<p>Hi all - I have a friend who is looking for schools with grade optional policies for her son, hoping to reduce the stress of GPA calculating. He is a high achiever, but prone to putting stress on himself. He wants a place with alot of smart kids but she wants a place for him that isn't competitve / cut throat. The only schools I've come up with are Hampshire, New College of Florida, and Evergreen in Washington.</p>
<p>Do any of you have experience with grade optional schools? Advice? Good places to investigate?</p>
<p>Some schools have plenty of Pass/No Pass options. I am personally leery of this- it puts more performance pressure on the graded classes, to build a solid gpa. Especially, if there is an interest in grad or professional school. Plus, life isn’t always about just doing enough to “pass.”</p>
<p>You want to check “graduation rates” for any school with alternative policies. There can be many reasons, but it’s some indication of how successful the kids are. The 6-year rate at Hampshire, eg, is at 64%. (Even it’s sister school, UMass Amherst, is at 69%.) New is 60%. What you may want to look for is schools where he is close to the top of the freshman profile, where he can easily achieve. Some of the “not being bored” aspect (at a less competitive college) will depend on his major and it’s strength at any given college.</p>
<p>Thanks - I was actually wondering about this – how does a student with no gpa, because the school doesn’t grade, compete for grad school placement?</p>
<p>Bard is not grade optional - but each class includes a written review of the student’s performance that can range from a couple of sentences to a couple of pages, depending on the instructor. Intellectual quality and interest is high (lots of fascinating conversations overheard on campus) and the culture is pretty laid back/noncompetitive.</p>
<p>Reed college doesn’t give you your grades unless you make an appt with your advisor to see them.
( unless you are not doing well)
However- Reed is quite challenging and for a student who may be borderline doing well ( and not realizing it) a poor performance on a paper or test may throw them off course if they are not periodically checking in.</p>
<p>It is similar to Evergreen in some ways but has grades & distribution requirements which are quite firm.</p>
<p>Bennington is grade optional. The professors provide a written review instead, although you can ask for a letter grade also. My daughter had a very positive experience there.</p>
<p>Sarah Lawrence gives written reports instead of grades. But then I think they do have to put some kind of grades on transcripts. Not sure how that works, but you might look into it. They also do not accept SAT/ACT scores for admissions, so they are definitely not a numbers-driven school.</p>
<p>I don’t think grade optional schools are necessarily the best option for DCs that put pressure on themselves to perform. No grades can actually provoke anxiety if they are not confident about their academic standing. Usually a decent grade gives them some some comfort from that they are doing OK. Generally most colleges are collaborative, not not cutthroat or super competitive. Unless the student wants to go to medical school or some very high powered grad program GPA seems much less important than it does in HS. Just a different perspective…</p>
<p>I would suggest looking into the Johnston Center at University of Redlands in California. They get evaluations instead of grades, and they state that 96% of grad/law/med schools will take the evals, however they also promise that if a grad/law/med school wont accept the evaluations they will create a letter-based transcript. Also in California nearby is Pitzer College which I think also does not give grades.</p>