Why is it difficult to get As in private school? DC worked really hard, and all assignments are good, still got a B+

[Anonymous]

Grades are a relative measure, not an absolute one. A B+ might be a very good grade if the average in the class is a B or B-, and if it’s a school with a lot of talented kids, A’s might be reserved for truly exceptional work. All fair things to ask about, of course.

[Anonymous]

And this is why high schools send school profiles to colleges so they can see what the average GPA is for students at that particular school.

I prefer private school grading because there is almost always room for improvement. In public schools, meeting the standard gets you an A so there's no motivation to work harder than that. That's why the GPAs are so much higher in public schools. The students met the standard and got an A but their work is not what many would consider A work. Meeting the standard used to be a B or C years ago.

[Anonymous]

I went to 'top' private schools and hated it so much. I always wanted to attend public school. I wish my parents invested the 50k year tuition (or just gave it to me) instead.

Public school = inflated gpas, easy classes, less workload, bigger campuses, and you actually get to choose your classes.

You know how maddening it is to have everyone tell us how "easy" we have it and how "privileged" we are when high school was miserable. I had to work 10x harder to get a mediocre GPA. Scored in the 97th percentile on my SAT and it simply wasn't good enough with such an awful GPA.

I attended a top 20 university that felt 100x less stressful than high school. Graduated summa cum laude with barely any effort. Meanwhile, there were countless public school students who entered university with absurd 4.5 GPAs, mediocre SAT scores, and struggled at the university level.

I even had roommates who FAILED classes when they were 'superstars' at their public high schools. And public school students all think they're geniuses because like 90 percent of them have at least a 4.0 GPA. Meanwhile, maybe 2 percent of students at private high school have a 4.0.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And this is why high schools send school profiles to colleges so they can see what the average GPA is for students at that particular school.

I prefer private school grading because there is almost always room for improvement. In public schools, meeting the standard gets you an A so there's no motivation to work harder than that. That's why the GPAs are so much higher in public schools. The students met the standard and got an A but their work is not what many would consider A work. Meeting the standard used to be a B or C years ago.

This is SUCH a cope & a completely delusional take.

It doesn't matter at ALL. You are delusional if you think they take that into consideration. ALL schools care about is inflating their OWN numbers for college board reportings. They will 100 percent always accept the student with a 4.5 GPA from some rando public school over the student with a 3.4 GPA from a rigorous private school. It's ALL about the numbers. Same goes for law school. No one cares how "rigorous" your school is

[Anonymous]

Good luck to those students in college and their fake grades. My DS had quite a few friends from public HS fail out of his university their freshman year due to low grades. They were used to having plenty of retakes and no late penalties. His university has quarters instead of semesters and they flew by and the kids failed. I hope their parents didn't pay full price because that would've been $80k down the drain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to 'top' private schools and hated it so much. I always wanted to attend public school. I wish my parents invested the 50k year tuition (or just gave it to me) instead.

Public school = inflated gpas, easy classes, less workload, bigger campuses, and you actually get to choose your classes.

You know how maddening it is to have everyone tell us how "easy" we have it and how "privileged" we are when high school was miserable. I had to work 10x harder to get a mediocre GPA. Scored in the 97th percentile on my SAT and it simply wasn't good enough with such an awful GPA.

I attended a top 20 university that felt 100x less stressful than high school. Graduated summa cum laude with barely any effort. Meanwhile, there were countless public school students who entered university with absurd 4.5 GPAs, mediocre SAT scores, and struggled at the university level.

I even had roommates who FAILED classes when they were 'superstars' at their public high schools. And public school students all think they're geniuses because like 90 percent of them have at least a 4.0 GPA. Meanwhile, maybe 2 percent of students at private high school have a 4.0.

Honestly, 97th percentile on SAT isn't good.
If you really went to t20 schools, the percentile should be 99% or above.
GPAs only compare kids in a same school.
But if you have low sat score, yeah you are not that prepared for college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to 'top' private schools and hated it so much. I always wanted to attend public school. I wish my parents invested the 50k year tuition (or just gave it to me) instead.

Public school = inflated gpas, easy classes, less workload, bigger campuses, and you actually get to choose your classes.

You know how maddening it is to have everyone tell us how "easy" we have it and how "privileged" we are when high school was miserable. I had to work 10x harder to get a mediocre GPA. Scored in the 97th percentile on my SAT and it simply wasn't good enough with such an awful GPA.

I attended a top 20 university that felt 100x less stressful than high school. Graduated summa cum laude with barely any effort. Meanwhile, there were countless public school students who entered university with absurd 4.5 GPAs, mediocre SAT scores, and struggled at the university level.

I even had roommates who FAILED classes when they were 'superstars' at their public high schools. And public school students all think they're geniuses because like 90 percent of them have at least a 4.0 GPA. Meanwhile, maybe 2 percent of students at private high school have a 4.0.

You should start your own thread.

Oh, wait….

At least your private taught you how to cut and paste!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to 'top' private schools and hated it so much. I always wanted to attend public school. I wish my parents invested the 50k year tuition (or just gave it to me) instead.

Public school = inflated gpas, easy classes, less workload, bigger campuses, and you actually get to choose your classes.

You know how maddening it is to have everyone tell us how "easy" we have it and how "privileged" we are when high school was miserable. I had to work 10x harder to get a mediocre GPA. Scored in the 97th percentile on my SAT and it simply wasn't good enough with such an awful GPA.

I attended a top 20 university that felt 100x less stressful than high school. Graduated summa cum laude with barely any effort. Meanwhile, there were countless public school students who entered university with absurd 4.5 GPAs, mediocre SAT scores, and struggled at the university level.

I even had roommates who FAILED classes when they were 'superstars' at their public high schools. And public school students all think they're geniuses because like 90 percent of them have at least a 4.0 GPA. Meanwhile, maybe 2 percent of students at private high school have a 4.0.

I'm having difficulty following your logic. You wish you had attended a public school like these people you knew, these same people that failed a college class? Huh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And this is why high schools send school profiles to colleges so they can see what the average GPA is for students at that particular school.

I prefer private school grading because there is almost always room for improvement. In public schools, meeting the standard gets you an A so there's no motivation to work harder than that. That's why the GPAs are so much higher in public schools. The students met the standard and got an A but their work is not what many would consider A work. Meeting the standard used to be a B or C years ago.

This is SUCH a cope & a completely delusional take.

It doesn't matter at ALL. You are delusional if you think they take that into consideration. ALL schools care about is inflating their OWN numbers for college board reportings. They will 100 percent always accept the student with a 4.5 GPA from some rando public school over the student with a 3.4 GPA from a rigorous private school. It's ALL about the numbers. Same goes for law school. No one cares how "rigorous" your school is

This isn't entirely true. Most schools don't report GPA ranges. They do look at your GPA in the context of your school and your SAT/APs. No, a top 20 won't take a 3.4 if that is the lower half of the class, but the 3.4 will be accepted at top 50s even if it is the bottom of the class.

[Anonymous]

It's a typical finding that tough grading results in more learning. See, e.g. here:

https://fordhaminstitute.org/sites/default/files/publication/pdfs/20200204-great-expectationsthe-impact-rigorous-grading-practices-student-achievement0.pdf

"Figure ES-1 shows that teachers in the top quartile increase student EOC scores by a whopping 16.9 percent of a standard deviation (SD) over those of their counterparts in the bottom quartile. Even instructors in the middle of the grading standards distribution are significantly more effective than those with the lowest grading standards"

and this results in better performance in subsequent courses:

"Figure ES-2 reports estimates of Algebra I teachers’ grading standards on their students’ performance on Geometry and Algebra II scores in subsequent years. Once again, higher grading standards consistently lead to higher achievement. Predictably, since these tests are in somewhat different subjects and are taken one and two years later, the effect on these longer-range outcomes is smaller than the short-term effects above. Still, relative to teachers with the lowest grading standards, students of those with the highest standards performed notably better a year later in geometry (7.3 percent of a SD) and two years later in Algebra II (8.6 percent of a SD)."

Thus, functionally, there's a trade-off: students of a certain quality are going to get higher GPAs in easy-A environments. However, their standardized test scores may be a bit lower, and they won't have learn as much. So potentially, you need to balance admission to a prestigious school vs. learning. And, for people hiring, it's useful to be aware that prestigious schools' ability to validate student quality has fallen.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A’s should be difficult to get. What’s the problem here?

I mean, kids have to get into colleges. Even second-tier schools are expecting a 3.8+ unweighted GPA nowadays. A B+ average would place them at 3.4-3.5 which would make it incredibly hard to get into any top 40 school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And this is why high schools send school profiles to colleges so they can see what the average GPA is for students at that particular school.

I prefer private school grading because there is almost always room for improvement. In public schools, meeting the standard gets you an A so there's no motivation to work harder than that. That's why the GPAs are so much higher in public schools. The students met the standard and got an A but their work is not what many would consider A work. Meeting the standard used to be a B or C years ago.

This is SUCH a cope & a completely delusional take.

It doesn't matter at ALL. You are delusional if you think they take that into consideration. ALL schools care about is inflating their OWN numbers for college board reportings. They will 100 percent always accept the student with a 4.5 GPA from some rando public school over the student with a 3.4 GPA from a rigorous private school. It's ALL about the numbers. Same goes for law school. No one cares how "rigorous" your school is

This is true. I recently spoke with the former admissions director from Brown. They told me that in the past decade they've shifted emphasis away from the SAT and onto GPA for "equity" reasons. Kids at "elite" private high schools are given no breaks because they are perceived as "privileged." Your 3.4 GPA kid at NCS/STA stands no chance against the 4.5 GPA kid from the local public school, even though your kid could probably run circles around them academically.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And this is why high schools send school profiles to colleges so they can see what the average GPA is for students at that particular school.

I prefer private school grading because there is almost always room for improvement. In public schools, meeting the standard gets you an A so there's no motivation to work harder than that. That's why the GPAs are so much higher in public schools. The students met the standard and got an A but their work is not what many would consider A work. Meeting the standard used to be a B or C years ago.

This is SUCH a cope & a completely delusional take.

It doesn't matter at ALL. You are delusional if you think they take that into consideration. ALL schools care about is inflating their OWN numbers for college board reportings. They will 100 percent always accept the student with a 4.5 GPA from some rando public school over the student with a 3.4 GPA from a rigorous private school. It's ALL about the numbers. Same goes for law school. No one cares how "rigorous" your school is

This is true. I recently spoke with the former admissions director from Brown. They told me that in the past decade they've shifted emphasis away from the SAT and onto GPA for "equity" reasons. Kids at "elite" private high schools are given no breaks because they are perceived as "privileged." Your 3.4 GPA kid at NCS/STA stands no chance against the 4.5 GPA kid from the local public school, even though your kid could probably run circles around them academically.

What about 3.7, 3.8?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And this is why high schools send school profiles to colleges so they can see what the average GPA is for students at that particular school.

I prefer private school grading because there is almost always room for improvement. In public schools, meeting the standard gets you an A so there's no motivation to work harder than that. That's why the GPAs are so much higher in public schools. The students met the standard and got an A but their work is not what many would consider A work. Meeting the standard used to be a B or C years ago.

This is SUCH a cope & a completely delusional take.

It doesn't matter at ALL. You are delusional if you think they take that into consideration. ALL schools care about is inflating their OWN numbers for college board reportings. They will 100 percent always accept the student with a 4.5 GPA from some rando public school over the student with a 3.4 GPA from a rigorous private school. It's ALL about the numbers. Same goes for law school. No one cares how "rigorous" your school is

This is true. I recently spoke with the former admissions director from Brown. They told me that in the past decade they've shifted emphasis away from the SAT and onto GPA for "equity" reasons. Kids at "elite" private high schools are given no breaks because they are perceived as "privileged." Your 3.4 GPA kid at NCS/STA stands no chance against the 4.5 GPA kid from the local public school, even though your kid could probably run circles around them academically.

What about 3.7, 3.8?

Depends on the school. Are you looking at a T20? Probably not. Anything in the T20 wants a 3.9+ unweighted GPA. SAT scores no longer can compensate for a lower GPA, which hurts prep school kids a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And this is why high schools send school profiles to colleges so they can see what the average GPA is for students at that particular school.

I prefer private school grading because there is almost always room for improvement. In public schools, meeting the standard gets you an A so there's no motivation to work harder than that. That's why the GPAs are so much higher in public schools. The students met the standard and got an A but their work is not what many would consider A work. Meeting the standard used to be a B or C years ago.

This is SUCH a cope & a completely delusional take.

It doesn't matter at ALL. You are delusional if you think they take that into consideration. ALL schools care about is inflating their OWN numbers for college board reportings. They will 100 percent always accept the student with a 4.5 GPA from some rando public school over the student with a 3.4 GPA from a rigorous private school. It's ALL about the numbers. Same goes for law school. No one cares how "rigorous" your school is

This is true. I recently spoke with the former admissions director from Brown. They told me that in the past decade they've shifted emphasis away from the SAT and onto GPA for "equity" reasons. Kids at "elite" private high schools are given no breaks because they are perceived as "privileged." Your 3.4 GPA kid at NCS/STA stands no chance against the 4.5 GPA kid from the local public school, even though your kid could probably run circles around them academically.

What about 3.7, 3.8?

Not for T25 unless you have a hook.