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<p>You spoke to the registrar at his school or the admissions department at A&M? It’s very unusual for middle school to count for anything in college admissions. Frankly it’s abhorrent to me. Since the cutoffs are government mandated, you would think that there would be uniform government rules on how to calculate class rank.</p>
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<p>The registrar at my school who compiles the class rank and gpa.</p>
<p>But what if they are violating state guidelines and they don’t know it. Do you think that’s ever possible?</p>
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It is a wealthy district. So, I doubt they are doing something that is outside the law. </p>
<p>As far as son’s gpa and class rank are concerned, we can easily state how the school calculates these indicators on the app. Then we can allow colleges to figure out the logic of why states and schools are doing it and adjust their decision accordingly. Who knows, if an adcom becomes as upset about it as you, it could work in son’s favor? So I think son will find his place.</p>
<p>I believe son got really high AP, SAT Subject and PSAT scores because of this school, so I am glad he is here. I believe he is now ready for college and would not have been if he had stayed in the old school district.</p>
<p>Also, once again thanks for the advice on RPI and CMU. What about EE at Boston U?</p>
<p>In all of the reading here and searching on the web, I have not seen anything that indicates that Texas mandates a specific method of calculating class rank for the purpose of showing to Texas public universities. If there were such a thing, it would likely have been mentioned by someone from Texas.</p>
<p>A few years back our Texas school district changed from not including the grades of MS classes that counted for HS credit into the GPA to including them. My S was taking algebra and the time the change was made and I was not happy about it, particularly because the very good algebra teacher at the MS was also a very tough grader. I don’t know what the law says but Perazziman’s school district isn’t the only one that calculates that way. I have specifically heard of different criteria used in different districts to calculate rank. Our school even made changes between the Freshman and senior class. Honestly I was just glad that they didn’t change criteria midstream.</p>
<p>Perrazziman: I really don’t know about those other schools or getting into their Phd programs. I also don’t know about the ASU engineering program. I just know that they do recruit NMF and Hispanic scholars aggressively with great scholarships. That was the main reason I mentioned it. I hope the SAT went well!</p>
<p>Spectrum2, Thanks for the clarifcation. </p>
<p>As far as gpa and class rank is concerned, these indicators seem to be getting increasingly political, as they carry a lot of weight in the admission process at UT and A&M. Things get skewed and people lose objectivity. </p>
<p>I think it is for the school registrar and others at the district to see (not for me to point out) if there could be something wrong when a national merit semifinalist (top 2% at his school), with 750 in Math II (top 5% at his school?), 4 perfect AP course scores and one AP with a 4 in junior year (top 2% in his school?), perfect exit scores (top 10% in his school?) is not in the top 25 percent in class rank and gpa at a school. Is it a cop out to say, perhaps the kid was not working in class or just lazy? … The kid came with an 1180 on the SAT (M+V+W). He is leaving as a nmsf (we will know his SAT score in a few weeks) an improvement of ~1100 points. Is he lazy?</p>
<p>This is slightly off topic, but my son’s school does not report class rank as it’s a fairly meaningless and unfair metric. On the surface it may seem absolutely objective. It is anything but. It doesn’t account for difficulty of schedule and differences between instructors. It also encourages competitive rather than collaborative learning. If acquisition of knowledge is the goal, class ranking is counterproductive.</p>
<p>You know what, if he GPA is brought down by middle school, I know that the private schools will not count it. Why don’t you calculate his GPA starting in grade 9 and report it. </p>
<p>I think Rice might be reachable if a HS GPA is somewhat higher.</p>
<p>eyemgh: There are pros and cons to the question of class rank but the fact is that it is the law in Texas and has a lot of impact on admission to Texas colleges. </p>
<p>Perazziman: I hear what you are saying and I understand your frustration because I argued the point (unsuccessfully) when our district changed the policy about how advanced class MS grades would be counted in the HS GPA. In our district the decision was made mid semester so there was no signing up for the class in an informed way. The teachers didn’t even know the change was made until a mom, me, informed her. This really didn’t have significant negative impact on my S’s GPA but for him it was only one class in question. While there probably is nothing in this that can help your son, while I made my points hypothetically you have real numbers that clearly illustrate the problem with your school districts system of calculation. You see it clearly because it is your kid. Adminstrators are looking at the masses and if no one mentions the problem they think it is all good. They really need to see those numbers!..As for TAMU I know for scholarships they look favorably on any SAT score (MandV) that is above 1350. This is what I was told when my son was applying. To that end if there is any delay getting the new score out, that application probably should go in ASAP. You should probably discuss the situation with admissions at TAMU but based on what I know about TAMU your son would be in with a scholarship even without the better score on the SAT. The scholarship decisions come later so even if you apply now the new score would be considered for scholarshipsif it was entered later, with the NM credentials it might not even matter what the SAT score is. The biggest problem that I think that your S has with admission is that engineering majors fill quickly and EE may already be full or nearly full. There is a professor who is over the university honors program at TAMU who sometimes posts on the TAMU forum. His name and contact information are in the opening post of this thread <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/texas-m-university/1374597-tamu-freshman-honors-application-open.htm[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/texas-m-university/1374597-tamu-freshman-honors-application-open.htm</a>. Perhaps he can help you. I think however your first question needs to be with the EE to see if the program is full. (or whomever can get you that information). Good Luck, It seems that no matter what your S has done really well and will land on his feet :)</p>
<p>Some advice from someone who went through the process last year: Think less about the numbers and more about the colleges. You can get bogged down in statistics and scores for hours, but you’re really just wasting your time. There are so many other contributing factors (recommendations, essays, ethnicity, socio-economics) that really don’t get talked about anywhere near as much as SATs/GPAs. Have you visited any of these places? Where does he want to go? What does he want to do outside of academics? What kind of environment (urban/rural etc) does he want to live in?</p>
<p>Also a note on Northeastern - although they have a professional focus, that definitely doesn’t mean research opportunities are weak. In fact, because many students are more focused on co-ops, there are more research positions for undergraduates. I know when I was choosing schools, they always flashed the list of graduate schools attended, and it always contained MIT (just a few minutes away, I talked to a NEU student who managed to adjust one of his co-ops to do research there), CMU, Princeton, and others primarily in the Northeast.</p>
<p>Also of note is that you can do research while on co-op. You often have more free time on co-op than when taking classes, so if you’re living on campus, this is relatively easy. I was considering EE, and I talked to an undergraduate who got real experience as a sophomore, and they have a program for freshman, too.</p>
<p>I would agree not to get too caught up in the way the GPA/rank is calculated and what is and isn’t included. It’s done the same for all students, the TX colleges will esp be familiar with grading practices within school districts in TX and privates that send apps each year. The profile that accompanies the transcript gives context so they know how to read it, how the GPA is calculated, what’s included, the grading scale, APs offered, any weighting, etc. </p>
<p>We’re in the mid-Atlantic and from county to county the policies vary. Grading scales are different, weighting for APs are different, restrictions on when and how many APs you can take is different. For my S2 the grading scale was changed midway through high school. His transcript was a maze. High school classes taken in middle school do count on your GPA and appear on your transcript. Our state universities are very adept at recognizing the differences between these districts and using the profile for each to give context to the transcripts. </p>
<p>I would really focus on looking at the schools and find out what your son wants.</p>
<p>blueiguana, I am not sure if you know, but Texas does not permit universities to interpret the data at all. It requires universities to strictly obey the 10% rule and the GPA calculations of the high school. If the GPA cut off is 8% the college does not have the leeway to admit an 8.1 by making accomodations to a district or zone etc. If the cut off is 25.4 the college cannot auto admit a 25.5. It is just that simple here. Certainly once all the auto admits are in, they can review the rest according to holistic review.</p>
<p>I completely agree, there is no reason for me to take up these political questions about gpa and rank with anyone at the district. There are obviously political winds behind this mess and with what is going on with the Fisher case.</p>
<p>Taciturn, I appreciate the info. I was reading somewhere that Northeastern has the second largest research funding program in New England, only behind MIT.</p>
<p>I understand the auto-admits. My nephew graduated last year in Texas. I assumed not making an auto admit your son would apply for a competitive review admit. If my assumption was wrong then I apologize.</p>
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<p>This is very good advice.</p>
<p>It’s all too common for high school students to stray too far in the weeds with school statistics and rankings. Don’t get caught up in the hype. It’s important to understand that each and every school has a unique environment/feel that does not fit every type of student. At the undergraduate level, school fit is absolutely critical. You need to be in environment that encourages personal and academic growth. Your college experience should inspire you, not make you count down the days until graduation.</p>
<p>That being said, you still need to pay attention to the quality of the program you’re interested in. Make sure it’s accredited, and make sure the program is well-regarded in the field. After that though, it’s up to you to choose the school (e.g. student population, geographic location, religious affiliation, research/internship potential, etc) that best fits your tastes. Visit the campus if you can… talk to the students. See what they do for fun on the weekends. What type of clubs can you join? This type of stuff is more important than you might realize…</p>
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<p>Yep, your are right, but they would no longer be safeties at that point. I am just trying to make sure that the safeties are academically good enough to get him into a PhD program after he graduates. </p>
<p>fractlmstr, Thanks and I think I agree with you 100%. </p>
<p>I am just trying to make sure I don’t end up being the dad who did not know that some colleges would never be able to get my son into a PhD program and encouraged his son to apply to them. I fee awful for getting him into a high school where I killed his chances of earning a decent Class Rank. Do you see what I mean? I guess it is the skeptic in me, or the once bitten twice shy, that needs reassurance that someone is willing to give my son a 100% valuable college education without us paying anything without some strings attached. Oklahoma, Alabama, Arizona, U of H are claiming to be full rides. So, I am wondering are there any strings attached? Is their degree recognized? Northeastern, NJIT, Drexel etc are full tuition schools. Once again, I am wondering if there is a catch?</p>
<p>You can get into a PhD program no matter where you go to undergrad. What he does is way more important than where he goes. My uncle, PhD from Stanford, undergrad, Wyoming. New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, international perennial powerhouse (NOT!), produces more PhDs per baccalaureate awarded than any other public institution in the nation (I linked the paper below, yes, like any paper, it has biases and flaws). He needs to find a school where he will feel most comfortable to flourish. In the end, most are happy with where they went to undergrad and largely what they get out of the experience is proportional to what they put in.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf08311/nsf08311.pdf[/url]”>http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf08311/nsf08311.pdf</a></p>
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<p>Not “more PhDs”; should be “more science and engineering PhDs”. No big surprise, given that its students are about 90% science and engineering majors.</p>
<p>Wow…
Maybe a little gratitude and appreciation could go a long ways here.
First, congratulations to your son. He has worked hard and done well, and is likely to continue in this manner. You should be proud.
As for your statement “some colleges would never be able to get my son into a PhD program” - eyemgh is correct. It is your son who will need to get himself in, and there are no guarantees either way. I’ve seen Ivy League and MIT kids unable to land a spot, while others from small or “no name” schools do just fine.
The schools that have made offers to your son are not trying to trick you, but neither can they promise what you seem to want.</p>
<p>For most families, college will cost some amount of money. If you are unwilling or unable to pay, you will need to be honest about this, with yourself and your son. Maybe you’ll be among the fortunate few who get exactly what they want and pay nothing, but that is rare. Even the best students sometimes need to compromise.</p>
<p>It sounds like your son will have great offers to choose from, even it they’re not exactly what you were hoping for.</p>
<p>Finally, I know this can be a trying time, but it can also be fun and exciting.</p>
<p>Hope you’re able to find some enjoyment and peace</p>