As a 9th grader at a very competitive public high school, I have seen the full effects of grade deflation. For anyone currently at boarding school, what has been your experience with grade inflation or deflation? Since these schools have an incentive to send their students to top colleges, does that play into grade distribution? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!
I’m a new sophomore at a very well-respected boarding school, and this year my school is trying to combat grade inflation. Apparently, class averages in the past were much higher than they were supposed to be, and virtually 50% of the school had the same GPA (close to an 88/89). Now, teachers are encouraged to grade more harshly and it is therefore very unlikely for students to receive a grade above a 92 (unless it is based on purely objective work, such as multiple choice questions or many math problems). As a new student from a school where any high-achieving student, with a little hard work, could have A+'s and 96+ GPAs, this has been an adjustment to say the least.
I see both inflation and deflation. My experience is similar to that of @sherunsonwater in English, but my chem teacher allows us to redo tests and actually curved the exam. Wherever you end up will have its own standards, and the meaning of your grades will be relative to those standards.
It seems that Choate does not believe in grade inflation. See my DD and her friends killing themselves for B+ and A- grades. Every alum we spoke to claims that college was “a breeze” after Choate.
The first B (or C) is a painful, but awakening moment. It’s a great learning process and better have it in high school than in college. I don’t know about boarding schools, but at my D’s community college % of A varies anywhere from 15 to 50 in each section. Entry level course are often more harshly graded so freshmen should be aware. Hard science courses are often curved or else too many students would fail, but she never heard of redoing tests.
There doesn’t seem to be grade inflation at Mercersburg. Occasionally teachers have mentioned that one or the other of my kids had the highest grade in the class on this or that test or assignment, and it wasn’t that high.
I didn’t see any grade inflation at Choate and concur with @mexusa’s comment but that shouldn’t be any cause for concern. Choate’s grading system did not hold anyone back. The colleges know how to evaluate students from these schools very well.
As we always remind everyone, come college app time, your student will be measured against peers at his/her BS and all those peers are making their grades under the same constraints as your child. Your student is NOT being compared to the 4.+ students at the local school s/he left behind or any other school, just the pool of seniors at the current BS.
The actual learning is way more important than the grade. Consider that 10~20% at top universities don’t even graduate. Grade inflation is harmful for students who would otherwise work harder to get a good grade.
@jwalche
Valid point, yet conversely there are plenty of qualified applicants who get rejected from schools they would excel at due to grade deflation
Hopefully those qualified applicants were accepted by at least one of their first choice schools. If not, then hopefully they were excelling in their second choice school taking advantage of best programs designed for such students at those schools.
I am with Mexusa on this one. Grade deflation at Choate. One term at Choate for my DS (only previously had received one B+ in his life), and we have two B’s on one term’s report card. That was a shocker for us. We were told by two advisors there that his GPA was “VERY” strong for a first term 9th male boarder. I now find myself doing cartwheels over grades I would have at one time (had I have had the chance to) hollered about.
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However, I’d like to add that in our small sample of selective BS alums that we know, it would appear that Choatie mom is correct: in spite of B+ averages, they still got into their first choice schools.
Grade inflation and the inherent inconsistencies from school to school are why the SAT matters more than ever. My child attends a very rigorous public school. The grading in many of the classes is mind boggling: in other words, extremely punitive
Grade inflations vary from school to school. Specifically, in my french class , our test grades are inflated if we all perform poorly on the test (aka if we get Ds) because I’m in a french class full of upperclassmen. Other than that, no grade inflations occur for me. For seniors, teachers understand that seniors are applying to colleges and may inflate a D+ to a C-. Freshmen: no grade inflation at all! the teachers want you to work for the grades. As for deflations, I’ve never heard of them happening at my school.
Grades are pretty rough here, but a B is considered as “notable” (I’m sorry I’ll stop trying to make unpunny puns) as an A. What @ChoatieMom said!
No inflation at NMH and they only include your academic classes in your GPA so no using gym and art to puff up your GPA like in public school AND only 3 classes per semester so every grade counts.
i concur w/Chemchimney and would go so far as to suggest there is deflation at NMH…consider not weighting for honors or AP–and the big one as far as i’m concerned is the 4.0 scale, meaning that an A+ and A are both 4.0 and not 4.33 and 4.0 as most schools are. It’s a tough grading environment overall, but worth it.
Daughter said her 9th grade honors history class suspects that the teacher rigged the grading system so no one can get an A, and her community college U.S. History class was easier.
She is also barely maintaining B in her honors Spanish 2 class (after moving down from level 3 that was clearly too advanced for her) despite her 3 years of “daily” one hour tutoring and acing an entry level community college Spanish course last year.
I am happy that she is being worked hard. What she learns matters more than her gpa.
Her other classes seems are easier now. But that’s probably because she isn’t at a highly competitive boarding school.
Few boarding schools weight.
“Most” schools have neither a 4.33 nor an A+.
In the college admissions process, most colleges will focus on an UW GPA, because there just is no standard weighting rubric. Alternatively, they will weight according to their own parameters. Also be aware that just because a HS includes (or excludes) some classes from the GPA does not mean that an admissions office will follow suit.
@SculptorDad , her classes could be easier now because she’s in 9th grade and came better prepared than some of her classmates, not simply because of the school.
Many schools use grade 9 to get everyone onto even footing so that they’re prepared for the more intense years that follow. (There is likely to be some differentiation in languages and math in particular but less than will follow. ) If she’s having to push herself in a few classes but not all, she is learning one of the most important lessons about managing her schedule and time. It’s never a good idea to be operating at the edge of the envelope in all classes! That can suck all the joy out of learning. I’m happy to hear it all is working out for her!!