<p>I have a neighbor with a son in his last year of high school. A couple of days ago he mentioned how bad he felt for his son because they have moved around so much due to his work. His son has attended 3 different high schools. </p>
<p>Apparently his son has pretty decent grades with about a 3.8 unweighted GPA, about 10 AP classes, and most of the rest being Honors. SAT @ 2100. The problem is he applied to a number of competitive schools, and is now worried he either won't get in or won't get any scholarship consideration since his EC's are kind of weak. He's been in some activities at each school, but was never in one place long enough to move into any leadership roles. </p>
<p>Interestingly, he also thinks his transcripts are screwed up somewhat since all three schools use different weighting systems and are different regarding which classes are given Honors credit. He thinks his weighted GPA, used for class rank at his current school, is inaccurate. At the first school he was top 3%, but after two moves, he is now only in the top 15% even though he's taken nearly all weighted classes and gotten high scores. He did include an explanation with his applications, but he's not convinced it will help much.</p>
<p>This made me curious about how colleges view students in this situation. Are these kind of students completely disadvantaged since they were unable to demonstrate full potential, or do they consider them more favorably since they got good grades despite having to constantly reacclimate themselves to new environments? My neighbor and his son are pretty much resigned that his best option is going to be the local safety school.</p>
<p>My son had 4 high schools on his transcript, and it wasn’t because the family moved… Long story. Bottom line is that this is NOT uncommon (especially the moving around part) and colleges know how to adjust for it. The boy sounds like a competitive candidate and I hope he has some schools below the very top tier that he would be happy attending.</p>
<p>I don’t know all of them, but he specifically mentioned Emory, Vandy, W&M and Wake. He also applied to a couple of State U schools, but those are becoming increasingly competitive too these days.</p>
<p>It sounds like the young man is very adaptable. I’ll bet he wrote some terrific essays about his transient lifestyle. </p>
<p>I think admissions folks can see what is going on, and would be impressed by his ability to keep his grades up with so much transition and instability in his life.</p>
<p>If he’s concerned about his transcript not clearly reflecting what was available at each school, maybe he should request transcripts and school profiles from each of the high schools he attended? They should be willing to send them out, and then the calculations for GPA for each school would be reflected.</p>
<p>S’s high school routinely attaches the transcript from the previous school. They had a copy of the previous school profile, but I doubt that they sent it. That would have been a good thing for us to request.</p>
<p>Our ds went 2 to different high schools. his transcript was messed up, last school didn’t weight this one does. We have an excellent gc who wrote in her rec that his gpa was messed up and had he gone all 4 yrs his gpa would be different. Don’t give up because he got one of his top picks still waiting for his very number 1</p>
<p>Thanks for the great responses. I’m going to print this and share it with them. I think they will be encouraged. Also, great idea about having each school send their own transcripts - hopefully it’s not too late in the process. </p>
<p>Oh yeah, the S did talk about all the transitions in his essays. Apparently, he’s attended something like 11 different schools altogether going back to 1st grade. They have lived in a number of different states also. Just listening makes me wonder how they pulled it off. They have 4 kids altogether and they all seem very bright and really mature for their ages.</p>
<p>D attended two different HSs, one very tough grading and she was top 10-20, the second school was much easier on grading and since they counted her grades from the old school she was bottom 50% :eek:</p>
<p>Her uni agreed to consider her for merit aid based on the most favourable way they could look at her profile- they took her SATs and ignored the rank and weird GPA- this is a smaller school, not HYP, but still, if you can explain the situation to the adcom, they can find ways to address discrepencies</p>
<p>The essay is a great place for the kid to draw meaning from the experience of moving around, if it ends up helping him adapt, move into a new community, recongize resources quickly. There are many merits. Ask military kids or others who must move often. From the perspective of college, they’d know they won’t have another kid who’s scared to move into a dorm and set up new residence. We had to move often, and one wrote about it (the others didn’t care to) very effectively. It can be a plus. (Today, when he asked where he’s from, his honest answer is “Everywhere.” Otherwise he’d glaze over everyone’s eyes.</p>
<p>I was in a similar situation decades ago – 3 high schools and graduating in 3 years mostly because I was tired of moving – – it really puts meaning into the saying “home is where the heart is” which was always my response in college when asked where I was from. </p>
<p>I’m sure your son is very adaptable – a skill which will be invaluable forever. He has thrived so far – no matter where he gets admitted it sounds like he will make the best of it! The apps are in just relax it will work out.</p>