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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As others have said, St Ann's in Brooklyn has been doing this for decades and it hasn't hurt college admissions for its students in the least. That said...

Schemes like this tend to work best for students applying to colleges that have seen a lot of transcripts from these schools. If you're a St. Ann's student who wants to go to CalTech for engineering or even worse one who wants to go to Arizona State and major in business, I think you're going to have problems.

I think it also works well for subjects that are subjective. People will disagree as to which of the 3 top English students that year at a school like St. Ann's is actually the best writer in much the same way that different people will disagree as to which are the best English-language authors in the real world or even which book ought to win the Man Booker Prize this year.

But when it comes to physics or math? Then I  think the student should make sure to take the AMC and Physics Olympiad exams. There  need context that "best in his class at St.Ann's" isn't going to provide.

Another problem? I think the system really wroks best for students who don't rock the boat. [b]I also don't think every high school teacher is a saint without biases. A male student may overlook the beautiful girl who is actually very good at physics because without even knowing it, he has this  bias that beautiful girls are airheads or only good at the humanities. And the student who challenges teachers? Who refuses to admit that a teacher's favorite poet or book is "all that" ,,,I think that student will suffer.[/quote][/b]

This is VERY true- but it applies to grades on written work too.

Not claiming to be a super model or anything, but I'll never forget how it stung when in HS I had to prove to one of my teachers how I formed the basis for my thesis and take them through my examples because they just didn't believe that these were my own ideas and writing. I can still remember watching his smug expression change to wide eyed surprise and then shame.

Unfortunately, there are LOTs of people like this in education[/quote]

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