<p>Do colleges request a list of your senior classes somehow before they make a decision? I know a midterm report is almost always required, but when schools decide before that report is availible (most schools release their EA/ED decisions on December 15th, right?) how do they know if your senior schedule is rigorous? </p>
<p>Sorry if this is a very basic question, but I'm curious and couldn't find this answer elsewhere.</p>
<p>If the college you’re applying to uses the common app, then they will request your senior class schedule even if you’re applying ED/EA. So in that case the school will know how rigorous a schedule you have, but they won’t know how well you’re doing with it. </p>
<p>If your school is on the quarter , or even trimester system, your EA/ED school will get senior grades to make their decisions. My 1st quarter grades went to Harvard for REA.</p>
<p>Yes, the college I will apply to EA uses the common app. I’m kind of glad they’ll see my schedule, since it’s actually a respectable course load. I kind of feel like a loner at my school; the rest of my classmates are slacking off senior year (big time- some of them are taking pre algebra, which is sad because they’re intelligent enough to take calculus). Maybe my hard work will pay off, though.</p>
<p>Thanks for your quick and helpful responses! </p>
<p>It may also be listed on your transcript.</p>
<p>This discussion happens every year, and make no mistake, schools WILL request your midterm grades before admitting you EA or ED. Many a EA/ED candidate gets deferred for less than stellar midterm grades. Until you have an admissions offer in hand, assume that EVERYTHING is available to colleges, and even after you have it, just look at all the “Can I be revoked?” threads. Slacking off any time senior year is almost always a bad idea.</p>
<p>And remember that if the result is not admission in December, those first semester grades will make a big difference in RD decisions.</p>
<p>@MrMom62
None of the schools my D admitted EA request midterm grades before admission notice in December. However, the senior schedule was shown on the transcript with all grades up to junior year. In addition, mid-term grades (even quarter grades for some schools) are usually not shown on transcript (but semester grades). For deferred students or RD, a mid-year report may be required to show the first semester grades.</p>
<p>Addressed in another thread, and not sure which schools you are talking about, but virtually all the elite schools kids at D’s HS applied to requested midterms for EA/ED applicants. The kids are rarely aware of it, the request goes straight to the schools, but if you ask the GC, there are a lot of requests/negotiations/inquiries that go on behind the scenes we civilians don’t get to see, especially for the top schools.</p>
<p>Would you mind sharing the information? Which schools want mid-term grades? I have never heard of it. Mid-year report is sometimes requested though. As for EA/ED, the admission office are busy enough to handle the application before the admission decision deadline and most do not accept additional information after the application deadline (some give a 2 week grace period for school reports). None of the schools show the mid-term grades status on the portal too.</p>
<p>To the best of my knowledge, most of the Ivies requested midterms, I think Stanford, Chicago, and MIT did too. I know the NESCACs people applied to requested them, but I don’t know if all of them do, we generally don’t have applications to all of them. Pretty sure Case Western also asked. Not sure about Tulane, but I would think they’re the same.</p>
<p>Referring to the info you posted on the other thread, our school doesn’t use Parchment, yours does. But we have Naviance, don’t know if you do. And like I said, you often don’t know about the requests, unless you ask. Some schools may only request midterms from some students, not all - maybe slam-dunks and auto-rejects don’t get asked? I do recall that there was a panic here at CC when kids realized that schools were asking for midterms, and they thought they could slack all senior year.</p>
<p>When you think about it, EA/ED at elite schools is so high stakes, and they really don’t want to have to rescind anyone, why wouldn’t they request midterms? Every piece of info can help make their decision easier, one way or another. Trust me, there are phone calls and negotiations we never know about, and will never know about, just a knowing smile from the GC that we don’t know half the true story of what goes on behind the scenes. (And by GC, in this case I mean our College Advisor who deals with top level schools all the time, from getting requests to get kids to apply to school X to pleading a reevaluation to allowing a late application, not your ordinary GC at Giant HS who barely knows the kids.) </p>
<p>I was accepted to William and Mary early and my mid years were not requested before I was accepted. I know this is the same at UVA, UNC, Georgia Tech and every other school that sends out admissions decisions before your mid years are released (most schools do this). However ALL require mid year grades once they’re available. They can’t really see your mid year grades before they accept you because most schools release decisions in December/early January, before the semester is over. Keeping that in mind, I’ve never heard of anyone’s acceptance getting rescinded for getting a few more B’s after getting accepted or maybe even one C.</p>
<p>One of my older ones applied to a lot of EA schools. They did not request midterm grades when accepted.</p>
<p>For my D’s school, it is almost impossible to send mid-term grades by school. First, they are not on transcript but scattered around. The GC will need to collect the grades from each class to do that. Quarter grades will be accessible on computer but still not on transcript. Second, the transcript submission is handled by the student. When a new version is available, the student can retrieve it and upload to Parchment for submission. Some submissions (particularly for prestigious schools) are not free. The student will need to pay for them on Parchment. Also, there is a handling fee from my D’s school for each document submission ($4 per school report per application) and a 3 week notice. We have not been billed for any additional fee so I don’t think they have submitted additional report. If the GC received such request, they will likely contact the student to file it online. And I know the GC, they would not doing a thing if you do not push them as they are always overwhelmed.
I know many school want to see the most updated record before the decision particularly for those candidates sitting on the border line for admission, but It is probably not required for EA/ED although a supplement of good grades in mid-term may help. Even mid-year report is not always required after admission while the final transcript is essential.
You know, for EA/ED, they will defer you if they have any doubt. Even if the student is doing fine in mid-term, it is still not sure if he/she may fail afterward. When that happen, the school will revoke the admission without regret anyway.</p>
<p>When my daughter applied ED, Brown did contact her school’s guidance counselors in November to find out the current grades for the ED applicants. From what I understood, the counselor just gave an informal report by email.</p>
<p>@billcsho: Your school sounds so far removed from ours, I can see where we disconnect. Ours, it’s very easy to get midterm reports out, so schools request them all the time. It’s possible your school is known as a documentation nightmare, therefore schools don’t ask. And if a school has a good relationship with the GCs office, I can also see getting informal midterm reports, per the previous post.</p>
<p>I think the basic rule for all students should be that anything is fair game. Schools may or may not ask for grades at any point senior year, but always act like they can - for inevitably, some will when you are at your worst. Politicians should always treat every microphone like it’s live, students should consider their grades as viewable at any moment after application submission.</p>
<p>Yes. It is key to maintain good grades in senior year. No one want to see a surprise (or even nightmare) at the end.</p>