Independent School GPAs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does giving extra assignments to get bonus points count as inflation too? I’m not familiar with schools here or in the US generally (my child is still in K), but I’ve heard of private schools outside of the DMV doing this.

My policy, and that of the other teachers at the independent where I teach, is no—extra credit does not exist. Whenever I am asked by a student or parent about extra credit to raise a grade, I reply (in kind and firm terms—less blunt than I will put here) that I have given many opportunities for credit throughout the semester/trimester, and those opportunities are what counts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does giving extra assignments to get bonus points count as inflation too? I’m not familiar with schools here or in the US generally (my child is still in K), but I’ve heard of private schools outside of the DMV doing this.

My policy, and that of the other teachers at the independent where I teach, is no—extra credit does not exist. Whenever I am asked by a student or parent about extra credit to raise a grade, I reply (in kind and firm terms—less blunt than I will put here) that I have given many opportunities for credit throughout the semester/trimester, and those opportunities are what counts.

What are the extra-credit opportunities that you give. I am genuinely asking so that I can let my child be more aware.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does giving extra assignments to get bonus points count as inflation too? I’m not familiar with schools here or in the US generally (my child is still in K), but I’ve heard of private schools outside of the DMV doing this.

My policy, and that of the other teachers at the independent where I teach, is no—extra credit does not exist. Whenever I am asked by a student or parent about extra credit to raise a grade, I reply (in kind and firm terms—less blunt than I will put here) that I have given many opportunities for credit throughout the semester/trimester, and those opportunities are what counts.

What are the extra-credit opportunities that you give. I am genuinely asking so that I can let my child be more aware.

Reading comprehension not your strong suit?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Private schools are inflating grades too, despite what people like to say here. To fall in the bottom quartile at Holton you have like a 91 average. That’s crazy inflated.

Really? Wow. THAT's why their college placement is so much better than placement at NCS!

NCS sent more than half of the class of 2024 to top 25 National Universities or top 25 liberal arts schools. Pretty good!

no, Holton is much better. NCS with no one to UVA, UNC, USC, NU, etc.
I know many girls who tried this year. Shut out from these schools.

That’s weird to assume they want to attend those schools.

huh? I have a kid in the class and she and many of the girls wanted to attend those schools.

given that uva and UNC are state schools that favor in-state apps and require high gaps for the small number of out of state applications they accept it is not surprising. Nor is USC unless they ED, and NU is a hard admit also with ED and in general requires a higher gpa than may NCS girls are able to get given the few As that are given out in some cases. People think that just because they got to a fancy and difficult upper school that it translates into college application acceptance across the board. Ed still matters as does high gpa if applying to schools like UVA. They get thousands of applications. NCS girls applications don’t smell any different than the others. All the same rules apply.

USC doesn’t offer ED.

[Anonymous]

DD finished at big 3 with 3.3. Accepted at tulane, Indiana (half ride), Belmont (full ride). You will be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DD finished at big 3 with 3.3. Accepted at tulane, Indiana (half ride), Belmont (full ride). You will be fine.

^ doesn’t tell the full story. Likely 32 or above / 1400 or above + good essays. Parents need to stop proving gpa only.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD finished at big 3 with 3.3. Accepted at tulane, Indiana (half ride), Belmont (full ride). You will be fine.

^ doesn’t tell the full story. Likely 32 or above / 1400 or above + good essays. Parents need to stop proving gpa only.

At a school like NCS, 3.3-3.4 is right around the median GPA and a 33 is the average ACT. Tulane is one school that knows these kids will do really well in college. I am sure Sidwell is similar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does giving extra assignments to get bonus points count as inflation too? I’m not familiar with schools here or in the US generally (my child is still in K), but I’ve heard of private schools outside of the DMV doing this.

My policy, and that of the other teachers at the independent where I teach, is no—extra credit does not exist. Whenever I am asked by a student or parent about extra credit to raise a grade, I reply (in kind and firm terms—less blunt than I will put here) that I have given many opportunities for credit throughout the semester/trimester, and those opportunities are what counts.

What are the extra-credit opportunities that you give. I am genuinely asking so that I can let my child be more aware.

DP. PP was saying the only chances for credit are by studying for, and getting good scores on, the regular assignments (i.e., tests, quizzes, and any other regular graded assignments).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private schools are inflating grades too, despite what people like to say here. To fall in the bottom quartile at Holton you have like a 91 average. That’s crazy inflated.

Really? Wow. THAT's why their college placement is so much better than placement at NCS!

NCS sent more than half of the class of 2024 to top 25 National Universities or top 25 liberal arts schools. Pretty good!

no, Holton is much better. NCS with no one to UVA, UNC, USC, NU, etc.
I know many girls who tried this year. Shut out from these schools.

That’s weird to assume they want to attend those schools.

huh? I have a kid in the class and she and many of the girls wanted to attend those schools.

given that uva and UNC are state schools that favor in-state apps and require high gaps for the small number of out of state applications they accept it is not surprising. Nor is USC unless they ED, and NU is a hard admit also with ED and in general requires a higher gpa than may NCS girls are able to get given the few As that are given out in some cases. People think that just because they got to a fancy and difficult upper school that it translates into college application acceptance across the board. Ed still matters as does high gpa if applying to schools like UVA. They get thousands of applications. NCS girls applications don’t smell any different than the others. All the same rules apply.

USC doesn’t offer ED.

Do you mean (a) U. of Southern California or (b) U. of South Carolina ? There are at least 2 different colleges which use the term USC.
And yes, I know specific students from local top 3-4 privates who applied to (a) and also know different students who applied instead to (b).

[Anonymous]

Nearly anytime anyone uses “all” or “none” in relation to a school, it is an (accidental) exaggeration, simply because there can be so much variation within/between/among the top 10 local privates.

My sense is that many people here (certainly not all) would agree that many (Again, not all) of the top-10 metro DC privates have very little grade inflation. There are probably at least 2-3 which have a degree of grade deflation.

That said, many privates include a “school profile” to colleges along with the applicant’s grades and such. Those profiles often, not always, include some indication of the median GPA. A competent college admissions person pretty quickly can figure out if there is grade inflation/deflation at a school from that median GPA number.

The college admissions person also often will guess or estimate (correctly or not) an applicant’s quartile class rank from the school’s profile information if the school does not provide an explicit individual class rank.

Fictitious example: If the median GPA were a 95/100, the school clearly has grade inflation. If the median GPA were an 80/100, with a minimum passing score of 70, then there really isn’t grade inflation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD finished at big 3 with 3.3. Accepted at tulane, Indiana (half ride), Belmont (full ride). You will be fine.

^ doesn’t tell the full story. Likely 32 or above / 1400 or above + good essays. Parents need to stop proving gpa only.

At a school like NCS, 3.3-3.4 is right around the median GPA and a 33 is the average ACT. Tulane is one school that knows these kids will do really well in college. I am sure Sidwell is similar.

GPA without class list means zero. Kids who take Calc BC very different than non calc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private schools are inflating grades too, despite what people like to say here. To fall in the bottom quartile at Holton you have like a 91 average. That’s crazy inflated.

Really? Wow. THAT's why their college placement is so much better than placement at NCS!

NCS sent more than half of the class of 2024 to top 25 National Universities or top 25 liberal arts schools. Pretty good!

no, Holton is much better. NCS with no one to UVA, UNC, USC, NU, etc.
I know many girls who tried this year. Shut out from these schools.

That’s weird to assume they want to attend those schools.

huh? I have a kid in the class and she and many of the girls wanted to attend those schools.

given that uva and UNC are state schools that favor in-state apps and require high gaps for the small number of out of state applications they accept it is not surprising. Nor is USC unless they ED, and NU is a hard admit also with ED and in general requires a higher gpa than may NCS girls are able to get given the few As that are given out in some cases. People think that just because they got to a fancy and difficult upper school that it translates into college application acceptance across the board. Ed still matters as does high gpa if applying to schools like UVA. They get thousands of applications. NCS girls applications don’t smell any different than the others. All the same rules apply.

USC doesn’t offer ED.

Do you mean (a) U. of Southern California or (b) U. of South Carolina ? There are at least 2 different colleges which use the term USC.
And yes, I know specific students from local top 3-4 privates who applied to (a) and also know different students who applied instead to (b).

Actually, neither University of Southern California nor University of South Carolina offer ED. I was referring to University of Southern California since the PP was lamenting that their Big3 didn’t have any admissions to UVA, UNC, Northwestern and USC. I assume they wouldn’t be lumping U of South Carolina in with a group of top 25 schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD finished at big 3 with 3.3. Accepted at tulane, Indiana (half ride), Belmont (full ride). You will be fine.

^ doesn’t tell the full story. Likely 32 or above / 1400 or above + good essays. Parents need to stop proving gpa only.

The average SAT for most of these schools is above 1400. That's one way you can see the grade deflation. My kid had a 3.4 GPA (also took the top math and science courses, as well as the top English and social studies courses) and an SAT score that was in the 99th percentile (one sitting). Not unusual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD finished at big 3 with 3.3. Accepted at tulane, Indiana (half ride), Belmont (full ride). You will be fine.

^ doesn’t tell the full story. Likely 32 or above / 1400 or above + good essays. Parents need to stop proving gpa only.

The average SAT for most of these schools is above 1400. That's one way you can see the grade deflation. My kid had a 3.4 GPA (also took the top math and science courses, as well as the top English and social studies courses) and an SAT score that was in the 99th percentile (one sitting). Not unusual.

+1 and same with AP. When you see kids getting 5a on AP exams in classes where they worked hard for a B, that is deflation. Either the course covered more material than the standard corresponding college course, or it was graded more harshly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does giving extra assignments to get bonus points count as inflation too? I’m not familiar with schools here or in the US generally (my child is still in K), but I’ve heard of private schools outside of the DMV doing this.

My policy, and that of the other teachers at the independent where I teach, is no—extra credit does not exist. Whenever I am asked by a student or parent about extra credit to raise a grade, I reply (in kind and firm terms—less blunt than I will put here) that I have given many opportunities for credit throughout the semester/trimester, and those opportunities are what counts.

What are the extra-credit opportunities that you give. I am genuinely asking so that I can let my child be more aware.

Hi there! Sorry others were unkind about your question. I don’t offer any extra credit. I can speak for teachers at my school—we generally don’t. Instead we ask kids to focus on the work we assign. If kids have extra time beyond the regular schoolwork, which is already significant (and sufficient to provide the growth they need academically), they should put it into activities that bring them joy and grow them in other ways. That’s my philosophy, anyway.

I don’t allow kids to really drop in my class without significant intervention. A student getting a C- or below is already being offered support and individual attention. But a student earning a B asking for extra credit is just pursuing a grade—their time is better spent focusing on the work at hand and improving that way. If it’s the end of the trimester and they’re suddenly all about improving their grade…that’s a lesson learned in and of itself.