Reply to do you think GPA is a "threshold" thing like test scores?

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "do you think GPA is a "threshold" thing like test scores?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If I could say one thing back to the AOs it would be this:

How present is the idea that those transcripts also tell a flawed story. They dont tell you that Bob got the Algebra 2 teacher who doesn't give As and Stacy got the one that allows unlimited corrections. Or that Bob is taking German, from a teacher who thinks a 92 is a B- and Stacy is taking French from the teacher who likes the pretty girls.

Even in the SAME SCHOOL, transcripts are misleading. We all went to HS. We all know this.[/quote]

I understand your worry - and your post is a helpful because many parents share this concern. But it is exactly the sort of thing you can't focus on because it will not move the needle or help your kid in any way. AOs are not looking at one year or one semester of grades in a vacuum. They are not looking at specific subjects in a vacuum. They know that teachers grade differently, that teachers are often luck of the draw, and that all kids applying from that school are going to have "easier" and "harder" teachers'; teachers they click with personality wise and some they don't; teachers who never miss a day of school and others who experience major health issues/take medical leave/etc (one year, my ds had 3 different language teachers). They know this because they read thousands of transcripts every year, they see kids applying from the same schools, and they know that - at their own colleges - the same thing is true for professors. My dd has a class now in which the professor has not given a flat A in three years - she knows she is probably not going to get an A, despite having gotten As in the other classes she has taken in that department, despite it being part of her major. But the prof is excellent and she is learning an enormous amount. Learning to take "hard" classes or teachers is part of being a student and part of what colleges want a student to be able to navigate before they get to college.

So you would not be telling the AOs anything they don't know. It's why parents and students should stop focusing on GPAs that are small fractions apart - it simply does not matter. Every year we have a handful of 4.0 kids with highest rigor in everything and usually math two years ahead. They have 1600 SATs and often some college credits under their belts. They almost never get into T10 schools - and if they do, it is mostly likely MIT. Many end up at Cornell or UChicago or Georgetown. When my dd received her only A- in HS, she freaked out but by senior year she was happy to have it because she didn't want her look like a completer grinder.

THIS is part of why AOs say the transcript is part of the "story" of the kid. Because while it is an important part of the application, a 3.7 vs 3.8 or whatever is not going to be make or break, any more than 1540 vs 1580 will be. As someone who has gone through this process before and is going through it again now, my advice is to focus on bigger stuff, support your kid, and monitor their well being more closely than you monitor each grade.[/quote]

My 2 kids are already in HYPSM. But that doesn’t mean I think it’s fair. I never monitored grades but I know they got lucky w some teachers. Will see about kid #3[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics