Anonymous
06/03/2026 20:28
Subject: All AP/DE classes, 1580 SAT, strong grades, but terrible attendance. Does it matter?
My kid's school will start deducting points off of GPA after a certain number of unexcused absences, so it can matter (but it also is a terrible lesson to allow kids to skip school).
Anonymous
06/03/2026 19:51
Subject: All AP/DE classes, 1580 SAT, strong grades, but terrible attendance. Does it matter?
It matters because it shows the grades are inflated. A kid with that many unexcused absenses should be failing because going to class should make a difference in learning and performing on exams. Clearly is doesn't, so the course is a cake walk.
Anonymous
06/02/2026 21:31
Subject: All AP/DE classes, 1580 SAT, strong grades, but terrible attendance. Does it matter?
Anonymous wrote:Great SAT but 7 APs is barely anything these days. Any good extracurriculars?
Its all some schools offer.
Anonymous
06/02/2026 21:30
Subject: All AP/DE classes, 1580 SAT, strong grades, but terrible attendance. Does it matter?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Great SAT but 7 APs is barely anything these days. Any good extracurriculars?
Yes, they have a bunch of projects with other kids from school. The irony is that some of the missed school time has been to work on these outside projects with those same kids. So in my kid's mind, it is worth it.
This whole version of high school feels bizarre to me. I grew up thinking the formula was: attend school every day, get good grades, take challenging classes, get a high 1300s SAT or above, and that was the path. But now, if a kid is aiming for highly competitive schools, it seems like that alone is not enough anymore. They have to time-slice everything and sometimes even miss school to focus on extracurriculars, projects, and competitions.
Look at this data. It is wild. In the 1970s and 1980s, MIT average SAT scores were roughly around 1350, which carried a much higher percentile ranking than a similar score today. In the early 1990s, MIT's average SAT scores were around 1370. Since 2015, SAT scores for admitted students have increased by roughly 55 points, and current admitted students are averaging around 1550 to 1560. The recent middle 50% range is about 1510 to 1580, with Math often near perfect.
I am not saying attendance does not matter, but the system feels very strange when the same schools and colleges seem to reward the extras that sometimes require students to miss school. Some kids are even flying during the school week for competitions tied to these projects and missing three days of school at a time.
The SAT as it is written now is very different from the SAT of the 1990s. No analogies. Shorter reading passages. Designed to be taking in a shorter amount of time and requiring less stamina to complete.
For attendance, if your DC is missing school to work on projects and this appears on the transcript, explain this in the additional info section. Missing school for an enrichment project sounds different from skipping class to smoke weed behind the shed.
Yes its not just sports clubs etc, its actual volunteering work in other countries areas, engineering competitions etc at this point some of these kids I would hire as second year software engineers with all the experience (right now). I think some of the kids get it that there is no such thing as internship entry level anymore and have to put themselves through this crazyness. I am not saying my kid is going to ivy league or whatever but they feel this is the minmium for upper end state schools and a hail marry to a few ivies.
You dreaming if you think your kid going to Ivy
Who is this OP, I wonder. An anxious parent? A bored kid? I truly have no idea.
Anonymous
06/02/2026 21:10
Subject: Re:All AP/DE classes, 1580 SAT, strong grades, but terrible attendance. Does it matter?
You seem very detached from your own child. My kid isn’t missing school unless he is sick. Is your child sick and has a legit reason for missing school (doing projects isn’t one of them)?
Anonymous
06/02/2026 20:40
Subject: All AP/DE classes, 1580 SAT, strong grades, but terrible attendance. Does it matter?
Volunteering work in other countries? Oh brother.
Anonymous
06/02/2026 19:57
Subject: All AP/DE classes, 1580 SAT, strong grades, but terrible attendance. Does it matter?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Great SAT but 7 APs is barely anything these days. Any good extracurriculars?
Yes, they have a bunch of projects with other kids from school. The irony is that some of the missed school time has been to work on these outside projects with those same kids. So in my kid's mind, it is worth it.
This whole version of high school feels bizarre to me. I grew up thinking the formula was: attend school every day, get good grades, take challenging classes, get a high 1300s SAT or above, and that was the path. But now, if a kid is aiming for highly competitive schools, it seems like that alone is not enough anymore. They have to time-slice everything and sometimes even miss school to focus on extracurriculars, projects, and competitions.
Look at this data. It is wild. In the 1970s and 1980s, MIT average SAT scores were roughly around 1350, which carried a much higher percentile ranking than a similar score today. In the early 1990s, MIT's average SAT scores were around 1370. Since 2015, SAT scores for admitted students have increased by roughly 55 points, and current admitted students are averaging around 1550 to 1560. The recent middle 50% range is about 1510 to 1580, with Math often near perfect.
I am not saying attendance does not matter, but the system feels very strange when the same schools and colleges seem to reward the extras that sometimes require students to miss school. Some kids are even flying during the school week for competitions tied to these projects and missing three days of school at a time.
The SAT as it is written now is very different from the SAT of the 1990s. No analogies. Shorter reading passages. Designed to be taking in a shorter amount of time and requiring less stamina to complete.
For attendance, if your DC is missing school to work on projects and this appears on the transcript, explain this in the additional info section. Missing school for an enrichment project sounds different from skipping class to smoke weed behind the shed.
Yes its not just sports clubs etc, its actual volunteering work in other countries areas, engineering competitions etc at this point some of these kids I would hire as second year software engineers with all the experience (right now). I think some of the kids get it that there is no such thing as internship entry level anymore and have to put themselves through this crazyness. I am not saying my kid is going to ivy league or whatever but they feel this is the minmium for upper end state schools and a hail marry to a few ivies.
You dreaming if you think your kid going to Ivy
Anonymous
06/02/2026 18:11
Subject: All AP/DE classes, 1580 SAT, strong grades, but terrible attendance. Does it matter?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Great SAT but 7 APs is barely anything these days. Any good extracurriculars?
Yes, they have a bunch of projects with other kids from school. The irony is that some of the missed school time has been to work on these outside projects with those same kids. So in my kid's mind, it is worth it.
This whole version of high school feels bizarre to me. I grew up thinking the formula was: attend school every day, get good grades, take challenging classes, get a high 1300s SAT or above, and that was the path. But now, if a kid is aiming for highly competitive schools, it seems like that alone is not enough anymore. They have to time-slice everything and sometimes even miss school to focus on extracurriculars, projects, and competitions.
Look at this data. It is wild. In the 1970s and 1980s, MIT average SAT scores were roughly around 1350, which carried a much higher percentile ranking than a similar score today. In the early 1990s, MIT's average SAT scores were around 1370. Since 2015, SAT scores for admitted students have increased by roughly 55 points, and current admitted students are averaging around 1550 to 1560. The recent middle 50% range is about 1510 to 1580, with Math often near perfect.
I am not saying attendance does not matter, but the system feels very strange when the same schools and colleges seem to reward the extras that sometimes require students to miss school. Some kids are even flying during the school week for competitions tied to these projects and missing three days of school at a time.
The SAT as it is written now is very different from the SAT of the 1990s. No analogies. Shorter reading passages. Designed to be taking in a shorter amount of time and requiring less stamina to complete.
For attendance, if your DC is missing school to work on projects and this appears on the transcript, explain this in the additional info section. Missing school for an enrichment project sounds different from skipping class to smoke weed behind the shed.
Yes its not just sports clubs etc, its actual volunteering work in other countries areas, engineering competitions etc at this point some of these kids I would hire as second year software engineers with all the experience (right now). I think some of the kids get it that there is no such thing as internship entry level anymore and have to put themselves through this crazyness. I am not saying my kid is going to ivy league or whatever but they feel this is the minmium for upper end state schools and a hail marry to a few ivies.
Anonymous
06/02/2026 17:59
Subject: All AP/DE classes, 1580 SAT, strong grades, but terrible attendance. Does it matter?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Great SAT but 7 APs is barely anything these days. Any good extracurriculars?
Yes, they have a bunch of projects with other kids from school. The irony is that some of the missed school time has been to work on these outside projects with those same kids. So in my kid's mind, it is worth it.
This whole version of high school feels bizarre to me. I grew up thinking the formula was: attend school every day, get good grades, take challenging classes, get a high 1300s SAT or above, and that was the path. But now, if a kid is aiming for highly competitive schools, it seems like that alone is not enough anymore. They have to time-slice everything and sometimes even miss school to focus on extracurriculars, projects, and competitions.
Look at this data. It is wild. In the 1970s and 1980s, MIT average SAT scores were roughly around 1350, which carried a much higher percentile ranking than a similar score today. In the early 1990s, MIT's average SAT scores were around 1370. Since 2015, SAT scores for admitted students have increased by roughly 55 points, and current admitted students are averaging around 1550 to 1560. The recent middle 50% range is about 1510 to 1580, with Math often near perfect.
I am not saying attendance does not matter, but the system feels very strange when the same schools and colleges seem to reward the extras that sometimes require students to miss school. Some kids are even flying during the school week for competitions tied to these projects and missing three days of school at a time.
The SAT as it is written now is very different from the SAT of the 1990s. No analogies. Shorter reading passages. Designed to be taking in a shorter amount of time and requiring less stamina to complete.
For attendance, if your DC is missing school to work on projects and this appears on the transcript, explain this in the additional info section. Missing school for an enrichment project sounds different from skipping class to smoke weed behind the shed.
Anonymous
06/02/2026 13:49
Subject: All AP/DE classes, 1580 SAT, strong grades, but terrible attendance. Does it matter?
A reply from a junior English teacher (AP Language and Composition):
You'd be surprised at the grade inflation that can happen surrounding absences specifically - a lot of times, teachers may excuse assignments missed during absences (this can include tests and quizzes!) because they don't feel like dealing with either a) chasing around students to make missing work up or b) dealing with the fallout from angry parents. I AM NOT SAYING THIS IS RIGHT! But I am saying it happens.
There has been such a profound increase in student absences in recent years that it truly does become impossible to play whack-a-mole with everybody.
The SAT score is solid, though, so there's that. I just wouldn't put a TON of faith in those As and Bs unless you see evidence of actual graded work with teacher feedback.
You'd be surprised at the grade inflation that can happen surrounding absences specifically - a lot of times, teachers may excuse assignments missed during absences (this can include tests and quizzes!) because they don't feel like dealing with either a) chasing around students to make missing work up or b) dealing with the fallout from angry parents. I AM NOT SAYING THIS IS RIGHT! But I am saying it happens.
There has been such a profound increase in student absences in recent years that it truly does become impossible to play whack-a-mole with everybody.
The SAT score is solid, though, so there's that. I just wouldn't put a TON of faith in those As and Bs unless you see evidence of actual graded work with teacher feedback.
Anonymous
06/02/2026 13:47
Subject: All AP/DE classes, 1580 SAT, strong grades, but terrible attendance. Does it matter?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:High Bs won’t be enough to get in where he wants.
This is we’re OP and her kid are going to be SHOCKED. Bs can be very detrimental for elite admissions because there are many plenty of 1550+s with all As. Also sounds like from the way OP is framing it, he has more than one or two.
OP will be back here in a year saying he didn’t get into a T30 with a 1580 bc of the absences, but it will really be the grades.
College may be a pointless waste of money in a year due to AI advances, so it probably won't matter anyway.
Anonymous
06/02/2026 13:15
Subject: All AP/DE classes, 1580 SAT, strong grades, but terrible attendance. Does it matter?
Anonymous wrote:High Bs won’t be enough to get in where he wants.
This is we’re OP and her kid are going to be SHOCKED. Bs can be very detrimental for elite admissions because there are many plenty of 1550+s with all As. Also sounds like from the way OP is framing it, he has more than one or two.
OP will be back here in a year saying he didn’t get into a T30 with a 1580 bc of the absences, but it will really be the grades.