Can anyone offer insight as to whether Groton still has a reputation for grading somewhat harder than other peer BSs? I recently read a 2014 article from the Groton Circle that things were easing up a bit. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Wish someone would answer. I’m interested as well.
Just curious, does it matter? If the grading was harder and resulted in the average grade at Groton being a B- for years and then they shifted things and the average grade is now A-, what does that change? It won’t change where any student falls within the range of performance at Groton. It doesn’t make the work less challenging. Just grade inflation? It would be a different question if you were asking if they made the workload and difficulty of coursework easier, which I don’t think has happened (though, correct me if I’m wrong).
Mostly I’m interested because every time people talk about the school they attend or a school they know a lot about it gives you some insight into the school.
Well, actually it does matter. The lack of grade inflation and some schools mean that when someone applies ( let’s say from Groton) they may have a 3.4 and that may be in the top 1/3 of the class versus at another school where the top third is a 3.75 ( or higher). That can leave candidates in the wrong pool when applying to selective colleges. With changes at how colleges look at prep schools and there no longer being a pipeline to the selective ivies as in years past, what you have to consider is, will schools know Groton ( yes) and will they know that grades there are not inflated (also a likely yes). Still something to consider esp if you/your kid is not in the high academic pool of candidates and doesn’t have a hook for college. Certainly something to think about. You also have to factor in that the top schools are not going to select more than a certain number of candidates from each school. If candidates are really hooked they might be that candidate. This can affect others. But there is nothing you can do to change it.
Kids should be going to Groton because they want to take Latin and Ancient Greek though-not because they want to go to X college down the road. No one ever knows what will happen in the college process. Kids should find a place where they can thrive and grow and do their best.
Most private college AOs know it is harder to get an A at some schools than at others.
That may or may not be the case at public universities that rely more on numbers
I also think it matters a lot to kids. If kids are used to getting A’s for A quality work and they go to a school that depresses grades or grades so much harder that A’s are rare they need to be prepared. A lot of the B grade heartache can be forestalled by having realistic conversations before the start of school.
Anecdotally, I have heard BS families complain that when they leave the relatively large universe of colleges who know theIR BS, it can be tougher for students to get in and/or get scholarships, etc that are based purely on stats because of the tough grading scale. I.e., large publics/outside the usual geography. …
In the universe that knows them, the GPA isn’t a factor. I can speak to this based on personal experience!
If grading is paramount to the kid, s/he should rethink boarding school. If considering grading at Groton vs. Concord vs. Middlesex, then the focus is on the wrong thing. There is not the grade inflation at any BS that exists at the typical local high school. As are not given out like candy. The opportunity of retakes, mulligans, extra credit do not exist to the same level. At the typical BS, 95%+ will graduate with a GPA of less than 4.0.
College AOs understand that that grading standards vary by school. Once that diploma is received, nobody will care what the HS GPA was.
This is helpful, thank you all.
I would just say that if Groton admin/faculty has, at some point, revised their grading relative to their peers, and if there was some sort of an effort to converge a bit, then the school itself may have recognized there was some downside to lower average GPAs.
I understand also that schools provide colleges with their school profile, which shows grade distributions in at least academic (perhaps all?) classes — how many kids in honors world history in 2018 received As, Bs, Cs, etc. I think that’s a pretty helpful view. DS has mentioned that whenever there’s a known “hard” grading and “easy” grading teacher for a particular class, he gets the hard one. While it may impact his GPA marginally, my stock response is that the hard work and higher standard will eventually pay off.
As an FYI, I can count on one hand (maybe 2) the number of school profiles I have seen (and I have seen many) that list grade distribution by course. I know Groton was one of them; I don’t know it they still include this on the profile. At best there may be an average GPA and/or GPA but decile/quintile. Regardless, for a school as well known as Groton, assume AOs know the whether there is grade inflation/deflation going on.