted 4.0 with a minimum of 6-8 AP courses--you are more than fine for the top 10 schools. At UVA a kid like that would be cutoff, even with high scores because of the serious grade inflation in VA public schools (and multiple chances to retake exams and bring grades up--not realistic) and the need to be a grind and take 12-15 AP courses even when you can't pass the AP exams for them. That's the kind of student that ends up there.

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.

Correct on the retake policy, it’s impossible to get an A on that exam retake.

It’s designed to take a failing grade and turn it into a merely lousy one.

An 80 under the FCPS grading rubric is a B-

I think people applying to UVA or other highly selective schools should not be concerned about too many wildly inflated B minuses and C pluses floating around out there.

Not true. At my FCPS high school, kids are able to retake up to a an A.

Thank you for being honest. It’s the same way at MCP. And frankly, I think that these colleges and universities are catching on and Virginia and Maryland are not the only states that have this practice of endless retakes. Illinois has it also. But no midterm exams, no final exams endless retakes, no penalty for not being at school, when you’re looking at high GPA’s from schools like this and then high GPA is from other institutions that don’t have this practice. I’m wondering if maybe the schools aren’t catching on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Student was never going to Brown or Georgetown. Or GW due to cost. Parents were limiting attendance to instate Virginia schools. Just being sneaky about it.

Wrong.

Brown’s average admit GPA is 3.9 and 4.3 for weighted.

Yale and Princeton cite 3.9 as their average incoming GPA.

It’s the crazy publics—-MoCO with their 5.0 scale and some Nova schools with unlimited AP courses (which the kids then can’t score a 4 or 5 at the end of the year on the exam).

What am I missing? You are conflating weighted with unweighted grades. The average weighted grade at an Ivy is not a 3.9.

And it's not above a 4.3 either!! That's my point. If you have an unweighted 4.0 with a minimum of 6-8 AP courses--you are more than fine for the top 10 schools. At UVA a kid like that would be cutoff, even with high scores because of the serious grade inflation in VA public schools (and multiple chances to retake exams and bring grades up--not realistic) and the need to be a grind and take 12-15 AP courses even when you can't pass the AP exams for them. That's the kind of student that ends up there.

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.

Correct on the retake policy, it’s impossible to get an A on that exam retake.

It’s designed to take a failing grade and turn it into a merely lousy one.

An 80 under the FCPS grading rubric is a B-

I think people applying to UVA or other highly selective schools should not be concerned about too many wildly inflated B minuses and C pluses floating around out there.

Not true. At my FCPS high school, kids are able to retake up to a an A.

At Chantilly HS, the policy used to be "retake up to an 80." That policy changed this year to "retake up to a 90." But students can only retake tests once (not endlessly) and sometimes only choose to retake one assessment per quarter (English classes).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Student was never going to Brown or Georgetown. Or GW due to cost. Parents were limiting attendance to instate Virginia schools. Just being sneaky about it.

Wrong.

Brown’s average admit GPA is 3.9 and 4.3 for weighted.

Yale and Princeton cite 3.9 as their average incoming GPA.

It’s the crazy publics—-MoCO with their 5.0 scale and some Nova schools with unlimited AP courses (which the kids then can’t score a 4 or 5 at the end of the year on the exam).

What am I missing? You are conflating weighted with unweighted grades. The average weighted grade at an Ivy is not a 3.9.

And it's not above a 4.3 either!! That's my point. If you have an unweighted 4.0 with a minimum of 6-8 AP courses--you are more than fine for the top 10 schools. At UVA a kid like that would be cutoff, even with high scores because of the serious grade inflation in VA public schools (and multiple chances to retake exams and bring grades up--not realistic) and the need to be a grind and take 12-15 AP courses even when you can't pass the AP exams for them. That's the kind of student that ends up there.

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.

Correct on the retake policy, it’s impossible to get an A on that exam retake.

It’s designed to take a failing grade and turn it into a merely lousy one.

An 80 under the FCPS grading rubric is a B-

I think people applying to UVA or other highly selective schools should not be concerned about too many wildly inflated B minuses and C pluses floating around out there.

Not true. At my FCPS high school, kids are able to retake up to a an A.

At Chantilly HS, the policy used to be "retake up to an 80." That policy changed this year to "retake up to a 90." But students can only retake tests once (not endlessly) and sometimes only choose to retake one assessment per quarter (English classes).

So it’s basically different at each school and even within a school. There’s no way that Admissions Officers would know how it varies between schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Student was never going to Brown or Georgetown. Or GW due to cost. Parents were limiting attendance to instate Virginia schools. Just being sneaky about it.

Wrong.

Brown’s average admit GPA is 3.9 and 4.3 for weighted.

Yale and Princeton cite 3.9 as their average incoming GPA.

It’s the crazy publics—-MoCO with their 5.0 scale and some Nova schools with unlimited AP courses (which the kids then can’t score a 4 or 5 at the end of the year on the exam).

What am I missing? You are conflating weighted with unweighted grades. The average weighted grade at an Ivy is not a 3.9.

And it's not above a 4.3 either!! That's my point. If you have an unweighted 4.0 with a minimum of 6-8 AP courses--you are more than fine for the top 10 schools. At UVA a kid like that would be cutoff, even with high scores because of the serious grade inflation in VA public schools (and multiple chances to retake exams and bring grades up--not realistic) and the need to be a grind and take 12-15 AP courses even when you can't pass the AP exams for them. That's the kind of student that ends up there.

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.

+100

We had grade weighting when I was in high school and Honors classes got a big bump. Difference was that out of a class of 275, only 30 kids were in the 1 honors section so only those kids got the bump. We were tracked early and those tracks added a few here and there but mostly stayed the same group of kids. Now, because there is free access to this weighted advantage if the student selects it (at least in FCPS), hundreds of kids get the bump and become much more hard to differentiate from each other.

Yes good old tracking where they picked who the special kids were in Kindergarten and they forevermore got the best classes and resources and grade enhancements.

Very easy to differentiate kids if most of them are kept away from opportunities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Student was never going to Brown or Georgetown. Or GW due to cost. Parents were limiting attendance to instate Virginia schools. Just being sneaky about it.

Wrong.

Brown’s average admit GPA is 3.9 and 4.3 for weighted.

Yale and Princeton cite 3.9 as their average incoming GPA.

It’s the crazy publics—-MoCO with their 5.0 scale and some Nova schools with unlimited AP courses (which the kids then can’t score a 4 or 5 at the end of the year on the exam).

What am I missing? You are conflating weighted with unweighted grades. The average weighted grade at an Ivy is not a 3.9.

And it's not above a 4.3 either!! That's my point. If you have an unweighted 4.0 with a minimum of 6-8 AP courses--you are more than fine for the top 10 schools. At UVA a kid like that would be cutoff, even with high scores because of the serious grade inflation in VA public schools (and multiple chances to retake exams and bring grades up--not realistic) and the need to be a grind and take 12-15 AP courses even when you can't pass the AP exams for them. That's the kind of student that ends up there.

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.

Correct on the retake policy, it’s impossible to get an A on that exam retake.

It’s designed to take a failing grade and turn it into a merely lousy one.

An 80 under the FCPS grading rubric is a B-

I think people applying to UVA or other highly selective schools should not be concerned about too many wildly inflated B minuses and C pluses floating around out there.

Not true. At my FCPS high school, kids are able to retake up to a an A.

Thank you for being honest. It’s the same way at MCP. And frankly, I think that these colleges and universities are catching on and Virginia and Maryland are not the only states that have this practice of endless retakes. Illinois has it also. But no midterm exams, no final exams endless retakes, no penalty for not being at school, when you’re looking at high GPA’s from schools like this and then high GPA is from other institutions that don’t have this practice. I’m wondering if maybe the schools aren’t catching on.

Colleges have never cared about comparing GPAs between different schools. They have a school quality score and student's rank/tier within school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Student was never going to Brown or Georgetown. Or GW due to cost. Parents were limiting attendance to instate Virginia schools. Just being sneaky about it.

Wrong.

Brown’s average admit GPA is 3.9 and 4.3 for weighted.

Yale and Princeton cite 3.9 as their average incoming GPA.

It’s the crazy publics—-MoCO with their 5.0 scale and some Nova schools with unlimited AP courses (which the kids then can’t score a 4 or 5 at the end of the year on the exam).

What am I missing? You are conflating weighted with unweighted grades. The average weighted grade at an Ivy is not a 3.9.

And it's not above a 4.3 either!! That's my point. If you have an unweighted 4.0 with a minimum of 6-8 AP courses--you are more than fine for the top 10 schools. At UVA a kid like that would be cutoff, even with high scores because of the serious grade inflation in VA public schools (and multiple chances to retake exams and bring grades up--not realistic) and the need to be a grind and take 12-15 AP courses even when you can't pass the AP exams for them. That's the kind of student that ends up there.

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.

+100

We had grade weighting when I was in high school and Honors classes got a big bump. Difference was that out of a class of 275, only 30 kids were in the 1 honors section so only those kids got the bump. We were tracked early and those tracks added a few here and there but mostly stayed the same group of kids. Now, because there is free access to this weighted advantage if the student selects it (at least in FCPS), hundreds of kids get the bump and become much more hard to differentiate from each other.

Yes good old tracking where they picked who the special kids were in Kindergarten and they forevermore got the best classes and resources and grade enhancements.

Very easy to differentiate kids if most of them are kept away from opportunities.

Crazy ignorant. Tracking doesn't mean lockdown, it just means differentiates options. Low performing kids get more support, which they can only get if they are tracked into classes that focus on their needs. When tracks vanish, everyone gets demoralized and miseducated and suffers.

I have friends who got Ds and Fs in honors and AP classes for multiple years, because they had that freedom to make dumb choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Student was never going to Brown or Georgetown. Or GW due to cost. Parents were limiting attendance to instate Virginia schools. Just being sneaky about it.

Wrong.

Brown’s average admit GPA is 3.9 and 4.3 for weighted.

Yale and Princeton cite 3.9 as their average incoming GPA.

It’s the crazy publics—-MoCO with their 5.0 scale and some Nova schools with unlimited AP courses (which the kids then can’t score a 4 or 5 at the end of the year on the exam).

What am I missing? You are conflating weighted with unweighted grades. The average weighted grade at an Ivy is not a 3.9.

And it's not above a 4.3 either!! That's my point. If you have an unweighted 4.0 with a minimum of 6-8 AP courses--you are more than fine for the top 10 schools. At UVA a kid like that would be cutoff, even with high scores because of the serious grade inflation in VA public schools (and multiple chances to retake exams and bring grades up--not realistic) and the need to be a grind and take 12-15 AP courses even when you can't pass the AP exams for them. That's the kind of student that ends up there.

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.

Correct on the retake policy, it’s impossible to get an A on that exam retake.

It’s designed to take a failing grade and turn it into a merely lousy one.

An 80 under the FCPS grading rubric is a B-

I think people applying to UVA or other highly selective schools should not be concerned about too many wildly inflated B minuses and C pluses floating around out there.

Not true. At my FCPS high school, kids are able to retake up to a an A.

Thank you for being honest. It’s the same way at MCP. And frankly, I think that these colleges and universities are catching on and Virginia and Maryland are not the only states that have this practice of endless retakes. Illinois has it also. But no midterm exams, no final exams endless retakes, no penalty for not being at school, when you’re looking at high GPA’s from schools like this and then high GPA is from other institutions that don’t have this practice. I’m wondering if maybe the schools aren’t catching on.

You don’t need any of that garbage to tell if a particular kid has mastered the material.

Great Schools can do pass/fail (Brown and MIT), honor system take home tests (Bryn Mawr), no grades at all (Hampshire), no required classes (Smith), show up or not (who takes attendance in college?), many different innovations.

You need all that stuff mentioned TO RANK KIDS AGAINST EACH OTHER. That’s what is upsetting you, how will they know my kid is the best unless there is a ranked and graded test?

Who gives a shit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Student was never going to Brown or Georgetown. Or GW due to cost. Parents were limiting attendance to instate Virginia schools. Just being sneaky about it.

Wrong.

Brown’s average admit GPA is 3.9 and 4.3 for weighted.

Yale and Princeton cite 3.9 as their average incoming GPA.

It’s the crazy publics—-MoCO with their 5.0 scale and some Nova schools with unlimited AP courses (which the kids then can’t score a 4 or 5 at the end of the year on the exam).

What am I missing? You are conflating weighted with unweighted grades. The average weighted grade at an Ivy is not a 3.9.

And it's not above a 4.3 either!! That's my point. If you have an unweighted 4.0 with a minimum of 6-8 AP courses--you are more than fine for the top 10 schools. At UVA a kid like that would be cutoff, even with high scores because of the serious grade inflation in VA public schools (and multiple chances to retake exams and bring grades up--not realistic) and the need to be a grind and take 12-15 AP courses even when you can't pass the AP exams for them. That's the kind of student that ends up there.

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.

Correct on the retake policy, it’s impossible to get an A on that exam retake.

It’s designed to take a failing grade and turn it into a merely lousy one.

An 80 under the FCPS grading rubric is a B-

I think people applying to UVA or other highly selective schools should not be concerned about too many wildly inflated B minuses and C pluses floating around out there.

Not true. At my FCPS high school, kids are able to retake up to a an A.

Thank you for being honest. It’s the same way at MCP. And frankly, I think that these colleges and universities are catching on and Virginia and Maryland are not the only states that have this practice of endless retakes. Illinois has it also. But no midterm exams, no final exams endless retakes, no penalty for not being at school, when you’re looking at high GPA’s from schools like this and then high GPA is from other institutions that don’t have this practice. I’m wondering if maybe the schools aren’t catching on.

There are no midterms or finals? Or am I misreading that? I do think all of that is unusual, as many school districts are still pretty traditional. That said, I’m not sure you’ll be penalized. Just don’t let colleges know 😉

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Student was never going to Brown or Georgetown. Or GW due to cost. Parents were limiting attendance to instate Virginia schools. Just being sneaky about it.

Wrong.

Brown’s average admit GPA is 3.9 and 4.3 for weighted.

Yale and Princeton cite 3.9 as their average incoming GPA.

It’s the crazy publics—-MoCO with their 5.0 scale and some Nova schools with unlimited AP courses (which the kids then can’t score a 4 or 5 at the end of the year on the exam).

What am I missing? You are conflating weighted with unweighted grades. The average weighted grade at an Ivy is not a 3.9.

And it's not above a 4.3 either!! That's my point. If you have an unweighted 4.0 with a minimum of 6-8 AP courses--you are more than fine for the top 10 schools. At UVA a kid like that would be cutoff, even with high scores because of the serious grade inflation in VA public schools (and multiple chances to retake exams and bring grades up--not realistic) and the need to be a grind and take 12-15 AP courses even when you can't pass the AP exams for them. That's the kind of student that ends up there.

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.

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.

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.

Maybe your superstar isn't the special snowflake you thought they were. Take all that free time from Acing all the tests the first time, and do something meaningfully impressive with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Student was never going to Brown or Georgetown. Or GW due to cost. Parents were limiting attendance to instate Virginia schools. Just being sneaky about it.

Wrong.

Brown’s average admit GPA is 3.9 and 4.3 for weighted.

Yale and Princeton cite 3.9 as their average incoming GPA.

It’s the crazy publics—-MoCO with their 5.0 scale and some Nova schools with unlimited AP courses (which the kids then can’t score a 4 or 5 at the end of the year on the exam).

What am I missing? You are conflating weighted with unweighted grades. The average weighted grade at an Ivy is not a 3.9.

And it's not above a 4.3 either!! That's my point. If you have an unweighted 4.0 with a minimum of 6-8 AP courses--you are more than fine for the top 10 schools. At UVA a kid like that would be cutoff, even with high scores because of the serious grade inflation in VA public schools (and multiple chances to retake exams and bring grades up--not realistic) and the need to be a grind and take 12-15 AP courses even when you can't pass the AP exams for them. That's the kind of student that ends up there.

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.

+100

We had grade weighting when I was in high school and Honors classes got a big bump. Difference was that out of a class of 275, only 30 kids were in the 1 honors section so only those kids got the bump. We were tracked early and those tracks added a few here and there but mostly stayed the same group of kids. Now, because there is free access to this weighted advantage if the student selects it (at least in FCPS), hundreds of kids get the bump and become much more hard to differentiate from each other.

Yes good old tracking where they picked who the special kids were in Kindergarten and they forevermore got the best classes and resources and grade enhancements.

Very easy to differentiate kids if most of them are kept away from opportunities.

Crazy ignorant. Tracking doesn't mean lockdown, it just means differentiates options. Low performing kids get more support, which they can only get if they are tracked into classes that focus on their needs. When tracks vanish, everyone gets demoralized and miseducated and suffers.

I have friends who got Ds and Fs in honors and AP classes for multiple years, because they had that freedom to make dumb choices.

Yeah no I get it, protecting the white special smart kids from ever failing out.

Everyone else fails out though. They don’t get the wiffle ball treatment. They are told better shape up.

I was tracked, I know exactly how it works.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Student was never going to Brown or Georgetown. Or GW due to cost. Parents were limiting attendance to instate Virginia schools. Just being sneaky about it.

Wrong.

Brown’s average admit GPA is 3.9 and 4.3 for weighted.

Yale and Princeton cite 3.9 as their average incoming GPA.

It’s the crazy publics—-MoCO with their 5.0 scale and some Nova schools with unlimited AP courses (which the kids then can’t score a 4 or 5 at the end of the year on the exam).

What am I missing? You are conflating weighted with unweighted grades. The average weighted grade at an Ivy is not a 3.9.

And it's not above a 4.3 either!! That's my point. If you have an unweighted 4.0 with a minimum of 6-8 AP courses--you are more than fine for the top 10 schools. At UVA a kid like that would be cutoff, even with high scores because of the serious grade inflation in VA public schools (and multiple chances to retake exams and bring grades up--not realistic) and the need to be a grind and take 12-15 AP courses even when you can't pass the AP exams for them. That's the kind of student that ends up there.

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.

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.

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.

If your superstar is so brilliant that they get everything right on the first try, why are the wasting time in school? Take the hint.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Student was never going to Brown or Georgetown. Or GW due to cost. Parents were limiting attendance to instate Virginia schools. Just being sneaky about it.

Wrong.

Brown’s average admit GPA is 3.9 and 4.3 for weighted.

Yale and Princeton cite 3.9 as their average incoming GPA.

It’s the crazy publics—-MoCO with their 5.0 scale and some Nova schools with unlimited AP courses (which the kids then can’t score a 4 or 5 at the end of the year on the exam).

What am I missing? You are conflating weighted with unweighted grades. The average weighted grade at an Ivy is not a 3.9.

And it's not above a 4.3 either!! That's my point. If you have an unweighted 4.0 with a minimum of 6-8 AP courses--you are more than fine for the top 10 schools. At UVA a kid like that would be cutoff, even with high scores because of the serious grade inflation in VA public schools (and multiple chances to retake exams and bring grades up--not realistic) and the need to be a grind and take 12-15 AP courses even when you can't pass the AP exams for them. That's the kind of student that ends up there.

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.

Correct on the retake policy, it’s impossible to get an A on that exam retake.

It’s designed to take a failing grade and turn it into a merely lousy one.

An 80 under the FCPS grading rubric is a B-

I think people applying to UVA or other highly selective schools should not be concerned about too many wildly inflated B minuses and C pluses floating around out there.

Not true. At my FCPS high school, kids are able to retake up to a an A.

Thank you for being honest. It’s the same way at MCP. And frankly, I think that these colleges and universities are catching on and Virginia and Maryland are not the only states that have this practice of endless retakes. Illinois has it also. But no midterm exams, no final exams endless retakes, no penalty for not being at school, when you’re looking at high GPA’s from schools like this and then high GPA is from other institutions that don’t have this practice. I’m wondering if maybe the schools aren’t catching on.

There are no midterms or finals? Or am I misreading that? I do think all of that is unusual, as many school districts are still pretty traditional. That said, I’m not sure you’ll be penalized. Just don’t let colleges know 😉

Not in MCPS. They have “projects”.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Student was never going to Brown or Georgetown. Or GW due to cost. Parents were limiting attendance to instate Virginia schools. Just being sneaky about it.

Wrong.

Brown’s average admit GPA is 3.9 and 4.3 for weighted.

Yale and Princeton cite 3.9 as their average incoming GPA.

It’s the crazy publics—-MoCO with their 5.0 scale and some Nova schools with unlimited AP courses (which the kids then can’t score a 4 or 5 at the end of the year on the exam).

What am I missing? You are conflating weighted with unweighted grades. The average weighted grade at an Ivy is not a 3.9.

And it's not above a 4.3 either!! That's my point. If you have an unweighted 4.0 with a minimum of 6-8 AP courses--you are more than fine for the top 10 schools. At UVA a kid like that would be cutoff, even with high scores because of the serious grade inflation in VA public schools (and multiple chances to retake exams and bring grades up--not realistic) and the need to be a grind and take 12-15 AP courses even when you can't pass the AP exams for them. That's the kind of student that ends up there.

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.

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.

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.

If your superstar is so brilliant that they get everything right on the first try, why are the wasting time in school? Take the hint.

It’s a lot harder to cheat on the tests the real world throws at you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Student was never going to Brown or Georgetown. Or GW due to cost. Parents were limiting attendance to instate Virginia schools. Just being sneaky about it.

Wrong.

Brown’s average admit GPA is 3.9 and 4.3 for weighted.

Yale and Princeton cite 3.9 as their average incoming GPA.

It’s the crazy publics—-MoCO with their 5.0 scale and some Nova schools with unlimited AP courses (which the kids then can’t score a 4 or 5 at the end of the year on the exam).

What am I missing? You are conflating weighted with unweighted grades. The average weighted grade at an Ivy is not a 3.9.

And it's not above a 4.3 either!! That's my point. If you have an unweighted 4.0 with a minimum of 6-8 AP courses--you are more than fine for the top 10 schools. At UVA a kid like that would be cutoff, even with high scores because of the serious grade inflation in VA public schools (and multiple chances to retake exams and bring grades up--not realistic) and the need to be a grind and take 12-15 AP courses even when you can't pass the AP exams for them. That's the kind of student that ends up there.

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.

Correct on the retake policy, it’s impossible to get an A on that exam retake.

It’s designed to take a failing grade and turn it into a merely lousy one.

An 80 under the FCPS grading rubric is a B-

I think people applying to UVA or other highly selective schools should not be concerned about too many wildly inflated B minuses and C pluses floating around out there.

Not true. At my FCPS high school, kids are able to retake up to a an A.

Thank you for being honest. It’s the same way at MCP. And frankly, I think that these colleges and universities are catching on and Virginia and Maryland are not the only states that have this practice of endless retakes. Illinois has it also. But no midterm exams, no final exams endless retakes, no penalty for not being at school, when you’re looking at high GPA’s from schools like this and then high GPA is from other institutions that don’t have this practice. I’m wondering if maybe the schools aren’t catching on.

There are no midterms or finals? Or am I misreading that? I do think all of that is unusual, as many school districts are still pretty traditional. That said, I’m not sure you’ll be penalized. Just don’t let colleges know 😉

Not in MCPS. They have “projects”.

Demonstrating learning by actually using it? World gone mad.