My son is having a moment of anxiety about his semester grade in one of his classes. He wanted me to try to figure out which schools would see a B on a mid year report, if he ended up with one.
I’m seeing several schools in the common app which list “mid year report required”, but wouldn’t this only be used in the RD round?
Basically, I would like to reassure my stressed out kid that he should just do his best and not freak out if he ends up with one B in fall semester senior year.
All the privates, and maybe some of the publics want to see one snapshot by early November of your senior year. Now this may not be quite the mid year report that is sent out in Jan or so. But the November report substantially captures the fall semester
Maybe times have have changed since 2003 and 2006 colleges started, but both of our kids had their EA acceptances before the end of November. The high schools had to send a mid year report in a January, but nothing in November. These were private schools.
EA deadlines are Nov 1. Grades are sent out by Nov 10 or so. Results come in mid December
And what I’m saying is…this might not be universal for all EA schools.
Sure. Yes. I am speaking of the private EAs we applied to or considered applying to. The public EAs came back in Jan and Feb last year. In the past they used to come in December. I am sure there must be some EAs that come in November. I just don’t know of any.
The only one I know of personally is Rutgers (D got her acceptance mid-Nov). But they release decisions in waves so not the same as other EA schools. I concur with the rest of what you said about the release schedule for privates and publics.
This is most assuredly not the case.
Yes, there are some privates that want Q1 updates, and it may have been every private in your kid’s list, but it is not the case for every single private
How can my kid figure out which schools on his list are getting a snapshot of his grades? How and when are these grades sent by the counselor? That’s what he wants to know.
My kids applied EA to every school on their list that allowed it which was a mix of publics and privates. Not one asked for a first quarter update. This obviously varies by school.
To be clear on concept, the school is only getting finalized Q1 grades in 99.888888% of the cases. They are not getting snapshots from Canvas or whatever grade management system the school uses
As to which schools require Q1 updates, they will say on their website. That said, some colleges may selectively request from some applicants and will request via the GC. At some HS’s, the counseling office sends Q1 grades to all EA schools, requested or not, as a matter of course
Does this correspond to the schools that say that they require a “Mid Year Report” in the common app?
As I remember, for my S20, we could look at each application on CommonApp and see which items were requested and which had been received. You should be able to go to each application and see if Q1 (or S1) grades were requested. The request is made as you complete the application, not when your HS releases the grade. Once the grade is logged by your HS, it is then transmitted to the college, if the college requested/required it at the time the application was filled out.
No. Mid year is a completely separate document.
Here is an example from Dartmouth:
Late November
Quarter grades/progress reports that include grades from the senior year due
https://admissions.dartmouth.edu/apply/apply-dartmouth#filter-1471
Ok… I’m just trying to help my son figure this out. Most of his schools do not mention quarter grades on their web site at all, but maybe I am looking at the wrong place.
These are the only privates he is applying to (in the EA time frame, at least):
USC: Doesn’t mention Q1 grades but says, “Use the Mid-Year Report Form included in the Common Application or visit your applicant portal to submit your fall grades.” This seems to refer to the S1 grades?
CWRU: I don’t see anything on the web site mentioning S1 or Q1 grades, but the common app mentions the Mid Year Report.
Northeastern: “Choose Early Action if Northeastern is a top choice—and you feel that you can put your best foot forward at this earlier date, since the Admissions Committee will not see your senior year grades or late fall standardized testing.” Common app mentions the Mid Year Report.
U Rochester doesn’t have EA, so his application will be counted as RD and we assume they will be looking at the Mid Year Report (S1 grades?)
Just to be safe we have sent Q1 and S1, and flagged the admissions office just to be sure they don’t miss it. Even if they didn’t ask.
If you don’t want to send it gets more complex. You need to carefully figure out.
I would reach out to each school’s admission’s office to get accurate information if it’s a concern. My memory from when my S21 applied to several schools early action and early decision was that they all requested some sort of snapshot of mid-semester fall grades. I don’t believe that this request for mid-semester grades was listed upfront, but it showed up in the application portal after he had applied.
Yeah, it’s just a concern that is worrying him and keeping him up at night. At this point, the grades are all As. They would probably all continue to be A if he would get enough sleep…
Thanks everyone for your help. It sounds we can’t know for sure in advance which schools are looking at Q1 and S1, without contacting admissions to ask about this specifically.
This was our experience with my 2020 and 2022. None of the rolling/EA schools where they were accepted asked for first quarter grades or a mid year report. These schools included Case Western, Ohio State, Penn State, and others.
If a student is deferred EA, the school may want it. My 2020 was “postponed” by Michigan in December 2019. I believe she was supposed to send a mid year report, but she ended up being accepted in January 2020, before her mid year report was issued.
We also didn’t have any schools ask for Q1 grades. Midterm report didn’t come out for our D’s school until mid January. That went out to the RD schools.