<p>"I always knew aliens had descended on Staten Island!!"
And most came from Brooklyn! (Just teasing!)</p>
<p>"BTW, ZM, does your D's HS have decent GCs??"</p>
<p>Not sure in terms of college stuff. Great in terms of guidance (you're pregnant? homeless? drug addicted? bullying?). I'll find out tomorrow night.</p>
<p>Well, if they only talk about SUNY and CUNY, you come right back here.</p>
<p>"Well, if they only talk about SUNY and CUNY, you come right back here."</p>
<p>Oh I intend to. She's going to apply to Hunter in case she can't bring herself to leave Staten Island and decides to commute, but I'm secretly (or not) hoping for a nice private school. Fordham looks good, too.</p>
<p>Oh, the GC tomorrow night will mainly be focusing on graduation requirements so that kids who are in danger of not graduating can clear things up. Daughter's stalker-mom will be there too. How fun for me.</p>
<p>Thank god it is morning and I'm drinking tea and not red wine - now I have to go wipe it off my keyboard! This alien stuff is too funny.</p>
<p>ZM, the bottom half of D's class sounds like your school. The top half-third is sort of in their own world and go on to college. UW is the college here (thank god it is a great school!). However, this year the high school got on the radar screen of a few fancy LACs, and their reps descended onto the school campus, too bad the kids did not know what some of these colleges were! I learned a lot from the CC and from D's sports team parents, and my interaction with D's GC was just one e-mailed question about our state graduation requirements. ZM, you and your D can do it!</p>
<p>"ZM, you and your D can do it"</p>
<p>Thanks Bunsen. I'm sure by the time it's over you will all want to choke me.</p>
<p>Aliens?! So that's what happened to my D's physics lab report from last quarter, the one that would have made the difference between a B- and a B? And she tried to tell us it was her lab partner who forgot to turn it in!</p>
<p>Re post #17: ZM, you've given me a great laugh in a day that is otherwise a PITA. Thanks!</p>
<p>Back to the original question . . . </p>
<p>I don't think it's all that important to know exactly what colleges do with GPA. Some of them strip out all weighting, and disregard non-academic classes (band, shop, gym) -- that's what Michigan and the UCs do -- but then they may look separately at how challenging an applicant's curriculum was, absolutely and relative to his/her classmates, and what other nonacademic things the applicant brings to the table. Others probably strip and re-weight in a consistent manner. CC has certainly taught me that high schools have varied -- perhaps not infinitely varied, but damn varied -- schemes for calculating weighted GPA. Some of all of the foregoing may ignore or de-emphasize 9th grade grades, others not.</p>
<p>Probably what none of them do is pay a whole lot of attention to whatever the high school transcript tells them the weighted GPA is, since that's a number that's sure not to provide an appropriate basis of comparison to the rest of the applicant pool. Some of them doubtless do look at rank, or GPA relative to other GPAs from the same school. That is likely to be true especially when the high school is a "feeder" to the college in question. </p>
<p>What do you care? They'll do what they do. There isn't any college your daughter should ignore solely because of how it evaluates GPA. She'll have to live with a bad math grade on her transcript (which one hopes won't look quite so bad by the time the year is over). That happens. She'll have a few more semesters to show that it isn't characteristic (or that it is). I think it's safe to say that none of the colleges on your list will fail to care about a bad math grade, but that none of them will fail to care about all of the other fine qualities your daughter will be presenting.</p>
<p>"Aliens?! So that's what happened to my D's physics lab report from last quarter, the one that would have made the difference between a B- and a B? And she tried to tell us it was her lab partner who forgot to turn it in!"</p>
<p>This is apparently a national epidemic. It's a very big secret. Don't tell ANYONE.</p>
<p>JHS, thank you. I'm overthinking, aren't I? Ultimately, since she's not applying to Ivies, I guess it doesn't matter that much.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, alien abduction or alledged contact is not a viable admissions hook. </p>
<p>Son had similar alien encounters in middle and hs but we found it had no bearing on his acceptances.</p>
<p>If using the common application, the GC's page specifically asks about the weighting of grades and the intensity of the courseload compared to the rest of the class. I discussed that with the GC for my daughter because she had indicated that she would mark the box the 2nd highest rigor. I questioned that because daughter had taken ALL AP's and honors since 8th grade. GC said that the top category was for the IB students. But the IB program was just beginning and only 5/550 were full IB students. Certainly not reflective of the large class. She, the GC, ended up changing it.</p>
<p>ZM, what is she looking for in a college??</p>
<p>'Cause if she's considering Franklin & Marshall, what about Gettysburg, Muhlenburg, Layfayette? (I'm sure they have their differences, but in my mind, they're all SLACs in PA.)</p>
<p>
[quote]
Unfortunately, alien abduction or alledged contact is not a viable admissions hook.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>What if a kid starts a UFO Club at his/her high school to dicuss their encounters? Not a hook, but it might catch a college adcom's attention ;)?</p>
<p>You might wish to add Denison for the list of deciding-what's-on-the list if you are interested in merit money. Denison is very generous, and rather similar to the PA schools on your list.</p>
<p>I thought in the Tom Cruise movie the aliens landed in Bayonne? </p>
<p>My D's school doesn't rank and their weighted GPA gives half the class over a 4.0 so I'm just assuming each college has some secret methodology. Naviance is excellent for the schools that everybody in the high school applies to but worthless if you're the only one that's ever thought of applying to Carleton.</p>
<p>"Unfortunately, alien abduction or alledged contact is not a viable admissions hook. "</p>
<p>Thanks so much for dashing my hopes.</p>
<p>I'm going to look at those other schools.</p>
<p>Huh. Now I know what's happening with S's homework. Those aliens work a pretty trick, don't they, considering that at least some of the homework they take hasn't even been done yet! How nice of them to knock the need to do the assignment right out of S's head, so he doesn't fret about the missing homework.</p>
<p>ZM, I am forever in your debt; it's a great relief to finally learn just what the heck has been going on!</p>
<p>ZM...looking at any privates out in California?? I'm told by our college counselor that Calif privates are hoping to attract east coast kids out here, and that our DD would have more prospects for merit aid in the midwest and eastcoast schools.</p>