<p>My daughter has never received lower than a 99% quarter grade in her years as a high school student (she will be a senior next year). She has worked diligently to achieve this in her seven AP classes taken so far, but my husband has just been offered a work placement in Cincinnati that would require her to transfer high schools. This poses many problems for her.
First, we fear that the new school's transcript might only report her letter grades, as I know many high schools do, thus showing no distinction between, say, 90% and 100% (she says she would be "OK" with reporting only the letter grade ONLY if the high school's grading scale defined an "A" as a 95% or above; otherwise, she fears, colleges might assume she got a 90%). At this point, there is no discussion about the move, but my daughter says she would be willing to drive to and from school as far as it takes to find high school whose transcript reports only the letter grade on a grading scale with an "A" being designated as a 95% or above.
Secondly, she knows she will lose her position as first in her class because transferred transcripts do not maintain class rank. Is anyone aware of a school in the area that does not report class rank at all?
Thirdly, she wants to make sure to attend a school that would allow her to take seven periods of AP courses.</p>
<p>I'm well aware that this is a very convoluted list of criteria, but my daughter has worked too hard with extracurriculars and academics to see it all disturbed by an inconvenient family situation. Any suggestions of schools that fit any of the above descriptions would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>We are moving to Cincinnati and my daughter has very particular criteria in mind for a high school. First, she is searching for a high school whose transcript reports only the letter grade on a grading scale with an “A” being designated as a 95% or above.
Secondly, is anyone aware of a school in the area that does not report class rank at all?
Thirdly, she wants to make sure to attend a school that would allow her to take seven periods of AP courses.</p>
<p>Does anyone know of schools within four hours’ driving time of Cincinnati that fit the above qualifications?</p>
<p>IF your daughter ends up attending a public school, you may not have much choice as to whether you can attend a school with in 4 hours driving time that meets your criteria. You are definitely going to have a little more latitude as far as asking about grading policies, rankings, and course offerings if you are looking at private schools. Before you start asking if she can take 7 AP’s (which seems like would be all AP classes, no lunch or gym) You also need to look up the graduation requirements in cincinnati to make sure that she will be able to meet those requirements (for example, if she were coming to school in NYS, she would have to take 3 regents exams, she would have to be programmed for phys ed and most likely she would have to be programmed for lunch, which would make taking 7 APs not possible).</p>
<p>The most important thing that you must do is get a copy of the school profile from the school that she is currently attending along with signed sealed official transcripts (make sure that they are signed, they have the school seal and they are in envelopes that say official transcript, unofficial if opened). Make sure that a copy of this school profile goes to all of the colleges that she will be applying to along with a copy of the school profile of the new school. This way the official transcript from the old school, the profile from the old school can be sent along with the transcript and profile from the new school. Even if the school does rank, coming in as a senior, she would most likely not be part of the ranking.</p>
<p>If possible, she should request recommendation letters from the current staff since once she attends the new school, the staff will not know her well enough to write a recommendation for her. She should also get the counselor recommendation or make sure that the old and new counselor collaborate on on the counselor recommendation portion. This will be extremely important if she is looking to apply rolling admissions, early action or early decision any where.</p>
<p>If you’re not going to be happy with Walnut Hills, Wyoming, Indian Hill, or Sycamore, you’re probably not going to be happy with Cincinnati generally or maybe even the entire midwest. Is it too late to reconsider your transfer?</p>
<p>It will matter a LOT less than you think, or your daughter thinks. If she applies early, the review will be based on the first three years. </p>
<p>Work with the GC at your current school to prepare a narrative and details to submit to the next HS and the colleges. </p>
<p>The first place and the difference between 90 and 95 percent is NOT something to obsess about. It is entirely irrelevant. Doing well in the first months of senior is more important. The differences will come from EC and essays. Not from 99 versus 95 or 90 percent grades.</p>
<p>And lastly, relax on the seven APs. There is NO need to fill the trophy case.</p>
<p>SomeOldGuy listed the schools I would have listed in the Cincinnati area. I might also throw Madeira into the mix. We looked at a transfer to the area but the job didn’t work out. I exchanged emails with Sycamore GC, and also looked at the details of these school districts. Go onto their websites and look at the course offerings and the school profiles. </p>
<p>I second the suggestion to consider staying behind for the year so your daughter can finish out at her current high school. You wouldn’t be the first family to do so. If that doesn’t work for you, you might have to be flexible with your criteria.</p>
<p>Walnut Hills is a nationally ranked school that offers every AP except Chinese (I think). I also agree that you get no benefit in taking seven AP classes your senior year. Why in the world would you daughter want to spend four hours a day driving to school? That is four hours she could be spending on ECs, studying, or might I add, being a kid.</p>
<p>Also, it isn’t as if her first three years of her transcript from her current school won’t be part of her application. It is going to be obvious that she took the most demanding schedule and had exemplarary grades. If this is so important to your daughter and you, then I would stay where you are if it is financially feasible.</p>
<p>As someone who spent a year with kids, separated from H while he was working in another state, I would NOT recommend this. In my experience this was not good for family/marriage.
Your D should not be concerned about the grading system in her new school. Colleges will get both transcripts, and the one from her current school will be the “dominant” one. They’ll see exactly what her grades and rank were at end of junior year.</p>
<p>When you transfer to a new HS with only one year to go. The first and foremost objective is to be able to graduate in time. Your second focus will be her EC rather than taking 7 AP in senior year.</p>
<p>Because each school district will have their own “requirement”. Your DD might the be #1 in current school, that does not mean she has taken the all the requirements.</p>
<p>We did the same type of transfer when DD was a raising junior in HS. She ended up have to take one or two classes with the freshmen in her senior year to complete all the required courses. </p>
<p>It is quite o.k. to get one or two teachers from her current school to write the LOR. </p>
<p>Are you really a parent? You have made the same posting in several other threads/forums. </p>
<p>BTW, even if your DD will end up with taking 14 total AP. That will be very difficult to be the #1 in many of these nationally ranked HS. I knew some students would self study additional AP classes so 17 or more total AP is quite possible.</p>
<p>You are massively overreacting. You do know that the majority of schools in this country use A, B, C grading? You can get into good colleges without 7 APs? It’s as if you think your D has some brilliance that will be utterly lost. Amazingly, kids in Cincinnati wind up at good schools.</p>
<p>D2 transferred when she was a junior. We had a hard time transcribing her old transcript to her new school’s standard because her old school used letter grades and there were issues on how to weigh honors. At one point, when we couldn’t come to an agreement, the GC did suggest to submit both transcripts and school profiles. After many meetings (months) with the school’s administration, we did come to an agreement and the school actually decided to “reform” their policy for transfer students. The administration also decided that a student must attend the school for 2+ years to be considered for Val or Sal. </p>
<p>Lessons learned here is to everything early. Don’t wait until when transcript needs to be sent out. Ask for LORs from the current school now. Your D will have less of an issue than my kid because most of her grades will be from her current school, and all she has to do is to do well the first few months at her new school.</p>
<p>I am in agreement with some that it maybe better for your D to finish high school at her current school. If she is first in her class now, she maybe missing out on a lot of awards and senior year activities at her current school. It took D2 2-3 months to get acclimated to her new school, but because she was going to be there for 2 years, it was worth it.</p>
<p>We moved the summer before DD’s senior year. The transcript showed the letter grades and the grading scale. Because of the old grading scale and the fact that the new school didn’t weight grades, she didn’t even graduate in the top 10%. She had two B+'s at her first school, which were 93s, but counted as B+'s, not A’s for the new school’s recalculated GPA, even though a 93 was an A at the new school. She also got a B in the calculus course she took at the local college. Those three grades kept her out of the top 10%, even with a 3.8ish GPA. </p>
<p>It wasn’t an issue because the colleges saw the courses she had taken, and didn’t just use the class rank.</p>
<p>It also depends on what tier of schools OP’s D is aiming for. For many high schools, they only get 1 or 2 students to top 5 or 10 schools each year. A student’s GPA, ECs, essays are important, but teacher’s LORs are heavily weighted too. It’s questionable how good of LORs OP’s D could get from her current school if she were to transfer, and how well her new school’s teachers would know her. Would they check off top 1%, 5% or 10% for OP’s D? There are a lot of good fair teachers/GCs out there, but OP’s D has worked too hard to take a chance. As I mentioned before, it took D2 few months to adjust and it was stressful. How will OP’s D handle the adjustment, on top of applying to colleges. Now in weighing all of those factors, I would stay put for the last year of high school. 9 months will go by very fast. Of course, atomom thought it was very difficult for her family, so it is something to consider.</p>
<p>Seems like there are 3 options. Find someone to stay with for her senior year and finish at her current school. Find a boarding school for senior year. Have her come with you and find the best school of choice within your new district. You might want to find out what the requirements are for being named a senior scholar at the new school. Some it is 2 years, some it is 1 year. Don’t be so concerned about 7 AP classes…many schools do not subscribe to enough AP branded classes but will have rigorous classes to choose from and she will need to comply with the school and the state’s graduation requirements so she may have to pick up a class or two. Some schools do not have multiple tracks e.g. honors, regular etc. (Ours does not and we are ranked in the top 10 in our state - and with only 5 AP classes) Look closely at the curriculum and find what fits her needs for senior year. Also most college applications are based heavily on sophomore and junior year so it is not necessarily a disadvantage to transfer as a senior. Colleges see all kinds of different scales and methods of “grading” kids…it won’t have significant meaning - what is more important is how she does in comparison to her peers. And again, if the “disturbing” part is of the utmost importance consider finding her a “home” for senior year. We offered to take in a friend of my S2 whose family was moving. In the end the kid moved, but we would have happily housed him if that were his desire.</p>
<p>I agree with Someoldguy…there are some high quality schools in Cincinnati, and if the ones he mentioned are not good enough, despite being top-ranked in the country, then the OP’s D should consider finding a way to stay put for her Senior year. I would think the public schools he mentioned would all have numerous APs available, and if they don’t, they would still be considered academically rigorous schools without them.</p>
<p>Jonri, what seemed odd to you? I just looked at the Ohio requirements and they didn’t look odd or onerous to me. If the OPs D has been taking a solid college prep track then she should have them covered with perhaps not the finance…but all my kids took either finance or AP econ at some point in high school as an elective just because they wanted to. Ours requires 4 years of English, 4 years of math (through Algebra II), one year of a foreign language other than English and starting next year one on-line course if I recall. It might change up the OP’s Ds current plan for senior year, but probably not in a negative way.</p>