SO we have been led to think that changing to a less competitive school in Senior year might boost the GPA. My S goes to a highly academic oriented school, struggled to get adjusted to this environment due to a big move across Continents. A bit too late but He is now slowly getting the hang of how to handle his school work and other EC’s. His GPA is around a 3.0.
Is it too late ? I do not want to change his school for many reasons, main reason due to re-adjustment fears in the final year.
He does not have too many subject faves but I am guessing he likes Psych and Marine Sciences. are there any colleges that are accepting of kids like this ? What are his options ?
Colleges make decisions based on first semester senior grades at the most, and not even that if he applies ED. So how much higher can you really expect his GPA to get in four months time? My thought is to keep him where he is, as long as he is content there. Let him graduate with his friends. Plenty of colleges will accept B-students.
Essentially you are considering a hugely disruptive action to game a system. As Groundwork2022 noted, most of the information used by colleges has already been established. Even class rank has been established. You have not mentioned finances but many colleges that are not need blind, even those thought to be “competitive”, will look favorably upon a 3.0 from a very competitive high school if you are full pay.
Don’t disrupt his life for GPA (even if it were possible to raise it). He will have options for college as he is.
There is a big thread of college ideas for 3.0’s floating about. A new one starts each season. He’ll absolutely find a college. He could even start at a community college and transfer if his sights are in something unattainable now. Don’t disrupt his high school experience if he is in a positive one. Moving to another school isn’t going to change his GPA Or make it magically equal to a 4.0.
It’s worse than all that. A 3.0 at his current school may be a perfectly respectable GPA, one that at the very least reflects competence and the ability to handle tough work. If he changes schools, his transcript will still say 3.0, but if the other school is easier a 3.0 might raise questions about his basic competence.
Sure, a careful reader, if he or she is familiar with both schools, shouldn’t make that mistake. But you would be putting a lot of faith in the system if you trusted that his application would be studied with enough attention and expertise to reach the right conclusion. What’s more, if his application were studied with that much attention and expertise, any bump in grades after the transfer would be significantly discounted. It’s not likely you can win this game.
He should stay where he is.
He can use the reputation at his school to his advantage (a 3.0 from a rigorous, competitive school will be respected) and prep for the sat/sat as well as subject tests to score as high as he can.
A student with a 3.0-3.3GPA and a 1300 SAT will have lots of choices.
Start looking at Colleges that change lives (the website) and go visit whichever of them is nearby.
What State do you live in?
What’s your budget (do you know his EFC?)
What classes is he taking right now?
What about next year, what are you thinking of - and what about a couple classes at a less demanding level?
I agree with the above posters. Do not change schools his senior year to improve grades for college. It may have serious consequences not only in terms of admissions as other posters have mentioned above, but also in your son’s academic and social life (like backsliding because he’s having to re-adjust to a new environment or falling in with a crowd who parties rather than studies). If his GPA is upward trending at a respected high school & and with a rigorous schedule, then that is the basis for a good essay on how he put himself on the right track.
Colleges know which schools are harder. At my daughter’s old school, very very few kids graduate with a 4.0 (maybe none?). But all the schools know it’s a good school and the admissions proceed accordingly. Maybe 100 kids from that school every year get into top colleges. It does not stop kids from thinking about transferring to a school where their weighted classes will boost them to a higher rank. But it’s pointless. Kids with 3.0s who have even flunked classes in HS get into competitive colleges all the time. Don’t believe the College Confidential hype.
Not worth it to move schools. He will get in to a fine college and all will be well in the long run. Changing schools for his senior year is something he will never forget.
Stick it out with the competitive HS. Encourage your student to take rigorous classes senior year, as college look at that. The only senior year grades colleges consider are first semester (and that’s only for colleges with deadlines after 1/1). Encourage your student to do their very very best with grades junior year. That end of year junior GPA and class rank are what the colleges see in your apps, especially if your student does rolling admission, EA, and ED.
Also, it’s not just about grades. What else is your student passionate about? Hopefully your student is involved in activities, and shows passion for that activity. For example, if your student is a “coder”, they should get more involved in that, such as teach coding to middle schoolers every Saturday, help senior citizens with FB etc. Same thing relates to sports. Don’t just play a sport. Teach the sport. Volunteer Coach a sport. Ref a sport. You don’t have to do 15 different things, but be passionate and show development in a few.
A student with a 3.0 is better off with slightly less rigor and a higher GPA for the colleges he’s likely to target/ competitive for, as long as his full schedule isn’t 3 core classes at CP level and four electives “with little to no homework, done in class” (say, horticulture, culinary arts, current events, theater tech - excellent classes, all of which he could pick from for one or two classes…but nomore than 1-2).
He should have 5 core classes, some CP, some honors/AP, + electives.
What major is he thinking of?
Improving grades matter. This means your presumably junior student can have better grades his spring of junior year semester to show he can do the work for the colleges interested in. Of course the students who caught on early will have better chances. His Hs likely will prepare him for the rigors of college work more than the average HS.
Do NOT try to game the system. It could backfire in many ways. Needing to adjust to a new system will be stressful and there are no guarantees he will do any better.
We need an educated society not a game savvy one. Keep him in the better school and encourage him to learn and think. We will all benefit if all parents would do that!
Thank you MYOS1634, He (and parents) does not want to change his school. he would rather stick it out for the next 3 semesters and work as hard as he can. It would be unfair. Changes in life happen and he is trying to cope as best as he can. Senior year he plans to take Physics/ English 12, Econ-Gov and possible AP Stats. He is thinking od finishing up Trignometry thru BYU over the 2019 summer. Then move on to Pre-Calculus if he decides not to do AP Stats
MYOS1634 while finances are not a problem, we also have a limit to what we can pay for an undergrad education. Its true that we need to find colleges to his level that offer NROTC
Precalculus is more important than AP stats. Has he completed Foreign Language through level 3?
yes he has. mandarin level 3
^is mandarin spoken at home?
if so he might not get the “bump” for taking a difficult FL.
mandarin is not our spoken language. Its truly a foreign language for us !