Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is absurd to me that a kid with a 89.5 and an 80 can earn an A. My own child included.

I agree. Crazy logic and it’s not mathematically sound.

Not to mention an entire point boost from taking an honors course, which we all know is basically a non-remedial class

A Georgetown college advisor said MCPS doesn't separate the true top of the kids from the working to just pull out an A. And that is why parents go INSANE for extra curriculars and extras and top scores in testing. To set them apart from the 79.5 and 89.5 getting A students.

I'm curious, what other insights did the college advisor have on how the university evaluates MCPS students?

She said it is really hard. Course load, athletics/extracurriculars, ACT/SAT score, and if they do other stand out or leadership positions. Legacy and/or showing continued interest. But she was very adamant it is much easier to chose private school kids because of their harsh grading system. I know many that a 92 or 94 and higher are A’s. Below 70 is failing. Or they show number out of 100 grade or at least A-, A, A+.

I don't understand why MCPS can not do + and - grades. I truly don't. And don't get me started on getting rid of finals. Does not help our students when they have to take long tests for college admissions and semester finals. They just aren't prepared.

And I have always been a huge fan of the 0-100 grading system. No letters. Flat out numbers. My private school in NJ did this. Sets everyone apart.

Also, it is darn hard to get 89.5 in some of these advanced High School classes!

All you can do as a public school parent is help your child position themselves to keep options open and compete.

Anonymous wrote:That sounds like some Common Core math to me!

You obviously don’t know what Common Core is.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is absurd to me that a kid with a 89.5 and an 80 can earn an A. My own child included.

I agree. Crazy logic and it’s not mathematically sound.

Not to mention an entire point boost from taking an honors course, which we all know is basically a non-remedial class

A Georgetown college advisor said MCPS doesn't separate the true top of the kids from the working to just pull out an A. And that is why parents go INSANE for extra curriculars and extras and top scores in testing. To set them apart from the 79.5 and 89.5 getting A students.

I'm curious, what other insights did the college advisor have on how the university evaluates MCPS students?

She said it is really hard. Course load, athletics/extracurriculars, ACT/SAT score, and if they do other stand out or leadership positions. Legacy and/or showing continued interest. But she was very adamant it is much easier to chose private school kids because of their harsh grading system. I know many that a 92 or 94 and higher are A’s. Below 70 is failing. Or they show number out of 100 grade or at least A-, A, A+.

Dang! Thank you. This is insightful for my DS who has GU aspirations.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is absurd to me that a kid with a 89.5 and an 80 can earn an A. My own child included.

I agree. Crazy logic and it’s not mathematically sound.

Not to mention an entire point boost from taking an honors course, which we all know is basically a non-remedial class

A Georgetown college advisor said MCPS doesn't separate the true top of the kids from the working to just pull out an A. And that is why parents go INSANE for extra curriculars and extras and top scores in testing. To set them apart from the 79.5 and 89.5 getting A students.

I'm curious, what other insights did the college advisor have on how the university evaluates MCPS students?

She said it is really hard. Course load, athletics/extracurriculars, ACT/SAT score, and if they do other stand out or leadership positions. Legacy and/or showing continued interest. But she was very adamant it is much easier to chose private school kids because of their harsh grading system. I know many that a 92 or 94 and higher are A’s. Below 70 is failing. Or they show number out of 100 grade or at least A-, A, A+.

Parents definitely need to keep this in mind when applying for colleges. A 4.0 gpa is not so fabulous. 4.5 or high might stand out some with high rigor classes. You really need something else because of MCPSs grading scheme. Even AP is not always significant anymore because AP Environmental Studies is very different than AP Physics C

Further info from U Chicago admissions;
37,000 applications. They consider 80%, or about 25,000 to be "academically qualified"
Of that 25,000, they are going to offer admissions to about 2200 students, in order to get 1500 accepted.

Those sort of numbers likely apply to all highly competitive schools. For U Chicago, looking for the "impact outside of classroom" (aka extracurriculars) , and having UC tailored essays. Looking to winnow to best fits. Clearly GPA alone isn't enough; though they didn't specifically address MCPS, it was obvious they were aware of the state of shenanigans of GPAs at many a "top rated" school district.

Also, when one needs to winnow 90+% of qualified students (the 25,000 down to 2,200), clearly it's something of a crap shoot as to acceptance or not.

I don't think it's only MCPS that has codified the "Lake Wobegon Effect", where "all students are above average", into their grading policy.

Anonymous wrote:It is absurd to me that a kid with a 89.5 and an 80 can earn an A. My own child included.

Yeah...One one hand I'm sort of appalled that my dearest beloved child just got an A for the SEMESTER because said child managed to pull up the MP2 grade to an 89.59 the day before the semester ended, after a rock solid B MP1.

On the other hand....go A's!

But truth be told, the grade inflation does make it difficult to ask said child to try harder, when dearest MCPS states the GPA is 4.0 with all the "honors" points and the "round up" marking period averaging but I think the GPA is in truth some where between a 2.8 and a 3.1, depending on how one calculates a "real grade"
Sigh.

But then again .... go A's!

Sigh.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is absurd to me that a kid with a 89.5 and an 80 can earn an A. My own child included.

I agree. Crazy logic and it’s not mathematically sound.

Not to mention an entire point boost from taking an honors course, which we all know is basically a non-remedial class

A Georgetown college advisor said MCPS doesn't separate the true top of the kids from the working to just pull out an A. And that is why parents go INSANE for extra curriculars and extras and top scores in testing. To set them apart from the 79.5 and 89.5 getting A students.

I'm curious, what other insights did the college advisor have on how the university evaluates MCPS students?

She said it is really hard. Course load, athletics/extracurriculars, ACT/SAT score, and if they do other stand out or leadership positions. Legacy and/or showing continued interest. But she was very adamant it is much easier to chose private school kids because of their harsh grading system. I know many that a 92 or 94 and higher are A’s. Below 70 is failing. Or they show number out of 100 grade or at least A-, A, A+.

Parents definitely need to keep this in mind when applying for colleges. A 4.0 gpa is not so fabulous. 4.5 or high might stand out some with high rigor classes. You really need something else because of MCPSs grading scheme. Even AP is not always significant anymore because AP Environmental Studies is very different than AP Physics C

True a 4.0 today is comparable to a 3.0 when I was a kid, which is pretty bad. This is because just about every class is worth 5 points. Seriously, my kid took 3 classes that were worth less than 5.0 before they graduated, but fortunately, colleges don't look at this anyway. They often drop non-academic classes, some drop 9th grade even, and reweight the class value such that honors are worth less than AP, magnet or IB classes. This allows them to differentiate between top tier students much more easily.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is absurd to me that a kid with a 89.5 and an 80 can earn an A. My own child included.

I agree. Crazy logic and it’s not mathematically sound.

Not to mention an entire point boost from taking an honors course, which we all know is basically a non-remedial class

A Georgetown college advisor said MCPS doesn't separate the true top of the kids from the working to just pull out an A. And that is why parents go INSANE for extra curriculars and extras and top scores in testing. To set them apart from the 79.5 and 89.5 getting A students.

I'm curious, what other insights did the college advisor have on how the university evaluates MCPS students?

She said it is really hard. Course load, athletics/extracurriculars, ACT/SAT score, and if they do other stand out or leadership positions. Legacy and/or showing continued interest. But she was very adamant it is much easier to chose private school kids because of their harsh grading system. I know many that a 92 or 94 and higher are A’s. Below 70 is failing. Or they show number out of 100 grade or at least A-, A, A+.

Parents definitely need to keep this in mind when applying for colleges. A 4.0 gpa is not so fabulous. 4.5 or high might stand out some with high rigor classes. You really need something else because of MCPSs grading scheme. Even AP is not always significant anymore because AP Environmental Studies is very different than AP Physics C

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is absurd to me that a kid with a 89.5 and an 80 can earn an A. My own child included.

I agree. Crazy logic and it’s not mathematically sound.

Not to mention an entire point boost from taking an honors course, which we all know is basically a non-remedial class

A Georgetown college advisor said MCPS doesn't separate the true top of the kids from the working to just pull out an A. And that is why parents go INSANE for extra curriculars and extras and top scores in testing. To set them apart from the 79.5 and 89.5 getting A students.

I'm curious, what other insights did the college advisor have on how the university evaluates MCPS students?

She said it is really hard. Course load, athletics/extracurriculars, ACT/SAT score, and if they do other stand out or leadership positions. Legacy and/or showing continued interest. But she was very adamant it is much easier to chose private school kids because of their harsh grading system. I know many that a 92 or 94 and higher are A’s. Below 70 is failing. Or they show number out of 100 grade or at least A-, A, A+.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is absurd to me that a kid with a 89.5 and an 80 can earn an A. My own child included.

I agree. Crazy logic and it’s not mathematically sound.

Not to mention an entire point boost from taking an honors course, which we all know is basically a non-remedial class

A Georgetown college advisor said MCPS doesn't separate the true top of the kids from the working to just pull out an A. And that is why parents go INSANE for extra curriculars and extras and top scores in testing. To set them apart from the 79.5 and 89.5 getting A students.

I'm curious, what other insights did the college advisor have on how the university evaluates MCPS students?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is absurd to me that a kid with a 89.5 and an 80 can earn an A. My own child included.

I agree. Crazy logic and it’s not mathematically sound.

Not to mention an entire point boost from taking an honors course, which we all know is basically a non-remedial class

A Georgetown college advisor said MCPS doesn't separate the true top of the kids from the working to just pull out an A. And that is why parents go INSANE for extra curriculars and extras and top scores in testing. To set them apart from the 79.5 and 89.5 getting A students.

Yup. This is why test scores really do matter for MCPS kids.

Classes they took defensively matter more. I say if your school offers many APs, you have to take at least half of it to be competitive. Honors won't cut it.

Yeah, Honors classes at MCPS are meaningless at this point. It's either AP or IB.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is absurd to me that a kid with a 89.5 and an 80 can earn an A. My own child included.

I agree. Crazy logic and it’s not mathematically sound.

Not to mention an entire point boost from taking an honors course, which we all know is basically a non-remedial class

A Georgetown college advisor said MCPS doesn't separate the true top of the kids from the working to just pull out an A. And that is why parents go INSANE for extra curriculars and extras and top scores in testing. To set them apart from the 79.5 and 89.5 getting A students.

Yup. This is why test scores really do matter for MCPS kids.

Classes they took defensively matter more. I say if your school offers many APs, you have to take at least half of it to be competitive. Honors won't cut it.