Reply to Things are not harder - it’s the same as it always was.

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I think it is harder today than it used to be before the common app.  That said, grade inflation makes it appear tougher than it really is. The reality is that many school districts graduate 20-50 percent of their classes with 3.9/4.0 unweighted. The issue is the school has to send in a profile that shows what percentage of the class had similar grades. Kids are not smarter or harder working today than they used to be.  Top grades are easier to get.   If your child goes to a school that graduates only 4-7 percent of its class with uw 4.0, that shows a more rigorous standard for grading.  Colleges know if a 4.0 uw gpa is a dime a dozen.

If child’s school has a record of grade inflation, it is then necessary to do 4-5 years of every core subject taking the most rigorous courses offered to stand out. Electives can’t be fluff and 3 years of any core subject no longer suffices to stand out.  It has to be 4 or more.

I think the schools also look to see where you came from in the sense that if you are from an affluent area, born on third base, you need to prove you are willing to work hard and just getting As in hard classes isn’t enough. Does the student do that and have a job and play sports/instrument and volunteer?

Kids coming from more challenging circumstances have to work and do well in school with far fewer supports. When they do well, it shows willingness to work hard through the circumstances.  I am glad the schools are beginning to see the value in these kids.[/quote]
So tired of hearing grade inflation! My DC at a magnet school has no grade inflation. Instead, grade deflation, and every excuses the teachers can use not to give an A. So this pandemic really hurt kids who are not good at online classes, and guess what, not all smart kids are good at online, but all diligent kids are. So, are the diligent ones more worthy of top schools? I guess. Maybe they are more desirable because those tend to be students who work hard and complain less. [/quote]
The problem is that there are both types of schools, schools that saw previously-uncharacteristic inflation of grades, and ones that saw more deflation of grades. In theory, this should be noted by admissions officers looking at the high schools' School Profile documents if the document includes a rough breakdown of GPAs by quartile or decile. There is an unfortunate, constant sense that grades are treated as standardized even though everyone agrees they are not. And on top of all that variation, virtual learning was a significantly negative experience for some subset of kids and did affect grades. Nothing in the admission process seems to account for that aspect.

Pre-covid, scores were one way to help determine reaches, matches, and safeties. That approach is not so useful anymore.[/quote]

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