Advice regarding grades being mentioned during interviews

Hello everyone,

I have a huge question to ask. Last year, when I had a conversation with an admission officer from a school where I was on the waitlist, they mentioned that there was a grade on my 7th-grade transcript. I explained the situation, and they understood what happened and told me to talk about it during the next year’s interviews if I decide to reapply. So, my question is: should I discuss this matter during the interviews, and if so, how should I go about it?

Like should I say: “In my 7th-grade transcripts, there is an ‘F’ marked for my Spanish grade at my previous school, [School Name]. Before moving to a new school, I contacted my teacher and asked her to correct my grade. She had accidentally recorded a test score as 10/100 instead of 10/10, which hugely impacted my grade. She assured me she would make the correction, but it seems she never did. I only became aware of this ‘F’ last year when discussing my application with another school. Additionally, me and my dad contacted my old school to send my old transcripts to my current school, but they always ignored our email and totally ghosted it. While I understand this may sound like an excuse, I’d like to point out that, apart from this quarter, I consistently earned all A grades that year, and even when I moved to my new school I had a A.”

Another question is that my math grade isn’t looking too hot in the POV of admissions, but in my school it’s looking good for what the averages are. Should I say like: “I’d also like to address my math grade during quarter 1. Currently, my grade is around 70-80, and it’s unlikely to improve because the grading ended, and I can’t access my grades anymore. This grade doesn’t reflect my abilities as a student or as a person. As I mentioned earlier, I have consistently ranked in the top 1% nationally in math, and my prior math grades consistently exceeded 95. However, the transition to high school, especially when the school is phasing out honors math, and having a relatively new college graduate as my teacher impacted my performance negatively.”

Should I even mention these? I think I would since the admissions team for the schools I contacted last year told me to.

Thank you guys in advance.

Ask your parents to consider hiring an attorney to write a letter to your old school and to the teacher who made the grading error.

The problem with discussing your grade is that some may not believe you because any responsible school would have corrected the error by now.

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I agree with Publisher. Unfortunately, you and your family might need to take action aside form sending emails.

As for your current math grade, I would avoid saying anything about the school phasing out honors math or the teacher being a recent college graduate. While both might be true in explaining performance, you may come across as shifting responsibility. I think most schools considering you for admission would want to, instead, hear about how the grade might have shifted your way of approaching the class - for example, preparing for tests differently or reviewing content differently or seeking out resources to support your learning.

What could be important for others considering applying to top boarding schools is how admissions offices might review applicants’ transcripts. At least from your account, this AO revealed something important about this particular school’s review process - they find noteworthy blemishes on transcripts and want to understand the anomaly.

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We did take action out of the emails but they still refused to do anything about it. They said it was 1 year ago and whats done is whats done.

Agree…I’d hire a lawyer and have the lawyer pursue the issue until it has been corrected.