Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Base school plus magnet.

How is this?
Not a troll, in all honesty.

This is weighted right? Because it's impossible to have over a 4.0 unweighted.

My rising sophomore has a 3.95 and a 4.7 weighted. He's taken majority honors courses and 1 AP (MCPS rates these all as a +1.0 bump). Only 1 B out of 16 semester grades and it was a honors class.

Still unbelievable that many kids outrank him with straight As.

It's largely because an A today doesn't mean what it did 20 years ago. Today 30% of a class typically has an UW 4.0. Back when I was in HS <5% of my class even qualified for NHS.

Not in FCPS. Unweighted 4.0- nope.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Base school plus magnet.

How is this?
Not a troll, in all honesty.

This is weighted right? Because it's impossible to have over a 4.0 unweighted.

My rising sophomore has a 3.95 and a 4.7 weighted. He's taken majority honors courses and 1 AP (MCPS rates these all as a +1.0 bump). Only 1 B out of 16 semester grades and it was a honors class.

Still unbelievable that many kids outrank him with straight As.

It's largely because an A today doesn't mean what it did 20 years ago. Today 30% of a class typically has an UW 4.0. Back when I was in HS <5% of my class even qualified for NHS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Base school plus magnet.

How is this?
Not a troll, in all honesty.

This is weighted right? Because it's impossible to have over a 4.0 unweighted.

My rising sophomore has a 3.95 and a 4.7 weighted. He's taken majority honors courses and 1 AP (MCPS rates these all as a +1.0 bump). Only 1 B out of 16 semester grades and it was a honors class.

Still unbelievable that many kids outrank him with straight As.

What's unbelievable is that a kid can have a 4.7 GPA with a single AP class.

Not if they get a 1.0 bump for honors and offer foreign language honors. MCPS just GPA inflates.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Base school plus magnet.

How is this?
Not a troll, in all honesty.

This is weighted right? Because it's impossible to have over a 4.0 unweighted.

My rising sophomore has a 3.95 and a 4.7 weighted. He's taken majority honors courses and 1 AP (MCPS rates these all as a +1.0 bump). Only 1 B out of 16 semester grades and it was a honors class.

Still unbelievable that many kids outrank him with straight As.

What's unbelievable is that a kid can have a 4.7 GPA with a single AP class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here,

Gpa got updated :

Unweighted gpa as sophomore is 3.79

All Student Cumulative - 4.1

Now I didnt even have to ask here.
It is bad.

No. It’s not. GPA jumps a lot junior year when kids start picking up a full load of AP classes— if they do well. Also, for reference, that was my completely unhooked DD’s GPA after junior year. Took a lot of foreign language (7 years worth just in HS) and 4 years of orchestra— which is a lot of unweighted credit. Admitted to WM ED. While not an Ivy, it has certainly a great destination for her. Take a deep breath. It will be okay.

Wow .
Thanks gives me hope.
How did she get 7 years worth foreign language credit? Was 3 years in middle school?
Congrats on your daughter’s admission to WM. Thats a great school.

Nope. No MS foreign language. 4 Years of Latin in HS— but her Latin teacher had her skip level 4 in favor of AP. Then picked up a Romance language junior year. Did year 2 between junior and senior and went into year 3 as a senior. So did 8 years and got class credit for 7. The Latin helped a lot with the second language and with doing level 2 over the summer (as did it being summer 2020, so not much else to do). And, spent summer 2019 doing a third foreign language through an NSA critical languages program and did not get class credit. Also did 11 humanities APs and 0 STEM APs (and only 3 years of science) but her primary EC, besides music, was heavily STEM based.

Now a double major in IR and a non-Romance critical language. Loves what she’s doing. Loves WM. And living her best life. In fact, overseas this summer doing language immersion. I’m guessing she got into WM because she looked different on paper than her peers? WM likes different/interesting. And, because she was clearly doing what she loved. She knew exactly where she was heading early. I stepped back and let it happen. Very thankful it all came together in college admissions.

Anyway, don’t get hung up on a number. Especially at smaller schools, she’ll get the chance to show them the person behind the number. And there will be a great school where that person fits.

Everybody likes different and interesting.
Nobody wants different for difference sake.
And almost every kid is interesting in some way
It sounds like your daughter got into WM because she is legit excellent at something.

PP, and I think this is all true. I didn’t add they my kid got 36/36 on the ACT English and Reading and a respectable average of 33 in STEM. And really has a facility for and interest in foreign affairs and foreign languages. After doing college admissions for two kids who were excellent (or at least had strong interests) in very different areas, I think stepping back and letting the kid get creative in crafting a class schedule— esp junior and senior years— that let them take the classes they loved in areas where they shined worked very well. And not just from a college admissions point of view. They loved their classes and were happy. But, I can say that after the fact. Stepping back and letting your kid deviate from “hardest possible class in every subject” is tough. And there are no guarantees it will work. It definitely won’t work for every school. Pretty sure my kids lack of STEM would have been a hard and fast No from UVA, which is clear it wants hardest class in every core. That’s why doing a college search tailored to your specific kid, and not just T-whatever is so important. You want a college who sees the ways your kid is interesting and values them.

That said, there was some sniping when WM Rd decision came out and there were a lot of disappointed kid that DD was admitted to WM while “skipping” some upper level STEM her humanities oriented peers struggled through (she knew better than to share GPA and scores with anyone). That because she followed a different path, her admission was “unfair”. A good lesson for her in not engaging and holding her head high.

And no, you shouldn’t need to create different and interesting for the sake of having it. Most high school kids I know already have passions and interests that can be tied to high school classes and summer programs. They’re as interesting in their own right as you allow them to be.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here,

Gpa got updated :

Unweighted gpa as sophomore is 3.79

All Student Cumulative - 4.1

Now I didnt even have to ask here.
It is bad.

No. It’s not. GPA jumps a lot junior year when kids start picking up a full load of AP classes— if they do well. Also, for reference, that was my completely unhooked DD’s GPA after junior year. Took a lot of foreign language (7 years worth just in HS) and 4 years of orchestra— which is a lot of unweighted credit. Admitted to WM ED. While not an Ivy, it has certainly a great destination for her. Take a deep breath. It will be okay.

Wow .
Thanks gives me hope.
How did she get 7 years worth foreign language credit? Was 3 years in middle school?
Congrats on your daughter’s admission to WM. Thats a great school.

Nope. No MS foreign language. 4 Years of Latin in HS— but her Latin teacher had her skip level 4 in favor of AP. Then picked up a Romance language junior year. Did year 2 between junior and senior and went into year 3 as a senior. So did 8 years and got class credit for 7. The Latin helped a lot with the second language and with doing level 2 over the summer (as did it being summer 2020, so not much else to do). And, spent summer 2019 doing a third foreign language through an NSA critical languages program and did not get class credit. Also did 11 humanities APs and 0 STEM APs (and only 3 years of science) but her primary EC, besides music, was heavily STEM based.

Now a double major in IR and a non-Romance critical language. Loves what she’s doing. Loves WM. And living her best life. In fact, overseas this summer doing language immersion. I’m guessing she got into WM because she looked different on paper than her peers? WM likes different/interesting. And, because she was clearly doing what she loved. She knew exactly where she was heading early. I stepped back and let it happen. Very thankful it all came together in college admissions.

Anyway, don’t get hung up on a number. Especially at smaller schools, she’ll get the chance to show them the person behind the number. And there will be a great school where that person fits.

Everybody likes different and interesting.
Nobody wants different for difference sake.
And almost every kid is interesting in some way
It sounds like your daughter got into WM because she is legit excellent at something.

Anonymous wrote:Base school plus magnet.

How is this?
Not a troll, in all honesty.

This is weighted right? Because it's impossible to have over a 4.0 unweighted.

My rising sophomore has a 3.95 and a 4.7 weighted. He's taken majority honors courses and 1 AP (MCPS rates these all as a +1.0 bump). Only 1 B out of 16 semester grades and it was a honors class.

Still unbelievable that many kids outrank him with straight As.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op here,

Gpa got updated :

Unweighted gpa as sophomore is 3.79

All Student Cumulative - 4.1

Now I didnt even have to ask here.
It is bad.

No. It’s not. GPA jumps a lot junior year when kids start picking up a full load of AP classes— if they do well. Also, for reference, that was my completely unhooked DD’s GPA after junior year. Took a lot of foreign language (7 years worth just in HS) and 4 years of orchestra— which is a lot of unweighted credit. Admitted to WM ED. While not an Ivy, it has certainly a great destination for her. Take a deep breath. It will be okay.

Wow .
Thanks gives me hope.
How did she get 7 years worth foreign language credit? Was 3 years in middle school?
Congrats on your daughter’s admission to WM. Thats a great school.

Nope. No MS foreign language. 4 Years of Latin in HS— but her Latin teacher had her skip level 4 in favor of AP. Then picked up a Romance language junior year. Did year 2 between junior and senior and went into year 3 as a senior. So did 8 years and got class credit for 7. The Latin helped a lot with the second language and with doing level 2 over the summer (as did it being summer 2020, so not much else to do). And, spent summer 2019 doing a third foreign language through an NSA critical languages program and did not get class credit. Also did 11 humanities APs and 0 STEM APs (and only 3 years of science) but her primary EC, besides music, was heavily STEM based.

Now a double major in IR and a non-Romance critical language. Loves what she’s doing. Loves WM. And living her best life. In fact, overseas this summer doing language immersion. I’m guessing she got into WM because she looked different on paper than her peers? WM likes different/interesting. And, because she was clearly doing what she loved. She knew exactly where she was heading early. I stepped back and let it happen. Very thankful it all came together in college admissions.

Anyway, don’t get hung up on a number. Especially at smaller schools, she’ll get the chance to show them the person behind the number. And there will be a great school where that person fits.

Not to be a downer, if your child graduated HS in 2021, people should know the college admissions landscape is very different (harder) now. Using the last two years of info will be the most accurate.

WOW, thats awesome!
The passion shone through… that makes a big difference too. Good luck to her for future.

Thanks for the clarification!