is grade deflation really hurting college admissions this year?

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12/26/2022 11:04

Subject: Re:is grade deflation really hurting college admissions this year?

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Anonymous wrote:There is a reason why colleges and universities have regional admissions representatives - so they are familiar with all the local schools in a certain area.
They understand the difference between NCS, Sidwell, GDS and Whitman, Wilson, TJ, etc.
Even large state schools have regional representatives. I don’t have a daughter at NCS. My kids go to the Potomac school but my feeling is that y’all are whining about nothing. Wait for all the regular decision results to come out and everyone will suddenly be oohing and aahing about the impressive admission results from NCS. This is a familiar pattern on here every year

Newsflash not every college admissions staff person has a lot of experience. Smaller colleges who get few applicants from a particular school need all the help they can get understanding the curriculum. No AP, no SAT, no class rank, no honors makes it pretty hard. All you can offer is "see where prior graduates go? we should get in to your school"

This is exactly right. There is lots of turnover in these regional college reps since it’s viewed as a starter job in admissions and with applicants up so much and from a broader array of schools and other institutional mandates to broaden schools fielding applicants, each rep has more schools to cover.

The reality is that some of the SLACs, and a number of the top 30 or so will know local DMV reputations when it comes to inflation/deflation etc but unless they actively try to refresh that knowledge every year, would logic not dictate that with test optional, institutional mandates at many colleges having shifted drastically in the last 5 years towards more diverse applicants, and over-stretched local admissions reps that a weighted 3.7 from NCS or GDS when compared to a 4.3 weighted from any other school at some point is a losing battle?

Admissions slots are basically fixed
Shifting institutional priorities at many schools
Applications keep going up to record levels
High turnover in local admissions reps
Less face time between high school counselors and local reps
And grade deflation at some of the NCS type schools

So what happens is that on the margins (and life is about the margins, right?) that 3.7 kid from NCS or GDS just won’t stack up against the 4.3 kid from elsewhere on just apples to apples.

This doesn’t mean the NCS or GDS kid isn’t going to a good school but it’s yet another reason why lists have “shifted down” in the perception of many parents who send there kids to these places

I’m not upset about it or grumbling but it’s just the facts as they are today. And I don’t see NCS changing this unless dozens of parents complain this year. And reality is that school will point to preparing kids for the future and their reputation with colllege reps but they can’t answer the question behind the question.

At GDS there is apparently one English teacher who refuses to give grades over a B+ to anyone in an upper level class. That’s stated upfront, a bunch of kids end up dropping out of the class etc but lots of kids stay because they feel they are getting college level seminar in that class.

One of my kids has many friends who left private after 8th and went to BCC or Jackson Reed and those who left say that just showing up for class at the other schools and doing care minimum gets you a 4.0. If you actually push hard and hustle, a 4.3-4.6 is easily doable.

So, in other words, it isn't "grade deflation" in private schools that is the problem. It's the grade inflation in public schools that is.

This. A scale is way messed up when a lot of people are crammed at the top and, worse, beyond the top of the scale.

No, the problem is the exclusivity of private schools. Only 6% of students at JR have an unweighted 4.0. Meanwhile 33% of JR students have below a 3.0, and 14% have below a 2.0. That’s hardly a school where everyone is “crammed at the top.”

One big reason people pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to NCS is to keep their daughters far away from the kids who make up the bottom of the class at JR. (Just read some of the comments in this thread!) But the flip side is, while the bottom third of the class at JR is not applying to selective colleges, the bottom third of the class at NCS is.

If NCS is going to grade on the same curve as JR, so that the bottom third of the class graduates with a GPA below 3.0, they need to find some way to convince selective colleges that those low grades are consistent with the ability to do college-level work.

So the poster above who was claiming that you literally just have to show up to class to get a 4.0 is full of BS.
My kids are in private. We can afford it and they are getting a solid education but I have to say what I can’t stand about private school is the large number of entitled parents and students. Even at GDS, where folks are more self aware than many other schools, there is a distinct air of exclusivity and the feeling that our kids are getting screwed over by the college process. All our kids have had access to the best resources practically in the world. Of course, they should be held to a higher standard than public school kids. And our kids will do great in life. Just don’t get obsessed with one particular college or university.

Sorry. I meant to say above - show up at JR and do no work and still get a 4.0. That is obviously BS. The top 10% of kids at JR are clearly very strong. And they are the only ones at JR with a chance at a top 10 school. I don’t begrudge them of that opportunity. They have clearly earned it

I have a kid at JR and one a a Big3 and have had two friends with twins with one child in each school (Sidwell/JR and GDS/JR). There is a small community of us who have experience with high schoolers in both environments. The academics at JR are nothing like those at the Big3. They simply aren't--the expectations even in the top courses are light years lower than the Big3 schools. Plus there are retakes, all late work is accepted, and no mid terms or finals. It's just a far, far easier experience. That's not to say that there aren't super smart kids at JR but I'd say that they're smart despite attending JR, not because of it. They're the self-starter types who are learning on the side for fun and also maximizing every extracurricular. Attending JR gives you plenty of time to pursue extracurriculars at a deep level (unlike the privates where in my experience many of the top academic kids are mostly doing academics). That's one of the great strengths of JR: the time to do other things outside of school.