<p>I have received conflicting answers and could use some help. I have been told that my sons(7th grade) scores in his honors algebra and honors language arts 3 will count towards his HS gpa AND I have been told they will not. To compound matters, those who say they will say they will be a 4.5....those who say no say they simply show as HS credit but don't count anything towards gpa. The reason this is so important is we are trying to select his 8th grade schedule for this upcoming year. The parent who said that the honors classes DO count towards his HS gpa says take only honors courses for HS credit because they are worth 4.5 and not to take any classes that count as HS credit but aren't honors since that would lower the gpa(being only 4.0). The other parent is saying that the honors courses don't count as your HS gpa so take as many now and get the HS credits. After researching, I still have no idea who is correct. We are in Florida btw. Also, IF the 1st parent is correct that the honors courses DO count and as 4.5, wouldn't it be wise to not take any HS courses in 8th grade that weren't honors to maximize his gpa? He should take honors courses and non HS credit classes in 8th and all honors/ap in HS to gain the highest gpa. Thank you.</p>
<p>The only people who can correctly answer you is your HS. Do they include HS level work taken prior to 9th grade? It’s up to them.</p>
<p>But even still, colleges will still filter, re-calculate and interpret submitted HS transcripts. Even if your son does great 7th and 8th grade work which gets him eligible for super advanced math in HS, the colleges likely won’t consider it (besides being impressed at his advanced standing). Colleges in gen’l, will re calculate his GPA and often, will omit anything before 9th grade.</p>
<p>Frankly, don’t look for the GPA boost. The fact that in 9th grade, he’ll be doing the work of other 11th and 12th graders will be positive attention enough.</p>
<p>As T26E4 suggested, you should contact the high school guidance counselor to see what middle school classes will appear on the high school transcript and be calculated into your child’s high school GPA.</p>
<p>This happened with both my kids. They took the equivalent of 9th grade Math and 9th grade Spanish during 8th grade and both courses appeared on their high school transcript and were calculated into the overall high school GPA that was sent to colleges.</p>
<p>That said, colleges recalculate GPA’s to their own institutional formulas to compare students – and they do so by stripping the weighting off of courses. See: <a href=“http://www.possibilityu.com/how-calculate-your-“real”-high-school-gpa”>http://www.possibilityu.com/how-calculate-your-“real”-high-school-gpa</a></p>
<p>Great…thanks. So the colleges would recalculate his gpa but if the grades did count then wouldn’t that effect his class rank. I know when they factor AI in Ivy it’s all about ACT/SAT + class rank for the most part.</p>
<p>GPA recalculation has no standard. Some college would give weight (e.g. UC). Some would even skip HS freshman grades. So at the end, it does not matter if the HS consider those grades in GPA calculation, it is how the college perceive them. Most likely, they would not count any grades before 9th grades. For schools that do not recalculate GPA, it will take whatever it said on the transcript. However, those few grades from middle school would be diluted by 3 years+ of HS grades and may not matter much.</p>
<p>^^ Most high school’s no longer provide ranking to colleges, so Admissions must estimate a student’s rank by guessing if they are in the top 10% or top 25% of their class. One way they do this is to put all applications from a high school in GPA rank order and then compare the course rigor. FWIW: I think ranking plays less of a factor in the AI calculation these days. And, as Harvard no longer requires SAT Subject Tests, which were a big part of the AI calculation, by the time your kid applies to college, the factors used in the calculation of the AI may have changed.So, at this point, I wouldn’t worry about it.</p>
<p>“Most likely they would not count any grades before 9th grades.” If this is truly the case then there is no benefit to taking challenging courses in 8th and 9th and getting A’s. Then you risk having extremely hard courses in 10, 11 and 12. Why not just take honors and AP after 9th then? I see no advantage to taking honors math in 8th and risking a B at a younger age vs waiting until 10 to take honors math.</p>
<p>I think you are overthinking this. Clearly your son is gifted in math, take the most challenging courses he can do well in. You would be “risking a B” with the jump from regular to honors in high school as well.</p>
<p>You seem to be a bit to worried about the college admissions game versus the actual education of your sons. While you do have to be aware and jump through some hoops, don’t do it at a large expense. If your son is this far ahead in math right now, he will probably be fine. Even if he gets a B (GASP), he will not only learn from it, but it may not even matter much in the end if some colleges and your high school may not count the grade. Even if it is counted, it is a drop in a very large bucket. I would make this decision based off the readiness of your son, not how it will look to colleges as it is such a minor thing. Personally, I would go Honors.</p>
<p>I agree with @PengsPhils. Pick your son’s 8th grade classes based on his readiness for the material instead of trying to game the high school GPA system. My D is a rising senior with a 4.0 UW, 4.8 weighted GPA. We’re waiting for class ranks to come out, and I’m sure there will be some kids ahead of her by a few hundredths of a grade point, by virtue of having one or two more honors classes (especially kids who started 9th grade in honors level foreign language classes). I’ve even heard of kids whose parents made them delay taking the mandatory PE class until senior year so that it won’t bring down their weighted GPA when class rank comes out in the Fall of senior year. As others have pointed out, the highly selective schools unweight your GPA. They’ll be more interested in what your son’s GC says about whether he took the most rigorous possible curricululm and how he did in his classes than they will be in the minutiae of his class rank.</p>