For my kids in this range over the last couple years: One wanted big school, accepted at VT, JMU, Delaware, Miami (Ohio), U of MN One wanted smaller school/LAC, accepted at UMW, CNU, SMCM, Juniata, Allegheny, Washington College, Mount Holyoke. Waitlist/spring-start option at W&M. |
See, this is insane. In my district, that's a B. And at my friends' kids' private school, if they got an 89.5 one quarter and an 80 the other, I'm pretty sure a C would show up on the report card. |
How in the world do an 89.5 and an 80 average to a C? Why would an 84.-something not be a solid B or at least a B- ? |
Yes, more accurate to say 20 to 40 percent of class has 4.0, depending on the school. |
Hmmm. This has to be school specific then? At our private uw 3.8 = Colgate, bucknell, Wisconsin, Lehigh, wake, Michigan (off WL) etc. Sometimes UChicago (ED); or tufts or Emory or BC or Middlebury (ED2) |
On #1, the grades in NoVA have some inflation, but more significant is the expectations setting in this area. For example, in Falls Church, 78% of all adults have a 4 year college degree. 78% is insanely high. Fairfax county has the highest per capita percentage of people with post graduate degrees (Dr. JD, MBA, PhD) What this means is parents simply do not just let kids work it out. If a kid is struggling, tutors are brought in, or time with mom or dad around the dinner table becomes a regular. These kids spend time in the summer at STEM camp or some other “learning” activity, rather than just hanging around or getting a job. Socially, at least for girls, there’s intense pressure to get good grades in NoVA. Being a poor student has negative social consequences. All of this adds up to kids who get good grades not just because they are smart, but they have been conditioned/trained to work hard and meet social expectations. 2. Yeah, of course there’s a ton of lying. But the reality is that kids in NoVA do very well on the AP exams, and that’s not governed by fudging. A 4 or a 5 is a 4 or a 5 no matter where you are. |
Yes, HS matters (big difference between public/private) but $$$ also matters. My kids would not have applied to most of the schools you listed because we cannot afford them based on the net price calculators. Their lists were mostly safeties because they needed merit if they wanted to go OOS/private. |
I think they were trying to be funny about how at some schools there is no grade inflation but deflation. |
Not being funny. 84 is the top of the C range. |
Same here. |
I can speak only for my kids’ HS (Jackson-Reed), but according to the school profile the last couple of years, only ~5% of students (about 25) graduate with an unweighted 4.0 each year. 42% have a 3.5-3.99, but very few have a perfect 4.0. |
We had perfect grace btw 3.75-3.9? |
Sorry, that should be: “what percent have btw 3.75-3.9”? |
But why? And who cares? It’s all relative. (Also, that seems like deflating just for the sake of it. Like, why do you want your students earning grades in the 80s to have C averages? What does this prove?) |
Don’t know. They show 4.0 and then segments of .5 |