I think it's more about comparing students within the same school, especially if the college typically takes students from the school. For example, every year Yale may accept 1-2 students from that school. in this case, it's just a matter of looking at the pool of applicants from the school and picking the 1-2 strongest.

I think in undergrad this is also how law school admissions work. Basically you're competing more with the students from your own school than students from other schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Counselors clue them in sometimes.

The counselor letter is literally the most important thing.

Absolutely frightening if your kid attends a large, high performing public high school where most of the students couldn't pick out their counselor in a police lineup.

So true. Wish these letters weren’t a thing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do colleges account for this? Same high school may have two teachers teaching the same subject who grade very differently.

bottom line is they do not account for it.
my Ds moved from Whitman where he was getting 100% in his 10th grade Honors English. We moved to CA where his teacher was giving him 91% and calling it a B because she had the latitude to define where A grades started and ended. I raised this as a query with the counselor who was befuddled and had no reply and then the principal told me according to law, CA teachers can do this at will.

so there's no accounting for this in my kid's end results, he was a straight A student with a B for 1 semester. the colleges don't know and don't care how he got that grade.

This is the kind of thing to put in that additional information section of the common application.

At the verry end and there’s a box asking if there’s anything else you wish to disclose or explain. Very specific grade in a class would make sense there.

Yes if it had greater impact on him, his transcript etc. It doesn't. He still got an A grade at the end of the year and a bump for the honors. So it's not worth mentioning at all.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colleges get a sheet from the high schools that tells them things like the breakdown of grades over the senior class...like % of 4.5 % over 4.0 etc. It tells them which schools have lots of grade inflation and which do not. They know that MCPS is basically out of 5 with huge numbers of kids have over 4.0 and 4.5

This isn’t true when kids couldn’t possibly take every class as a highest possible of a 5
Again misinformation

Oh, in MCPS, it’s entirely possible. My junior is on track to have only two unweighted classes in their entire HS career: freshman PE, and an entry-level music ensemble.

After that, their audition-only music ensemble was counted as “honors,” they took honors health over the summer, and used AP Computer Science Principles for the required tech credit. Everything else is either Honors, AP, or IB, which are all weighted equally at 5.0. Started junior year with a 4.85 weighted, will probably be 4.9 by the end of this year.

But it would actually be possible to go ever higher. Mine took 2 semesters of unweighted PE when only one was required, and there are a handful of honors options (like the audition-only ensembles) that satisfy the fine arts requirement. You could really have all but that one semester of PE weighted, if you planned carefully.

Hopefully, admissions officers will take a closer look at the transcript and see that my kid did take every AP and IB option their school offered and got As in them, and that their ridiculous weighted GPA isn’t only due to the MCPS honors-for-all bump. They also have a 3.97 unweighted, which should also help. But yeah, it’s ridiculous.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do colleges account for this? Same high school may have two teachers teaching the same subject who grade very differently.

bottom line is they do not account for it.
my Ds moved from Whitman where he was getting 100% in his 10th grade Honors English. We moved to CA where his teacher was giving him 91% and calling it a B because she had the latitude to define where A grades started and ended. I raised this as a query with the counselor who was befuddled and had no reply and then the principal told me according to law, CA teachers can do this at will.

so there's no accounting for this in my kid's end results, he was a straight A student with a B for 1 semester. the colleges don't know and don't care how he got that grade.

Oh this is interesting. We’re in CA too, and my kid has claimed the teachers can determine this, which surprised me (I didn’t believe it actually). I would think each school would have a policy.

The loophole is that if you are trying to get into a highly selective school, you need "standardized" results in EC form: competition wins. Or weird cool stuff that makes the newspaper. Highly selective schools don't want kids who are just good at sitting in class and doing homework. They want Earth-shakers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Counselors clue them in sometimes.

The counselor letter is literally the most important thing.

Absolutely frightening if your kid attends a large, high performing public high school where most of the students couldn't pick out their counselor in a police lineup.

Exactly. There is no way the public school counselors in mcps are going into this level of detail in their rec letters.

Do you think kids with a 3.7-3.9 are having a harder time with admissions? From your public school this year?

Yes

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How do colleges account for this? Same high school may have two teachers teaching the same subject who grade very differently.

bottom line is they do not account for it.
my Ds moved from Whitman where he was getting 100% in his 10th grade Honors English. We moved to CA where his teacher was giving him 91% and calling it a B because she had the latitude to define where A grades started and ended. I raised this as a query with the counselor who was befuddled and had no reply and then the principal told me according to law, CA teachers can do this at will.

so there's no accounting for this in my kid's end results, he was a straight A student with a B for 1 semester. the colleges don't know and don't care how he got that grade.

This is the kind of thing to put in that additional information section of the common application.

At the verry end and there’s a box asking if there’s anything else you wish to disclose or explain. Very specific grade in a class would make sense there.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colleges get a sheet from the high schools that tells them things like the breakdown of grades over the senior class...like % of 4.5 % over 4.0 etc. It tells them which schools have lots of grade inflation and which do not. They know that MCPS is basically out of 5 with huge numbers of kids have over 4.0 and 4.5

This isn’t true when kids couldn’t possibly take every class as a highest possible of a 5
Again misinformation

Not misinformation.."basically out of 5" because aside from PE, you can take every class as honors...and some kids wait to take PE till second semester senior year after apps go out.

Anonymous wrote:How do colleges account for this? Same high school may have two teachers teaching the same subject who grade very differently.

bottom line is they do not account for it.
my Ds moved from Whitman where he was getting 100% in his 10th grade Honors English. We moved to CA where his teacher was giving him 91% and calling it a B because she had the latitude to define where A grades started and ended. I raised this as a query with the counselor who was befuddled and had no reply and then the principal told me according to law, CA teachers can do this at will.

so there's no accounting for this in my kid's end results, he was a straight A student with a B for 1 semester. the colleges don't know and don't care how he got that grade.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Counselors clue them in sometimes.

The counselor letter is literally the most important thing.

Absolutely frightening if your kid attends a large, high performing public high school where most of the students couldn't pick out their counselor in a police lineup.

Exactly. There is no way the public school counselors in mcps are going into this level of detail in their rec letters.

I wouldn't worry. If you talk to AOs from top schools, they understand a counselor recommendation from a 2000 kid public HS won't be the same as a counselor recommendation from a kid from Sidwell.

Honestly, I find the latter a bit scarier because the counselor can basically tank your application if it isn't glowing. The AO knows that the counselor knows you personally, so what they are writing is very specific to you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Counselors clue them in sometimes.

The counselor letter is literally the most important thing.

Absolutely frightening if your kid attends a large, high performing public high school where most of the students couldn't pick out their counselor in a police lineup.

Exactly. There is no way the public school counselors in mcps are going into this level of detail in their rec letters.

Do you think kids with a 3.7-3.9 are having a harder time with admissions? From your public school this year?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Counselors clue them in sometimes.

The counselor letter is literally the most important thing.

Absolutely frightening if your kid attends a large, high performing public high school where most of the students couldn't pick out their counselor in a police lineup.

Exactly. There is no way the public school counselors in mcps are going into this level of detail in their rec letters.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Counselors clue them in sometimes.

The counselor letter is literally the most important thing.

Absolutely frightening if your kid attends a large, high performing public high school where most of the students couldn't pick out their counselor in a police lineup.

That is scary. My HS counselor was terrible.

I have to believe it evens out in the end for each student. One semester you may have the harsh grader and then another you have a gentler grader. So, I feel like in even in MCPS it is extremely difficult to have a perfect 4.0 (at least at our school and if taking the most challenging classes).