My daughter is at a very competitive private HS. Very hard to get As in the Honors and AP classes. I understand our state public is very gpa driven. I’m torn between keeping her in the Honors track (where she should be) or playing the gpa game…dropping down the rigor to achieve all As. If I can believe smaller but good colleges will make a holistic review, I will keep her where she is. If the truth is for every school, it is a game of straight As, then I will succumb and drop her down. No use bucking the system, I guess.
Selective colleges look at high school rigor as one of the most important criteria for admissions. They want to see that students challenged themselves in hs and are prepared for college level classes. A 4.0 with no honors classes will not impress a top school if there were honors classes that could have been taken instead. Most colleges will recalculate the gpa and evaluate students within the context of their hs. So if your school is known for being stingy with A’s, they will know that.
Keep the real end goal in mind. This isn’t acceptance to any particular college, be it state flagship or an elite; nor is it straight As. The real goal is to educate your child to stretch her mind and reach her goals. You want your child to get the best education possible. I recommend having her take the curriculum that challenges but doesn’t overwhelm her. In your case, it sounds like Honors/AP. I know that it can be disappointing to see Bs in Honors and AP but that is probably better for her than getting the easy A in a boring, unchallenging class.
If your child is a freshman or sophomore, she will mature and may step up next semester or even later this semester. But this can only happen if she’s in those rigorous classes, if you’re taking easy classes, there’s never a reason to push yourself.
^ This is the response I was mentally composing when I read the OP but stated much better.
Course rigor is looked at hand in hand with GPA. Colleges would note that the higher grades were received in a lower level class. In addition, the rigor of the HS can also be taken into account for college admission. I agree that you want your D in the most challenging curriculum that is manageable.
I would guess that the guidance counselor. in your D’s private HS would be willing to discuss this with you so that would be the first place I’d go before considering changing class levels for the next year. He’she would have an excellent sense of what it would take to get into your state public and other colleges. I would also take your D’s desires into account.
It is not a game of straight As for every school, though obviously it is very close to that at HYPS.
Ask the college counselor at your D’s school for a copy of the “School Profile” that they send to each college a student is applying to, along with the student’s transcript. This page enables each ad com to see just how competitive it is at your D’s school, and where she is in relation to everyone else.
IMO you should resist the urge to suggest to your D that she “play the GPA game,” because ad coms will see right through that.
Public schools tend to focus more on GPA to get a wide representation across the state (including weaker performing high schools), while private schools including LACs tend to focus on both GPA and test scores. Top schools are looking for both course rigor as well as high grades (3.7+ but preferably 3.8-3.9), so you have to strike that delicate balance somewhere in between a 4.0 GPA and no honors/APs and a poor GPA with all honors/APs.
I had similar thoughts when my D was in HS. In the end, she wanted to take the toughest classes possible since they were more interesting to her, and she was there to learn, not to just get As to get into college. She is at her top choice, a great LAC and yes, they absolutely seemed to under the rigor and grade deflation at her HS. It probably really helped that her standardized testing (both SAT and APs) backed up the info they already had regarding the rigor at her HS.