<p>I need some advice regarding class rank for my DD, who transferred from a High School in the Pacific Northwest to another High School in the South. She completed 9th and 10th grade in the Pacific Northwest and is currently a junior in the South. Needless to say, both High Schools were very different, especially as it relates to grades and class offerings. Her former High School did not have weighted grades and AP classes, only a very limited number of honors classes, which she took. Her current High School has both weighted grades, and many AP and honors classes. This results in her being at a big disadvantage regarding class rank. Her current High School has placed all of the classes that she took in her previous High School and put them on her transcript, including giving her weighted credit for a couple of honors classes (she took all of the ones that were available in her former high school).</p>
<p>The students in her High School, who have been there since 9th grade, have had the opportunity during two years to take many honors and some AP classes and have them count in their weighted GPAs. Hence, her class rank will not really be indicative of her academic standing, even though she is taking all (or will take) of the AP and honors classes that she can. </p>
<p>As we prepare for applying to colleges in the Fall, I would appreciate advice from any of you regarding this situation. Should she mention this in her applications? Should we ask her current High School not to rank her? Or should I ask her previous High School to also send transcripts to colleges for 9th and 10th grades to the colleges that she is applying to?</p>
<p>I would ask the counselor to contact the former school for their forms that they send to colleges. When transcripts are sent, the school send info to the college with the types of classes available, etc. This way, the college will evaluate the student based on solely the classes available at that school. Then, the counselor can attach both school's info to the transcript, and perhaps add a note that her class rank was affected by the unwieghted classes, etc., but that she took the heaviest courseload available at her old school.</p>
<p>My D was in the same type of situation and her very good transcript (for her old school which graded very hard) put her low in the rnakings, like 50% or so, when she had been top 10-20% at her old school) When she had all straight As in the new school, we asked the counselor if they would do her rnaking on her college apps only (not for any school wide honours) based on just her 11th grade year at their school, in fairness to her. They could see that and were willing to adjust somehow. </p>
<p>I did not ask them to change the way her old stuff counted, only to use soley her 11th grade marks....which is actually how her old school did it anyway, they took your grade 11 marks for your ranking in university applications.</p>
<p>MSMDAD, the same thing happened to me. I moved right before senior year and my former school offered many more ap/honor classes than my new school. However, my new school has a policy where they unweight grades from any classes they do not offer. this resulted in my class rank dropping from top 5% at my old school to merely top 10% at my new school. i made sure that my counselor told the colleges of the issue...</p>
<p>somemom, Thanks for your response. Did I understand correctly that your DD's new school agreed to rank her based only on her marks in the 11th grade? If so, how did the other students/parents react to this?<br>
Evita...thanks for your response. I may send a copy of your post to my DD's High School.</p>
<p>I have begun making arrangements for D to transfer back to US from Germany this summer. I have requested that the GC not convert grades or try to give her a class rank. She has a solid B average here, but considering she took all her classes in a foreign language, I believe her grades would have been much higher in the US (especially considering that about 2/3 of the senior class has a B average or better, thanks to GA's HOPE scholarship program). I am also hoping that the school will submit a transcript showing ONLY her classes taken in the US, and we will submit a separate transcript for her German schooling. That will force the colleges to notice that she doesn't have a cookie-cutter transcript, and hopefully seek out the reason for it.</p>
<p>The GC hasn't answered me yet about this. A transcript from one school that "pretends" another schools classes and grades are it's own (by including them on the transcript without explanation) is misleading to colleges.</p>
<p>I wonder if you could request that two separate transcripts be created, and that class rank be left off completely, as I hope to do. In addition, I think it is entirely appropriate for the GC to attach a letter of explanation.</p>
<p>You can ask the counselor to address this issue in the counselor recommendation or your daughter can attach an "addendum" to her applications (I believe there is usually a space for "any additional information"). Or do both, just to cover all bases. I think it is definitely information the colleges will need to accurately assess your daughter.</p>
<p>I'm in a similar situation (I'm a high school senior, Class of 2006). I transferred after freshman year and my class ranking dropped by 10% even though I maintained a 4.0 unweighted average throughout high school (so now I am barely scraping top 10%). Even though I had taken the hardest courses offered at my old school, my new school system refused to give me weighted credits, and they refused to simply exclude me from the rankings. I ended up petitioning the school board, and they are changing the transfer policy starting next year. The people who work for my school assured me that college adcoms will rerank by their own systems, will take the transfer into consideration, but while I fully trust this, I think there's an inherent psychological bias in looking at someone's transcript and seeing a difference of about 35 rankings (in a class of 350+). I ended up attaching a two-sentence explanation to all of my applications, describing what my rank would have been had my transfer courses been weighted. I hate to put so much emphasis on class rankings when I know that they are only one factor of college admissions; at the same time, with colleges getting more and more competitive, I cant help but wonder how the ranking will affect decisions come March 30. I understand the difficulties in aligning curriculums between two school systems (and believe me, Ive moved enough times to have witnessed the nasty sides of that), but I am frustrated that people are not willing to fight harder. In any case, unfortunately, there isnt much a transfer student can do about GPA or class rankings even fixing the system wont level the playing field in terms of stability, adjustment, extracurricular involvement, etc. Biases will be biases, and attempting to fix biases may or may not work, but in the end nothing can be fair. Its up to the student to accept that and make the best of the situation.</p>
<p>MSMDAD: MY D went from school A which graded incredibly hard to school B which had a much more liberal style of grading. In each case, it would be fine if you attended the same school throughout, but to go from the lower marks to the higher marks dropped D from 10%ish to 50%!!! Since school B is private, they were able to be more flexible than dealing with public bureaucracy, but basically, it did not affect other kids and their rankings as it had nothing to do with awards and valedictorian stuff and everything to do with how MY D's apps would be filled out.</p>
<p>I pointed out that 50% hardly indicated the success she was having, and as she was very successful, they could see the point and agreed to give her the ranking earned in grade 11 alone on the GC forms. So, it did not affect other kids & parents. I also asked for a letter and profile from her first school so that transcript would make sense, as school B did put all her classes into their format which was a bit confusing with the very different grading styles. Ds cumulative GPA is also impacted because school A has the kids taking many more classes each year so her grades 9 & 10 actually provided her the equivalent of three years of credit at the new school.</p>
<p>Anyway, the way I got it done was A} they are private and flexible B} most of the kids at the new school are not ravenously competitive and many stay local, so it was not ruining any ones "Ivy chances" C} I pointed out the rank to colleges needs to reflect the true calibre of D's work and D} I specifically asked that the ranking only be as applies to GC forms, not to any school awards, so no other parents could be offended. It made sense to the GC that the ranking should not harm D.</p>
<p>I came up with the idea as school A only uses grade 11 marks for GC ranking as their normal practice.</p>
<p>I agree with Binx that is it is false to show all the classes on the regular transcript of the final school. I know that if we had gone the other way, school B with all As to school A with notoriously tough grading, school A would not have considered that past work in the ranking, that may be why they only use grade 11, since people come and go, it is the only fair way to balance the rankings.</p>
<p>somemom, chinchilla, binx, hotpiece, and firefly, thanks so much for your responses. Chinchilla, I must tell you that your post really impressed me. The fact that you had the courage to take this on and have the school board change their transfer policy, even though you will not benefit from this new policy is commendable.</p>
<p>My son had the same problem. We moved from one state to another right before his senior year. His new school did not offer "honors" classes in all the same subjects that he had already taken as honors (weighted) courses at his old school. They would only give him weighted credit if they had an exact match. They claimed that if he came in with lots of weighted courses then it would vault him to the top of the rankings and the other kids would not have had the opportunity to take the same weighted courses. I understood that rational but it certainly didn't help my son whose class rankings took a nose dive because of their policy. </p>
<p>His counselor, who was very understanding, wrote a very nice letter to include with his applications. Fortunately, he got into all but one school he applied to, so his lowered class rank didn't seem to be a factor. But, he was a National Merit Scholar and the National Merit people called the school about his class rank when trying to determine if he would get one of their scholarships. He did not get one. So. . . I the lower class rank may have hurt him on that one. It's a shame that that the kids have to suffer as a result of the parents having to move.</p>
<p>Thanks for this post. I had a long conversation with a friend today whose daughter moved from a private school that was very rigorous but did not weight classes or call them honors to a public that heavily weights AP's and honors. She's a straight A student taking AP's junior year but her rank is much lower than it would have been if she had gone all 4 years to the public. I told her to make sure the GC included an explanation in her report to the colleges, but some of these ideas sound much better. I'll have her ask about just using junior year and first semester senior year for ranking and included the 2 separate transcripts.</p>
<p>I totally sympathize with your d's situation. I'd say you write an explanatory letter and maybe you can add the class rank to give an idea of how good your daugher is.</p>