Assuming this is a mainstream school, there is a long, tangible and demonstrable record of where the graduating students went to college. The colleges have relationships with all of the schools - public and private to various extents - and have a good feel for the available classes, relative performance and candidates that the do or do not want.

Our private claims not to rank and share GPAs, but every year, the graduates go to the same top-tier colleges that people everyone loves to boast about on this board. The colleges fully understand what is happening in high school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:they do not rank, do not calculate gpa, and do not weight AP/Advance courses?

If colleges do not have this information, does that mean LOR is the most important thing?

Colleges can easily calculate GPA and figure out which classes would be weighted at other schools. This isn't a problem.

But they can't know where a kid stands compared to the class as a whole in terms of how rigorous their pathway was and the GPA of students in the rigorous path vs not. This sort of profile cannot show a college that the person with a 3.89 with all rigorous courses lined up against classmates with a similar schedule and it's not as obvious if there is a classmate with less rigor when it isn't marked on the transcript (which it isn't). It makes colleges work harder to see these differences.

But - it is what it is....

It means there will be a sheet that probably accompanies every child's transcript that attempts to describe how classes are leveled.

This only does so much good. It makes it harder for the colleges to gauge (other than having one application directly to compare to another) how the student stands up within the class while also considering rigor. LOR will make a huge difference. In our DC's graduating class, this seemed to lead to lesser outcomes for unhooked kids taking the most rigorous courseload and better outcomes for hooked kids with less rigorous pathways.

In the end - you need to decide whether you are there for your child to get a good education versus there for some sort of college placement. I'd recommend you not focus on the placement so much....(not accusing you of doing so - but using these two as examples to weigh/consider)

Anonymous wrote:they do not rank, do not calculate gpa, and do not weight AP/Advance courses?

If colleges do not have this information, does that mean LOR is the most important thing?

Colleges can easily calculate GPA and figure out which classes would be weighted at other schools. This isn't a problem.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:they do not rank, do not calculate gpa, and do not weight AP/Advance courses?

If colleges do not have this information, does that mean LOR is the most important thing?

Yes because that letter needs to explain the class differences.

The school profile has all this information. The LORs should concentrate on the individual student, not overall school policies.

The school profile for this school does not have any of this information.

Do you mean the online school profile or the one that is sent with college applications? If the later contains none of that then is there a counseling of CCO letter that provides some information?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:they do not rank, do not calculate gpa, and do not weight AP/Advance courses?

If colleges do not have this information, does that mean LOR is the most important thing?

Yes because that letter needs to explain the class differences.

The school profile has all this information. The LORs should concentrate on the individual student, not overall school policies.

The school profile for this school does not have any of this information.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:they do not rank, do not calculate gpa, and do not weight AP/Advance courses?

If colleges do not have this information, does that mean LOR is the most important thing?

Yes because that letter needs to explain the class differences.

The school profile has all this information. The LORs should concentrate on the individual student, not overall school policies.

Anonymous wrote:they do not rank, do not calculate gpa, and do not weight AP/Advance courses?

If colleges do not have this information, does that mean LOR is the most important thing?

Yes because that letter needs to explain the class differences.

That the schools doesn’t calculate GPA most certainly does not mean that colleges don’t. The colleges have their own profile of the school…rigor, teaching style, grade inflation, available courses, etc…

The schools may pretend to not support the whole ranking thing, but it’s irrelevant.

they do not rank, do not calculate gpa, and do not weight AP/Advance courses?

If colleges do not have this information, does that mean LOR is the most important thing?