Anonymous
Post 03/19/2022 17:29     Subject: Things are not harder - it’s the same as it always was.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Oh please OP. Most of us would never have gotten into our alma mater if we applied today. That's the truth and you know it.


If we applied today, both our standardized test scores and GPAs would be higher. Both have gone up significantly on average, due to recentering and grade inflation.



I went to a private HS and judging by their profile, the GPAs haven't gone up at all there in the last 30 yrs. I was smack dab in the middle of my class there in 1993 and had a 3.3 GPA. Now, a 3.3 GPA puts you right in the middle. SATs would be higher because they recentered the test.
Anonymous
Post 03/19/2022 17:29     Subject: Things are not harder - it’s the same as it always was.
Anonymous wrote:More unqualified kids applying doesn’t make the school actually harder for qualified kids to obtain admissions. I agree with the original poster.

The definition of "qualified" was changed. Formerly limited by a test score, now not limited. The definition change resulted in an expansion of "qualified" applicants.

Grades and scores only correlate for about 2/3 of students, according to an old study. The other third is split, 15% higher grades than scores, 15% higher scores than grades. (Setting aside the idea that so many assumptions treat grades as though they were standardized.)
Anonymous
Post 03/19/2022 17:27     Subject: Things are not harder - it’s the same as it always was.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What is missing from these posts is that there was significant grade inflation for the class of 2022 with their junior year online. Junior year is where the rubber meets the road and kids can do well in 5-6 APs or they don't. If everyone did well there is nothing to distinguish someone who got a 4.0 because of online and cheating vs. hard work and intelligence. Now put all these kids with similar GPAs together, with or without tests, and the highest applicant numbers in history and this is what happens. I hope it works itself out for next year!


YES!

I don't even have a dog in this fight but am a teacher. Let's say in a normal year 10% of kids got straight As. Last year it was like 70% at our school. We were told to be super lenient. The district I teach in (DCPS) did not even give out grades lower than a B. So kids who did the work (in any way, shape or form) got As. The rest (who did nothing) got Bs.
Extrapolate this to an entire district of kids and you have a lot of A students. Thousands.


I’ve seen this posted on DC schools forum and is such a lie. I know kids who got C’s during the pandemic. One of my kid’s has always has a B on report card. The Wilson Beacon actually wrote an article about how GPA’s went DOWN slightly during the pandemic. The district may have said to ease up, but it didn’t always translate. We suffered our share of flaky teachers too.


But it’s Wilson. So that alone is a bump as points rewarded to those who stick it out in a public when tons of better options are available.
Anonymous
Post 03/19/2022 17:25     Subject: Things are not harder - it’s the same as it always was.
Anonymous wrote:More unqualified kids applying doesn’t make the school actually harder for qualified kids to obtain admissions. I agree with the original poster.


Oh stop. The bottom line is that schools are looking past stats to build Noah’s Ark so they can highlight it in their glossies. Test optional allows schools to dive down into lesser qualified applicants so the Ark can be full.
Anonymous
Post 03/19/2022 17:16     Subject: Re:Things are not harder - it’s the same as it always was.
Anonymous wrote:I think it is harder today than it used to be before the common app. That said, grade inflation makes it appear tougher than it really is. The reality is that many school districts graduate 20-50 percent of their classes with 3.9/4.0 unweighted. The issue is the school has to send in a profile that shows what percentage of the class had similar grades. Kids are not smarter or harder working today than they used to be. Top grades are easier to get. If your child goes to a school that graduates only 4-7 percent of its class with uw 4.0, that shows a more rigorous standard for grading. Colleges know if a 4.0 uw gpa is a dime a dozen.

If child’s school has a record of grade inflation, it is then necessary to do 4-5 years of every core subject taking the most rigorous courses offered to stand out. Electives can’t be fluff and 3 years of any core subject no longer suffices to stand out. It has to be 4 or more.

I think the schools also look to see where you came from in the sense that if you are from an affluent area, born on third base, you need to prove you are willing to work hard and just getting As in hard classes isn’t enough. Does the student do that and have a job and play sports/instrument and volunteer?

Kids coming from more challenging circumstances have to work and do well in school with far fewer supports. When they do well, it shows willingness to work hard through the circumstances. I am glad the schools are beginning to see the value in these kids.





So tired of hearing grade inflation! My DC at a magnet school has no grade inflation. Instead, grade deflation, and every excuses the teachers can use not to give an A. So this pandemic really hurt kids who are not good at online classes, and guess what, not all smart kids are good at online, but all diligent kids are. So, are the diligent ones more worthy of top schools? I guess. Maybe they are more desirable because those tend to be students who work hard and complain less.
Anonymous
Post 03/19/2022 17:06     Subject: Things are not harder - it’s the same as it always was.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What is missing from these posts is that there was significant grade inflation for the class of 2022 with their junior year online. Junior year is where the rubber meets the road and kids can do well in 5-6 APs or they don't. If everyone did well there is nothing to distinguish someone who got a 4.0 because of online and cheating vs. hard work and intelligence. Now put all these kids with similar GPAs together, with or without tests, and the highest applicant numbers in history and this is what happens. I hope it works itself out for next year!


YES!

I don't even have a dog in this fight but am a teacher. Let's say in a normal year 10% of kids got straight As. Last year it was like 70% at our school. We were told to be super lenient. The district I teach in (DCPS) did not even give out grades lower than a B. So kids who did the work (in any way, shape or form) got As. The rest (who did nothing) got Bs.
Extrapolate this to an entire district of kids and you have a lot of A students. Thousands.


I’ve seen this posted on DC schools forum and is such a lie. I know kids who got C’s during the pandemic. One of my kid’s has always has a B on report card. The Wilson Beacon actually wrote an article about how GPA’s went DOWN slightly during the pandemic. The district may have said to ease up, but it didn’t always translate. We suffered our share of flaky teachers too.
Anonymous
Post 03/19/2022 17:06     Subject: Things are not harder - it’s the same as it always was.
More unqualified kids applying doesn’t make the school actually harder for qualified kids to obtain admissions. I agree with the original poster.
Anonymous
Post 03/19/2022 14:49     Subject: Things are not harder - it’s the same as it always was.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What is missing from these posts is that there was significant grade inflation for the class of 2022 with their junior year online. Junior year is where the rubber meets the road and kids can do well in 5-6 APs or they don't. If everyone did well there is nothing to distinguish someone who got a 4.0 because of online and cheating vs. hard work and intelligence. Now put all these kids with similar GPAs together, with or without tests, and the highest applicant numbers in history and this is what happens. I hope it works itself out for next year!


YES!

I don't even have a dog in this fight but am a teacher. Let's say in a normal year 10% of kids got straight As. Last year it was like 70% at our school. We were told to be super lenient. The district I teach in (DCPS) did not even give out grades lower than a B. So kids who did the work (in any way, shape or form) got As. The rest (who did nothing) got Bs.
Extrapolate this to an entire district of kids and you have a lot of A students. Thousands.


I wonder if universities looked more closely at AP scores if students submitted them. If you got an A in an AP course but a 2 on related the AP exam, maybe that said something?


Students tend to self-report AP scores, and only those that help them. So the universities won't see any 2s, just high scores or no scores.
Anonymous
Post 03/19/2022 14:41     Subject: Things are not harder - it’s the same as it always was.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Have friends with children at Big 3, FCPS and MCPS.

High GPA kids and/or high test kids all did great. Looks the same as 5, 10 and 15 years ago.

More unqualified kids applying are making the acceptance rates plummet. But the kids with the goods are doing as well as ever.

Sorry to burst your bubble.


I think your own bubble burst. No. You don’t know as much as you think you know. You couldn’t be more wrong. Try talking about topics that you actually know about next time. You make yourself look stupid.


+1 Our college counselor, who has actual data, reports that he is hearing from his colleagues that they are all getting head scratching results over the past two years and what seemed like a predictable trend 5 years ago is now chaos. (And my kid did better than expected, so it wasn't a CYA conversation).
Anonymous
Post 03/19/2022 14:34     Subject: Things are not harder - it’s the same as it always was.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What is missing from these posts is that there was significant grade inflation for the class of 2022 with their junior year online. Junior year is where the rubber meets the road and kids can do well in 5-6 APs or they don't. If everyone did well there is nothing to distinguish someone who got a 4.0 because of online and cheating vs. hard work and intelligence. Now put all these kids with similar GPAs together, with or without tests, and the highest applicant numbers in history and this is what happens. I hope it works itself out for next year!


YES!

I don't even have a dog in this fight but am a teacher. Let's say in a normal year 10% of kids got straight As. Last year it was like 70% at our school. We were told to be super lenient. The district I teach in (DCPS) did not even give out grades lower than a B. So kids who did the work (in any way, shape or form) got As. The rest (who did nothing) got Bs.
Extrapolate this to an entire district of kids and you have a lot of A students. Thousands.


That was not the case in our fcps. Teachers were insanely paranoid. Multiple choice tests turned into essay tests. Homework turned into papers. My son had two great test grades thrown out because if the whole class did well, they assumed everyone cheated and threw the whole classes test out. He had As and Bs in all honors the first two years, junior year online was all IB classes, the teachers and work was ridiculous, and it kicked his ass.


Just based on the fact that FCPS allows kids to retake tests I have to wonder how things really were?


Retake up to 80 percent.
Anonymous
Post 03/19/2022 14:24     Subject: Things are not harder - it’s the same as it always was.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What is missing from these posts is that there was significant grade inflation for the class of 2022 with their junior year online. Junior year is where the rubber meets the road and kids can do well in 5-6 APs or they don't. If everyone did well there is nothing to distinguish someone who got a 4.0 because of online and cheating vs. hard work and intelligence. Now put all these kids with similar GPAs together, with or without tests, and the highest applicant numbers in history and this is what happens. I hope it works itself out for next year!


YES!

I don't even have a dog in this fight but am a teacher. Let's say in a normal year 10% of kids got straight As. Last year it was like 70% at our school. We were told to be super lenient. The district I teach in (DCPS) did not even give out grades lower than a B. So kids who did the work (in any way, shape or form) got As. The rest (who did nothing) got Bs.
Extrapolate this to an entire district of kids and you have a lot of A students. Thousands.


That was not the case in our fcps. Teachers were insanely paranoid. Multiple choice tests turned into essay tests. Homework turned into papers. My son had two great test grades thrown out because if the whole class did well, they assumed everyone cheated and threw the whole classes test out. He had As and Bs in all honors the first two years, junior year online was all IB classes, the teachers and work was ridiculous, and it kicked his ass.


Just based on the fact that FCPS allows kids to retake tests I have to wonder how things really were?
Anonymous
Post 03/19/2022 14:19     Subject: Things are not harder - it’s the same as it always was.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What is missing from these posts is that there was significant grade inflation for the class of 2022 with their junior year online. Junior year is where the rubber meets the road and kids can do well in 5-6 APs or they don't. If everyone did well there is nothing to distinguish someone who got a 4.0 because of online and cheating vs. hard work and intelligence. Now put all these kids with similar GPAs together, with or without tests, and the highest applicant numbers in history and this is what happens. I hope it works itself out for next year!


YES!

I don't even have a dog in this fight but am a teacher. Let's say in a normal year 10% of kids got straight As. Last year it was like 70% at our school. We were told to be super lenient. The district I teach in (DCPS) did not even give out grades lower than a B. So kids who did the work (in any way, shape or form) got As. The rest (who did nothing) got Bs.
Extrapolate this to an entire district of kids and you have a lot of A students. Thousands.


That was not the case in our fcps. Teachers were insanely paranoid. Multiple choice tests turned into essay tests. Homework turned into papers. My son had two great test grades thrown out because if the whole class did well, they assumed everyone cheated and threw the whole classes test out. He had As and Bs in all honors the first two years, junior year online was all IB classes, the teachers and work was ridiculous, and it kicked his ass.
Anonymous
Post 03/19/2022 14:12     Subject: Things are not harder - it’s the same as it always was.
Anonymous wrote:Have friends with children at Big 3, FCPS and MCPS.

High GPA kids and/or high test kids all did great. Looks the same as 5, 10 and 15 years ago.

More unqualified kids applying are making the acceptance rates plummet. But the kids with the goods are doing as well as ever.

Sorry to burst your bubble.


I think your own bubble burst. No. You don’t know as much as you think you know. You couldn’t be more wrong. Try talking about topics that you actually know about next time. You make yourself look stupid.
Anonymous
Post 03/19/2022 14:08     Subject: Re:Things are not harder - it’s the same as it always was.
I feel so bad for high stats kids in CA - applying to UC schools. 2022 is a nightmare for high stat kids in CA. UC only looks at grade 10 and 11 grade (no SAT). Most kids get pass/fail grade in public school in Grade 10. Grade 11 is easy grading - students who put in some efforts get A. Kids may take a bunch of AP classes with A's but do not take the test. UC doesn't look at AP exams. It is a lottery in CA this year. Many of my DD friends are rejected or waitlisted at UC. They came from tough private high school. Get accepted EA into Umich, Prudue, Georiga Tech computer science or engineering but rejected from all the UCs.
Anonymous
Post 03/19/2022 13:52     Subject: Things are not harder - it’s the same as it always was.
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What is missing from these posts is that there was significant grade inflation for the class of 2022 with their junior year online. Junior year is where the rubber meets the road and kids can do well in 5-6 APs or they don't. If everyone did well there is nothing to distinguish someone who got a 4.0 because of online and cheating vs. hard work and intelligence. Now put all these kids with similar GPAs together, with or without tests, and the highest applicant numbers in history and this is what happens. I hope it works itself out for next year!


YES!

I don't even have a dog in this fight but am a teacher. Let's say in a normal year 10% of kids got straight As. Last year it was like 70% at our school. We were told to be super lenient. The district I teach in (DCPS) did not even give out grades lower than a B. So kids who did the work (in any way, shape or form) got As. The rest (who did nothing) got Bs.
Extrapolate this to an entire district of kids and you have a lot of A students. Thousands.


I wonder if universities looked more closely at AP scores if students submitted them. If you got an A in an AP course but a 2 on related the AP exam, maybe that said something?