Anonymous wrote:The only HS options in MS are math and world language. You need 4 math credits and 3 WL credits for an advanced diploma. Since we knew our child would have this easily from HS alone, we dropped all MS grades, including the A+ ones. Mathematically this is advantageous.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College counselor here - I wish APS did a better job of educating families and students about what colleges care about, and this is. not. it.

a) Selective schools are looking at unweighted GPA and b) rigorous courseload. Dropping middle school classes to bring a 4.4 to a 4.5 or whatever is more likely to make a school think something went very wrong in 8th grade.

So much about the grade inflation at APS results from bones administrators have thrown to parents, over the course of decades, who think they're doing their kids a favor by trying to game this out. It truly will not make a positive difference if you drop As from a middle school transcript.

APS is not helpful at all with the college process. No guidance on how to fill out common app, have to push like hell to get transcripts and counselor letters in for early deadlines. It's embarassing.

Anonymous wrote:College counselor here - I wish APS did a better job of educating families and students about what colleges care about, and this is. not. it.

a) Selective schools are looking at unweighted GPA and b) rigorous courseload. Dropping middle school classes to bring a 4.4 to a 4.5 or whatever is more likely to make a school think something went very wrong in 8th grade.

So much about the grade inflation at APS results from bones administrators have thrown to parents, over the course of decades, who think they're doing their kids a favor by trying to game this out. It truly will not make a positive difference if you drop As from a middle school transcript.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College counselor here - I wish APS did a better job of educating families and students about what colleges care about, and this is. not. it.

a) Selective schools are looking at unweighted GPA and b) rigorous courseload. Dropping middle school classes to bring a 4.4 to a 4.5 or whatever is more likely to make a school think something went very wrong in 8th grade.

So much about the grade inflation at APS results from bones administrators have thrown to parents, over the course of decades, who think they're doing their kids a favor by trying to game this out. It truly will not make a positive difference if you drop As from a middle school transcript.

APS is not helpful at all with the college process. No guidance on how to fill out common app, have to push like hell to get transcripts and counselor letters in for early deadlines. It's embarassing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid dropped 7 high school classes that were taken in middle school. A whole year of extra classes makes an impact on GPA

How much of an impact?

We are looking at 4. How on earth did a kid take 7 HS credits in an Arl middle school? Usually it's 2 years foreign language, one World Geo and 1 or 2 math classes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College counselor here - I wish APS did a better job of educating families and students about what colleges care about, and this is. not. it.

a) Selective schools are looking at unweighted GPA and b) rigorous courseload. Dropping middle school classes to bring a 4.4 to a 4.5 or whatever is more likely to make a school think something went very wrong in 8th grade.

So much about the grade inflation at APS results from bones administrators have thrown to parents, over the course of decades, who think they're doing their kids a favor by trying to game this out. It truly will not make a positive difference if you drop As from a middle school transcript.

I don’t believe this is true at all schools. You cant tell me that colleges that are getting 25,000+ applications are recalculating everyones grades. They have a cutoff and then more intensely review those over that hurdle.

Anonymous wrote:My kid dropped 7 high school classes that were taken in middle school. A whole year of extra classes makes an impact on GPA

Anonymous wrote:College counselor here - I wish APS did a better job of educating families and students about what colleges care about, and this is. not. it.

a) Selective schools are looking at unweighted GPA and b) rigorous courseload. Dropping middle school classes to bring a 4.4 to a 4.5 or whatever is more likely to make a school think something went very wrong in 8th grade.

So much about the grade inflation at APS results from bones administrators have thrown to parents, over the course of decades, who think they're doing their kids a favor by trying to game this out. It truly will not make a positive difference if you drop As from a middle school transcript.

Anonymous wrote:If school has a single valedictorian then would be only reason would even consider that and not for purposes of colleges. So many schools now do everyone is valedictorian so no reason to do for that either. If are trying to game for single valedictorian, remember is more than just dropping MS classes, should also be doing pass/fail for as many non-core classes to get the denominator lower and take as many full bump classes. Do think too much time on hands if doing this though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:College counselor here - I wish APS did a better job of educating families and students about what colleges care about, and this is. not. it.

a) Selective schools are looking at unweighted GPA and b) rigorous courseload. Dropping middle school classes to bring a 4.4 to a 4.5 or whatever is more likely to make a school think something went very wrong in 8th grade.

So much about the grade inflation at APS results from bones administrators have thrown to parents, over the course of decades, who think they're doing their kids a favor by trying to game this out. It truly will not make a positive difference if you drop As from a middle school transcript.

Thank you! This validates my decision not to have my kid drop their middle school grades. I figured colleges would calculate the GPA their own way so it would not matter if weighted GPA could be slightly higher. I also thought it was a plus for colleges to see As in high school courses back in middle school so why drop those. Also I was paranoid that we would accidentally drop a credit that is needed for graduation. So we left them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP here - all the grades are As but b/c they aren’t weighted they actually bring down the overall gpa.

I just emailed our counselor about this for clarification. My DC has all As from MS, but the weighting is impacted.