AP offering...

[Anonymous]

After hearing about the Chicago student with the 5.1 GPA that got accepted into 26 schools and was offered $3M in scholarships, made me wonder how many schools in DC have AP courses that would even allow kids here to reach a 5.1 GPA. If your interested, here is the DC WP article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/ap-offerings-vary-widely-in-dc-high-schools/2015/04/20/06348584-e775-11e4-9767-6276fc9b0ada_story.html

[Anonymous]

I think none. Not because we offer less AP's but because I've never encountered a school in this area, public or private, that weights any classes by more than 1.0, or that gives unweighted grades over 4.0. Therefore a student who took all AP/honors classes (impossible, as there's no AP/honors PE) and got perfect scores would have a 5.0.

Of course colleges recalculate GPA's with their own weighing scales.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think none. Not because we offer less AP's but because I've never encountered a school in this area, public or private, that weights any classes by more than 1.0, or that gives unweighted grades over 4.0. Therefore a student who took all AP/honors classes (impossible, as there's no AP/honors PE) and got perfect scores would have a 5.0.

Of course colleges recalculate GPA's with their own weighing scales.

I cannot speak to the private schools of today, or Wilson...
I just know that BASIS schools nationwide (including the two that were ranked #2 and #4 of top public high schools in the US last year by US News & World Report) do not insult college admissions departments by giving their own rankings of their small graduating high school classes, knowing that each of the colleges will rerank their students based on their own equations.........

[Anonymous]

You really think college admissions departments are insulted when a high school weights an AP Physics grade differently than a remedial math grade? As I recall, in my giant public high school, many moons ago, they began weighting due to controversy over which 4.0 student should be valedictorian; the weighted GPAs pretty much solved that issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You really think college admissions departments are insulted when a high school weights an AP Physics grade differently than a remedial math grade? As I recall, in my giant public high school, many moons ago, they began weighting due to controversy over which 4.0 student should be valedictorian; the weighted GPAs pretty much solved that issue.

it is best to ignore BASIS posters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You really think college admissions departments are insulted when a high school weights an AP Physics grade differently than a remedial math grade? As I recall, in my giant public high school, many moons ago, they began weighting due to controversy over which 4.0 student should be valedictorian; the weighted GPAs pretty much solved that issue.

As I said, BASIS does not rank their small graduating classes, knowing that the colleges after making a few wide cuts will use their own ranking systems anyway. I don't know whether small private schools rank students, but again I would think except for valedictorian it would be kind of unnecessary........... and mean........

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think none. Not because we offer less AP's but because I've never encountered a school in this area, public or private, that weights any classes by more than 1.0, or that gives unweighted grades over 4.0. Therefore a student who took all AP/honors classes (impossible, as there's no AP/honors PE) and got perfect scores would have a 5.0.

Of course colleges recalculate GPA's with their own weighing scales.

I cannot speak to the private schools of today, or Wilson...
I just know that BASIS schools nationwide (including the two that were ranked #2 and #4 of top public high schools in the US last year by US News & World Report) do not insult college admissions departments by giving their own rankings of their small graduating high school classes, knowing that each of the colleges will rerank their students based on their own equations.........

Actually I believe BASIS did institute weighting of the grades depending upon whether it is AP or not which seems more fair to me.

[Anonymous]

DCPS does give an extra 1.0 weight to AP classes. I believe it is due to the DCMR (District of Columbia Municipal Regulations)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You really think college admissions departments are insulted when a high school weights an AP Physics grade differently than a remedial math grade? As I recall, in my giant public high school, many moons ago, they began weighting due to controversy over which 4.0 student should be valedictorian; the weighted GPAs pretty much solved that issue.

it is best to ignore BASIS posters.

I think it's even better to ignore BASIS Haters!!

[Anonymous]

BASIS parent here-they do weight their AP grades up AND start ranking students beginning in 5th grade. Their honors and distinguished honors rankings are based on the top 15 and 5 percent of class per term respectively, and their Best in Show awards every year are based on the highest average for the year. My child knows heir ranking in any given class, whether they like it or not. It is impossible, however, to get above a 5.0 in any given class, however.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:BASIS parent here-they do weight their AP grades up AND start ranking students beginning in 5th grade. Their honors and distinguished honors rankings are based on the top 15 and 5 percent of class per term respectively, and their Best in Show awards every year are based on the highest average for the year. My child knows heir ranking in any given class, whether they like it or not. It is impossible, however, to get above a 5.0 in any given class, however.

Actually this is not exactly the way the do it from what I have seen so far for grades 5-8 and possibly higher.. Kids know if they make the honor roll or distinguished honor roll but they do not know where they are in relation to other honor roll students. When I was in high school they literally had your grade average rank as compared to others on the report cards so that the student with the highest grade average ranked number 1 and the second highest ranked number 2 and so on ans so forth.

Also, I got the impression that Best in Show was not just the student with the highest grade point average since other factors like participation and enthusiasm and dedication are taken into account.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCPS does give an extra 1.0 weight to AP classes. I believe it is due to the DCMR (District of Columbia Municipal Regulations)

Yes, but if you weight AP classes +1 then the highest grade in any class is still 5.0, and the highest GAA at graduation will be a little under that because of requirements like P.E. which don't have AP of honors options.

The individual referenced above had a GPA above 5 which is only possible if you're either in a school district that weights AP's at +2 or one that gives a grade of A+ and has very few graduation requirements that can't be met with an honors or AP/IB class. I don't know of any school or district in this area that grades that way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS parent here-they do weight their AP grades up AND start ranking students beginning in 5th grade. Their honors and distinguished honors rankings are based on the top 15 and 5 percent of class per term respectively, and their Best in Show awards every year are based on the highest average for the year. My child knows heir ranking in any given class, whether they like it or not. It is impossible, however, to get above a 5.0 in any given class, however.

Actually this is not exactly the way the do it from what I have seen so far for grades 5-8 and possibly higher.. Kids know if they make the honor roll or distinguished honor roll but they do not know where they are in relation to other honor roll students. When I was in high school they literally had your grade average rank as compared to others on the report cards so that the student with the highest grade average ranked number 1 and the second highest ranked number 2 and so on ans so forth.

Also, I got the impression that Best in Show was not just the student with the highest grade point average since other factors like participation and enthusiasm and dedication are taken into account.

Nope, Best in Show is based on year gpa in a given class, ( Make/Takw/Show is what you might be thinking of) and my kid has been told his general ranking before in a given class (top 5/10 etc) without asking by admin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:BASIS parent here-they do weight their AP grades up AND start ranking students beginning in 5th grade. Their honors and distinguished honors rankings are based on the top 15 and 5 percent of class per term respectively, and their Best in Show awards every year are based on the highest average for the year. My child knows heir ranking in any given class, whether they like it or not. It is impossible, however, to get above a 5.0 in any given class, however.

Actually this is not exactly the way the do it from what I have seen so far for grades 5-8 and possibly higher.. Kids know if they make the honor roll or distinguished honor roll but they do not know where they are in relation to other honor roll students. When I was in high school they literally had your grade average rank as compared to others on the report cards so that the student with the highest grade average ranked number 1 and the second highest ranked number 2 and so on ans so forth.

Also, I got the impression that Best in Show was not just the student with the highest grade point average since other factors like participation and enthusiasm and dedication are taken into account.

Nope, Best in Show is based on year gpa in a given class, ( Make/Takw/Show is what you might be thinking of) and my kid has been told his general ranking before in a given class (top 5/10 etc) without asking by admin.

I still think you are wrong about Best in Show since all of the teachers talked about difficult it was to make a decision which would not be the case if it were only based on grades. My kid got a Best in Show too and the teacher referred to the enthusiasm my kid has as well as other similar qualities.

[Anonymous]

They seriously call in best in show??