About a 4.0 unweight GPA

<p>As you may have known, I will talk about our DD 's college application processes in most of my conversations. To my surprise, I got a lot of "I don't believe you" look when I tell others that our DD has never get a grade other than A since the first day of her schooling. </p>

<p>Based on what I have read here on CC, I was under the impression that each HS will have at least handful kids who are maintaining straight As. </p>

<p>I guess my question to the forum is: how rare is a perfect 4.0 unweight GPA these days? In our DD's case, it is all the honor and 10 AP plus required selectives.</p>

<p>PS. our DS is currently maintaining a 4.0 too as a 10th grader. If we could have two in one family, it should not be that rare overall.</p>

<p>It didn't seem rare to me at all when I was in high school. The top 5% of the graduating class had 4.0s.</p>

<p>It isn't that rare, even at TJ in VA. Some students excel in academics. Just be proud of them!</p>

<p>Commonality varies school to school. Some of my friends went to high schools where it was just assumed that every good student could get straight A's, often without even working too hard; others went to schools where straight A's were totally unheard of, no matter how bright or hard-working a student (I can only think of 2-3 possible unweighted 4.0's from my high school class of nearly 200). Of course, it's a great achievement, regardless, and says only good things about your daughter :)</p>

<p>It's likely that your daughter will have a pretty good idea of how common (or not) A's are at her school. If you're curious, she's probably your best resource!</p>

<p>One word of caution: try keeping emphasis on "doing well" or "doing one's best" and not necessarily on "getting A's," especially as college approaches. There are plenty of threads on CC (mostly in the "College Life" forum) in which students like your daughter, who've never received anything but A's, really struggle to come to terms with the fact that 4.0's are not taken for granted at most colleges the way they are at some high schools. Some of the straight A high schoolers that I knew had an unnecessarily difficult time with that mental transition. They associated "doing well" with an A and nothing else, only because that had been true at their high schools.</p>

<p>I agree with student!</p>

<p>Many 4.0 kids have problems when they get to college b/c they are no longer the A student. There are top tier schools aware of this and giive only pass/fail for freshmen.</p>

<p>My statement to our children is to always say did you try your hardest? If they say yes than I have no problem with whatever grade they get. I am proud of every grade regardless of the letter, b/c they tried. I have been known to yell and scream b/c I see a 0 for HW/CW, no excuse in my book and their punishment it is to go back to the syllabus find out the % is for that class and re-do their gpa if they got a 100. It's amazing to see the difference, can make or break the grade.</p>

<p>Dad II, it's rare for kids in our high school. Those kids got into most of the schools they applied to. They are usually the ones with 2400 SAT score. Also the kids from the 3.75 - 3.99 did very well in the college admissions process too.</p>

<p>What do you mean by an "A"? An "A" can be a 98 in our high school, or it can be a 92. A 98 average is rare. A 92 average is common, as long as a bright kid does all of his/her work. Different schools, different difficulty, different grade inflation. I doubt many very competitive private schools like to give out "C" as a grade, but big, excellent public schools do so regularly.</p>

<p>A 92 is a B in our school, we are on a 7 pt., and the gpa is figured out by the actual percent grade, not A=4.0. You can have an A, but not a 4.0. 4.0 only goes to 98+.</p>

<p>Also you can easily get the 4.0 if you are taking horticulture and weight lifting...I am not saying anyone else is taking those courses just saying there is also the ability to have a 4.0, without pushing harder courses...of course the easy route will hurt in the long run for admission, but at least you graduate with Honor cords</p>

<p>It depends on the high school. I know our high school regularly hands out C and D even for those who turn in homework 100% of the time. They count most of the grade on tests and quizzes. Very little extra credit.</p>

<p>DadII. I too got a lot of looks from friends and family over my son's grades. That he has only had a 4.0gpa since 1st grade; or whenever scoring was actually considered. Especially with him being in the IB (International Baccalaureate) program. [Similar to AP classes, except your entire curriculum is advanced classes taught internationally]. They couldn't believe that with that he could maintain a 4.0gpa unweighted. Plus being a 4 year varsity letter athlete in both Football and Soccer. As well as volunteer hours (Required in IB), community service, plus being able to just be a kid.</p>

<p>Now that he has been accepted to 4 very fine schools; 3 Full Ride scholarships and 1 50% ride, they are starting to understand and accept it as a fact. Both my kids; IB students; realize that once college comes, they probably aren't going to hold a 4.0gpa. No big deal. There are some kids that getting their first non-A in college is traumatic. That is one reason I was a firm believer in my kids also doing athletics. Many kids do "Clubs" like FBLA, boy scouts, and other "Social" clubs. That's fine and all, but they miss something I consider more important that even many classes. The ability to learn what it's like to "NOT WIN"!!! To know what it's like to not get that perfect score. To not be the BEST. In the "REAL WORLD", you don't always win. You don't always get hired; get the promotion; have a boss recognize you efforts, etc... Life isn't always fair. So, if a student who is a 4.0gpa and has ALWAYS gotten those grades, is also involved in COMPETITIVE activities where they sometimes fail at reaching their objective. (Nice way of saying that sometimes they LOSE). Then that will help them in college and life more than just about anything.</p>

<p>I was talking to one of my Ds friends...he got a 29 out of 30 on a paper...he asked the teacher what he could do to bring up his grade, the student was getting lots of 28 or 29 out of 30 type of grades</p>

<p>Anyway, the teacher reread the paper, and actually TOOK OFF 4 more points....seeing errors the teacher had missed before</p>

<p>I think that many kids that have straight As aren't pushed, are given the benefit of the doubt in some cases</p>

<p>You will see numerous posting on this site about kids who got those great grades in HS coming into quite the shock when they hit college</p>

<p>For a kid to never get anything below an A, even in elementary school is weird, to be honest</p>

<p>My D knows through an organization some extremely gifted students, and they ALL have Bs sprinkled throughout their school careers, especially in middle school....</p>

<p>My s was in many gifted programs (attended 9 schools b4 grad) He is one of those kids that got the B's. Until he was in hs, all of the programs were pull-outs and he had problems motivating himself if the class was moving not as fast as he hoped (he was in adv. classes when the schools offered them). My favorite story was when he was in 7th grade and had to do science fair project (did it memory in regards to age) he received a C, counted for 70% of the grade. Teacher wrote on the assignment that there was no way he did it, but his parents did. (I do not help except in review or set-up). I lost it, he was being punished for being gifted... the which choc. melts faster got an A.
Lesson learned after that I make all of my kids hand in their written rough drafts, with their final report.</p>

<p>I think anybody who talks about their kids' grades with anybody other than the kid or the kid's teachers or guidance counselors or other educator has some real issues. </p>

<p>Nobody outside our immediate family knows our kids' grades or needs to know them. </p>

<p>I'd advise you DadII to find something else to think about and/or talk about other than your child's grades and/or college choices or chances. At some point all this fixation on her chances, and all of the anxiety about how she's doing relative to others, even if you only do it online, is going to be counterproductive.</p>

<p>Our son was in the top 6% of his class and using 92% as the standard for an A, he would have gotten an A or A+(unweighted) in 9 of 23 academic classes. As a college senior his gpa is about 3.75 as a compsci/cogsci dual major.</p>

<p>I think the disparity between his hs and college gpa's is due to several factors-maturity(he is a boy afterall), a work ethic which seems to have improved each yr in college and a keen interest in most courses he has taken.</p>

<p>And yes our public hs district sets high standards for its students.</p>

<p>I can't say much about modern classes, but in my graduating class of 535 there were four perfect 4.0s -- and one of those was someone who I never saw once in four years of honors and "track one" classes. A good friend of mine was "Salutatorian" with a GPA of something like 3.96 -- one B+ in four years. In the year following my graduation, a friend of mine scored a "B" in a cooking class, which caused her immigrant parents to flip out and petition the school to remove the class from her transcript so that she could still be Valedictorian. To my eternal disgust, the school caved in and did so.</p>

<p>Due to a somewhat casual attitude towards homework, I graduated 40th in my class. Somehow, things have turned out OK anyway!</p>

<p>Mom,</p>

<p>we are here for support and to assist. I am pretty sure nobody can figure out who my kids are (no harm no foul)
if my life experience or anyone elses helps dad then we should commend him for being invested in their child's life. There are many parents who could give a flying fig about their children...we should commend him.<br>
I believe any parent that is involved is involved in every aspect to make sure that their children have the best chances to achieve their dream.
Call me naive, call me anything, but don't insult me or other people for discussing our lives with other posters</p>

<p>
[QUOTE]
our DD has never get a grade other than A since the first day of her schooling.

[/QUOTE]
</p>

<p>didn't she have anything better to do than schoolwork? A hobby?
trust me - after she gets to college no one will care.</p>

<p>MomBot; I agree with you that it's not very productive to be fixated on your kid's grades. Even to the point of possibly not "Bragging" about them. But it's not always as simple as saying no one else needs to know about them. In our school district, the High Schools advertise on the local radio stations the "Student of the Month". They mention their gpa, EC, sports, and other activities they are involved in. Obviously, this is going to be the 3.85-4.0 gpa students. Also, when your child is involved with sports or other activity that is noticed publicly, their "Bio" is many times mentioned. When you child is involved in the IB program and they start high school in "9th grade" instead of 10th grade like the majority of students, people tend to ask you about their grades. I.e. "Is your son ready to move on to High School next year"? "Well, he's already there this year, so he's use to it".</p>

<p>The point is; you are correct that people shouldn't get fixated on their kid's grades. Especially to the point of creating more stress on them and the student. Teaching your kids to just do their best is the most important thing. Some kids will say they did their best, but didn't. They know if they did their best or not. Personally, all these "AP" and "IB" type classes that are considered "Advanced", teaches what I believe was the average 30 years ago. I think our education system has dumbed down and teaches to the lowest common denominator now instead of requiring students to rise to the challenge. But either way you look at it, there are most definitely kids that have a TRUE 4.0 gpa. In my son's school, there are 5 students out of 1500 go have had a 4.0 gpa to date.</p>

<p>
[quote]
When you child is involved in the IB program and they start high school in "9th grade" instead of 10th grade like the majority of students...

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Wait, who starts high school in 10th grade anymore?</p>

<p>
[quote]
Personally, all these "AP" and "IB" type classes that are considered "Advanced", teaches what I believe was the average 30 years ago. I think our education system has dumbed down and teaches to the lowest common denominator now instead of requiring students to rise to the challenge.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>How ironic. My mom and stepdad, who were in grade school 30-ish years ago, have been known to go on and on about how much better the schools are now than when they were kids, how much more advanced and less dumbed down. I guess, like all things, it varies by individual case.</p>

<p>CC your hs begins at 10th? I grad. from a hs that began in 10th, but I thought that it is a rarity these days. Except for my hs I haven't known anyone who still has 10-12. My hometown still has it b/c the grad class is over 800 (2400 in total) and the school doesn't have the room for more. They actually have a 2 middle school system 6/7 at one school 8/9 at the other</p>