Straight As versus almost straight As

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It matters.
My child applied with equal As and A minuses (no Bs) and very strong extracurriculars and did much differently in top20 admissions than classmates who only had one or two A minuses.

I don't believe your claim of causality. Most school districts don't even report A-minuses separately from As.

Academic rigor, SAT/ACT, achievements, extracurriculars, and diversity/challenge factors matter more than tiny differences in GPA.

[Anonymous]

The irony is in college, grades hardly matter at all. C’s get degrees.

[Anonymous]

"top internships" in HIGH SCHOOL absolutely screams wealthy phony.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It matters.
My child applied with equal As and A minuses (no Bs) and very strong extracurriculars and did much differently in top20 admissions than classmates who only had one or two A minuses.

I don't believe your claim of causality. Most school districts don't even report A-minuses separately from As.

Academic rigor, SAT/ACT, achievements, extracurriculars, and diversity/challenge factors matter more than tiny differences in GPA.

Huh? Many schools report A minuses!
And a straight A minus GPA is a 3.7 which is much different than a 4.0 A GPA.
My senior attends a Big3 and the colleges attended by a 3.7 are worlds different than those attended by kids who are close to a 4.0. We're talking Wisconsin vs Princeton. All good schools but we can all agree are different and are literally decided by the A minus vs the A.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It matters.
My child applied with equal As and A minuses (no Bs) and very strong extracurriculars and did much differently in top20 admissions than classmates who only had one or two A minuses.

I don't believe your claim of causality. Most school districts don't even report A-minuses separately from As.

Academic rigor, SAT/ACT, achievements, extracurriculars, and diversity/challenge factors matter more than tiny differences in GPA.

Private schools do report A and A- separately, and most don't weight GPAs. At the top private schools, many kids have very high SATs (above 1550) and strong ECs etc. So absent hooks (esp. for athletes, it seems, and BIG donors), for top students who took the most rigorous courses available, small differences in GPA do matter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How could almost straight As look better than straight As? Given the same rigor, straight As always looks better. But no school requires straight As, kids get into every school with less than perfect grades.

Grades that are too perfect feel somehow off to me (like cheating is involved or something) but I think that is because literally not one person in my graduating class (small private) had straight As. Having seen my son get through two years with straight As, I can see how it is possible. But calc is definitely challenging him.

Umm...I graduated HS with all A's (no A- even), went onto a T10, double majored in engineering and music and graduated in 5 years (with 6+ years of coursework) with a 3.9gpa in College, and multiple internships as well. HS was not that difficult to do well in, college took a bit more work

Speak for yourself. Nerd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It matters.
My child applied with equal As and A minuses (no Bs) and very strong extracurriculars and did much differently in top20 admissions than classmates who only had one or two A minuses.

I don't believe your claim of causality. Most school districts don't even report A-minuses separately from As.

Academic rigor, SAT/ACT, achievements, extracurriculars, and diversity/challenge factors matter more than tiny differences in GPA.

Private schools do report A and A- separately, and most don't weight GPAs. At the top private schools, many kids have very high SATs (above 1550) and strong ECs etc. So absent hooks (esp. for athletes, it seems, and BIG donors), for top students who took the most rigorous courses available, small differences in GPA do matter.

We didn’t realize this difference until end of junior year. My DC was happy with “all As” and thought this was enough. All As doesn’t mean A-s. We thought they are viewed the same but you really need As (95+) each semester (not just final year end grade) to be competitive for top 20 schools +UVA.

[Anonymous]

Our college counselor (competitive private north of DMV) says being in top 10% is important, not grades themselves. This tracks with stats of colleges reporting how many students in top 10%. For example, northwestern is something like 98%(?) and Wash U “just” ~86%(?). Just like SAT scores, colleges won’t want to admit kids who will lower their average

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our college counselor (competitive private north of DMV) says being in top 10% is important, not grades themselves. This tracks with stats of colleges reporting how many students in top 10%. For example, northwestern is something like 98%(?) and Wash U “just” ~86%(?). Just like SAT scores, colleges won’t want to admit kids who will lower their average

For high schools that do not rank, how do we know whether kids are in top 10%? Admission directors repeatedly said they don't compare kids from the same school, but only compare each kid to the reported school profile to understand the rigor and offering. This is what they meant by holistic review.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our college counselor (competitive private north of DMV) says being in top 10% is important, not grades themselves. This tracks with stats of colleges reporting how many students in top 10%. For example, northwestern is something like 98%(?) and Wash U “just” ~86%(?). Just like SAT scores, colleges won’t want to admit kids who will lower their average

For high schools that do not rank, how do we know whether kids are in top 10%? Admission directors repeatedly said they don't compare kids from the same school, but only compare each kid to the reported school profile to understand the rigor and offering. This is what they meant by holistic review.

I think at ours admissions officers at HYPMS know that despite the grade deflation (average GPA 3.5, average SAT 1500) there are about 6-10 kids a year who get above a 3.95. They then assume that level GPA is possible (because it is) and so they mostly hold out for those kids. No one is telling the college that these kids are the top 10% but they know that year-over-year that a handful of kids at this level apply to their university so they look for them and they decline the kids under this bar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our college counselor (competitive private north of DMV) says being in top 10% is important, not grades themselves. This tracks with stats of colleges reporting how many students in top 10%. For example, northwestern is something like 98%(?) and Wash U “just” ~86%(?). Just like SAT scores, colleges won’t want to admit kids who will lower their average

For high schools that do not rank, how do we know whether kids are in top 10%? Admission directors repeatedly said they don't compare kids from the same school, but only compare each kid to the reported school profile to understand the rigor and offering. This is what they meant by holistic review.

Yeah, that’s a white lie. They definitely compare kids from the same school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our college counselor (competitive private north of DMV) says being in top 10% is important, not grades themselves. This tracks with stats of colleges reporting how many students in top 10%. For example, northwestern is something like 98%(?) and Wash U “just” ~86%(?). Just like SAT scores, colleges won’t want to admit kids who will lower their average

For high schools that do not rank, how do we know whether kids are in top 10%? Admission directors repeatedly said they don't compare kids from the same school, but only compare each kid to the reported school profile to understand the rigor and offering. This is what they meant by holistic review.

Lots of schools don’t rank, but have cum laude society. Top ten percent admitted off junior year grades and second ten percent after senior fall. But as someone else already posted, most colleges will have seen decades of kids apply and know the range of grades at each school. Couple that with the information sheet and most colleges can figure it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our college counselor (competitive private north of DMV) says being in top 10% is important, not grades themselves. This tracks with stats of colleges reporting how many students in top 10%. For example, northwestern is something like 98%(?) and Wash U “just” ~86%(?). Just like SAT scores, colleges won’t want to admit kids who will lower their average

For high schools that do not rank, how do we know whether kids are in top 10%? Admission directors repeatedly said they don't compare kids from the same school, but only compare each kid to the reported school profile to understand the rigor and offering. This is what they meant by holistic review.

comparing kid A to the profile (rigor and GPA quartiles are on ours) and comparing kid B to the profile is essentially the same as comparing kid A to kid B. Many top colleges have straight up said they compare kids within the high school first, then the region, then the whole pool.

For the rank Q, if the profile does not make it obvious, ask the head counselor. They will usually tell you the decile and maybe more. Also look at naviance at the very top schools. You can start to see that for the three years listed there are only 5 GPAs above 4.9. Those are the GPAs of very top students. If your kid has a 4.3 and that looks borderline on naviance for UVA in-state, yet you know well over 15% of the class gets in....your kid is not likely in the top 15% but if they have other wow factors could still make it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our college counselor (competitive private north of DMV) says being in top 10% is important, not grades themselves. This tracks with stats of colleges reporting how many students in top 10%. For example, northwestern is something like 98%(?) and Wash U “just” ~86%(?). Just like SAT scores, colleges won’t want to admit kids who will lower their average

For high schools that do not rank, how do we know whether kids are in top 10%? Admission directors repeatedly said they don't compare kids from the same school, but only compare each kid to the reported school profile to understand the rigor and offering. This is what they meant by holistic review.

comparing kid A to the profile (rigor and GPA quartiles are on ours) and comparing kid B to the profile is essentially the same as comparing kid A to kid B. Many top colleges have straight up said they compare kids within the high school first, then the region, then the whole pool.

For the rank Q, if the profile does not make it obvious, ask the head counselor. They will usually tell you the decile and maybe more. Also look at naviance at the very top schools. You can start to see that for the three years listed there are only 5 GPAs above 4.9. Those are the GPAs of very top students. If your kid has a 4.3 and that looks borderline on naviance for UVA in-state, yet you know well over 15% of the class gets in....your kid is not likely in the top 15% but if they have other wow factors could still make it.

Of course they compare kids from the same school. They literally evaluate them all from the same school at the same time. I’ve heard that only MIT allows each application to “stand in its own” which is why getting in there seems random at times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our college counselor (competitive private north of DMV) says being in top 10% is important, not grades themselves. This tracks with stats of colleges reporting how many students in top 10%. For example, northwestern is something like 98%(?) and Wash U “just” ~86%(?). Just like SAT scores, colleges won’t want to admit kids who will lower their average

For high schools that do not rank, how do we know whether kids are in top 10%? Admission directors repeatedly said they don't compare kids from the same school, but only compare each kid to the reported school profile to understand the rigor and offering. This is what they meant by holistic review.

comparing kid A to the profile (rigor and GPA quartiles are on ours) and comparing kid B to the profile is essentially the same as comparing kid A to kid B. Many top colleges have straight up said they compare kids within the high school first, then the region, then the whole pool.

For the rank Q, if the profile does not make it obvious, ask the head counselor. They will usually tell you the decile and maybe more. Also look at naviance at the very top schools. You can start to see that for the three years listed there are only 5 GPAs above 4.9. Those are the GPAs of very top students. If your kid has a 4.3 and that looks borderline on naviance for UVA in-state, yet you know well over 15% of the class gets in....your kid is not likely in the top 15% but if they have other wow factors could still make it.

Of course they compare kids from the same school. They literally evaluate them all from the same school at the same time. I’ve heard that only MIT allows each application to “stand in its own” which is why getting in there seems random at times.

Our college counselor (private school) says that some colleges have admitted to laying all the apps on the table and drawing a GPA line.