Higher GPA with mid rigor or lower GPA w/ top rigor?

[Anonymous]

I don't know about college admissions, but the student who takes more challenging courses and gets lower grades will almost always learn more and be better prepared academically for college.

[Anonymous]

Rigor is king.

[Anonymous]

At our public, you really need an unweighted close to a 4.0 for the top schools. 3.88 isn't close.

Most of the tops kids have rigor and a good SAT score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rigor is king.

Nope. Depends on your school. If you're at a high school where 20 or 50 or 100 kids have a 4.0 UW then rigor is king.
If you're at a high school where nobody has a 4.0 then it's often best to take less rigor and get a really high GPA. I have seen kids with very high rigor but GPA a step down (say 3.8 vs 3.9+) get far inferior admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When you say “lower rigor” what do you mean? Do you mean mostly on level classes, math through algebra 2, and no AP’s, or do you mean something else?

Also why do you imagine different SAT scores?

OP the HS has 4 paths in math, from hardest to easiest. Those in the hardest path (let’s call it level 4) do in 10th grade what level 2 kids do in 12th grade. Same with foreign languages and sciences. Some do environmental science in 11th; some are doing advanced physics in 11th. Some do Latin 5 in 12th; some are doing level 3. Some kids have 6 classes packed with advanced level courses and some are doing 4 core classes in level 2-3, plus no language and one hobby class like pottery. Perhaps the latter kid is seen as more interdisciplinary/ more interesting.

Neighbor whose DC is in my DC’s school told me one way is better than the other for college admissions. They are in the same grade at a small private but literally have not been in the same classes together since 8th grade. We both have younger kids so I’m wondering if we should steer younger sib to try their way. SAT scores listed above are real scores of the 2 students. Just curious who may do better. This is a great family so if their DC does better than ours, I’d have no issue with that but trying to learn more for our next kid.

Students are always placed in the context of their peers at their high school. When the most selective/rejective colleges see student A next to student B, student A doesn't have a chance.

+1

Ok in the examples I know from this cycle A did better but probably A had more interesting essays. I don’t think it is clear cut at all. I would say rigor matters less than I assumed and teacher recs matter more.

You need to give more context here. Are you the OP? I have a very hard time believing after OP's detailed description of school that A would do better at top schools. I don't think A would make it past the first round so the essay would likely not come into play.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rigor is king.

Nope. Depends on your school. If you're at a high school where 20 or 50 or 100 kids have a 4.0 UW then rigor is king.
If you're at a high school where nobody has a 4.0 then it's often best to take less rigor and get a really high GPA. I have seen kids with very high rigor but GPA a step down (say 3.8 vs 3.9+) get far inferior admissions.

Again context matters here. Are you talking about an elite private high school where even the second level students classes could considered high rigor?? If so, I could see that. But, looking at OP's description of Max vs Normal rigor, the students are not in the same ballpark.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When you say “lower rigor” what do you mean? Do you mean mostly on level classes, math through algebra 2, and no AP’s, or do you mean something else?

Also why do you imagine different SAT scores?

OP the HS has 4 paths in math, from hardest to easiest. Those in the hardest path (let’s call it level 4) do in 10th grade what level 2 kids do in 12th grade. Same with foreign languages and sciences. Some do environmental science in 11th; some are doing advanced physics in 11th. Some do Latin 5 in 12th; some are doing level 3. Some kids have 6 classes packed with advanced level courses and some are doing 4 core classes in level 2-3, plus no language and one hobby class like pottery. Perhaps the latter kid is seen as more interdisciplinary/ more interesting.

Neighbor whose DC is in my DC’s school told me one way is better than the other for college admissions. They are in the same grade at a small private but literally have not been in the same classes together since 8th grade. We both have younger kids so I’m wondering if we should steer younger sib to try their way. SAT scores listed above are real scores of the 2 students. Just curious who may do better. This is a great family so if their DC does better than ours, I’d have no issue with that but trying to learn more for our next kid.

Students are always placed in the context of their peers at their high school. When the most selective/rejective colleges see student A next to student B, student A doesn't have a chance.

+1

Ok in the examples I know from this cycle A did better but probably A had more interesting essays. I don’t think it is clear cut at all. I would say rigor matters less than I assumed and teacher recs matter more.

You need to give more context here. Are you the OP? I have a very hard time believing after OP's detailed description of school that A would do better at top schools. I don't think A would make it past the first round so the essay would likely not come into play.

Not op. Public school parent this cycle. Seeing this among my kids’ friends. High GPA with high rigor is good but lower GPA with high rigor didn’t work out as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When you say “lower rigor” what do you mean? Do you mean mostly on level classes, math through algebra 2, and no AP’s, or do you mean something else?

Also why do you imagine different SAT scores?

OP the HS has 4 paths in math, from hardest to easiest. Those in the hardest path (let’s call it level 4) do in 10th grade what level 2 kids do in 12th grade. Same with foreign languages and sciences. Some do environmental science in 11th; some are doing advanced physics in 11th. Some do Latin 5 in 12th; some are doing level 3. Some kids have 6 classes packed with advanced level courses and some are doing 4 core classes in level 2-3, plus no language and one hobby class like pottery. Perhaps the latter kid is seen as more interdisciplinary/ more interesting.

Neighbor whose DC is in my DC’s school told me one way is better than the other for college admissions. They are in the same grade at a small private but literally have not been in the same classes together since 8th grade. We both have younger kids so I’m wondering if we should steer younger sib to try their way. SAT scores listed above are real scores of the 2 students. Just curious who may do better. This is a great family so if their DC does better than ours, I’d have no issue with that but trying to learn more for our next kid.

Students are always placed in the context of their peers at their high school. When the most selective/rejective colleges see student A next to student B, student A doesn't have a chance.

+1

Ok in the examples I know from this cycle A did better but probably A had more interesting essays. I don’t think it is clear cut at all. I would say rigor matters less than I assumed and teacher recs matter more.

You need to give more context here. Are you the OP? I have a very hard time believing after OP's detailed description of school that A would do better at top schools. I don't think A would make it past the first round so the essay would likely not come into play.

Not op. Public school parent this cycle. Seeing this among my kids’ friends. High GPA with high rigor is good but lower GPA with high rigor didn’t work out as well.

And lower rigor with high gpa plus strong essays and (I assume) recs did extremely well.

[Anonymous]

Hard to decide what is the “ most rigor”. If a high school offer 20+ AP, no one took all 20+ advanced courses. Again, my understanding is you took the most rigor in your field, that good enough. For example, STEM students have good score in Physics, Multi Var Calm without APUSH should be fine.

In this case, if it is for STEM major, the second student have better chance. But for other majors, they are close.

[Anonymous]

In our public school, at least in the last couple of years, the students H admitted were not the ones taking most rigor. Generally they took normal or above normal rigor, but not the highest one, straight As, 1550+, with HUGE SPIKE in music, art, writing, leadership or something like that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which of these gets into more selective colleges from the same high school if everything else is equally strong / nearly identical?

A) regular rigor classes, 3.98, 1540 SAT
B) max rigor classes, 3.88, 1580 SAT

B does better every day of the week!

Definitely not true at our DMV private. Mid rigor and top GPAs doing better. Think it’s because colleges don’t really take the time to sort through the weeds of highest rigor versus pretty high rigor. Even if high schools provide an info sheet, colleges are getting so many apps they don’t have time to do a deep dive into it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Which of these gets into more selective colleges from the same high school if everything else is equally strong / nearly identical?

A) regular rigor classes, 3.98, 1540 SAT
B) max rigor classes, 3.88, 1580 SAT

B does better every day of the week!

Definitely not true at our DMV private. Mid rigor and top GPAs doing better. Think it’s because colleges don’t really take the time to sort through the weeds of highest rigor versus pretty high rigor. Even if high schools provide an info sheet, colleges are getting so many apps they don’t have time to do a deep dive into it.

This

However, Early Decision to a smaller school may give the edge to the higher rigor/test scores and slightly lower GPA. At least this was the case at our school this year. But at Flagships, higher GPA is key even if they say it isn't.