Hello, I’m a rising junior who’s planning to ea or ed to some schools.
I heard that many colleges require first quarter or first semester grades of senior year.
My school only includes final year grade as a letter in transcript, so I’ve had straight A’s so far. However, on the quarter and semester reports, number grades are included.
Would colleges care if I get a 90 vs 99 in my first quarter or semester, even if they are both calculated as an A? Also, one of the classes that I’m taking this year is really hard, and apparently most students get a B or lower in first quarter. Would this affect my admissions too?
First, I don’t know of a single (selective) school which does not require grade updates. And it makes sense. They’re the most recent reflection of your academic trajectory.
For a particular/specific grade, I’m sure they’ll be interested in how it fits into your overall picture. Is that 90 on the heels of an 86 the year prior and an 81 the year before that? Or is it down from a 95?
As for the difficulty of the class, check your high school’s Profile. It’s typically sent to colleges to give AOs a clearer picture of the school and the place of your class choices within it. For example, if the school indicates that it offers 39 APs and you’ve taken 2, that’s different than if they offer 2 and you’ve taken both. Make sense? And also ideally you have a GC/CC whose letter of recommendation will include more specific info about the rigor of your courses. Though, the PCs at many public HS especially do not do this unfortunately.
If you apply ED, you will be using your grades as of end of junior year. Many colleges will make their ED decisions before first semester senior grades in high school are released…but some will request these at some point.
Same with EA.
If you feel you need to improve your GPA, or something…wait…and apply RD. In most cases your first semester senior grades will be asked for.
OP referenced “1st quarter” which I take to mean grades released some time in e.g. November in which case I do not know of a selective school which will not require them as part of E applications.
Many schools where the student applied ED will ask for Q1 grades (or grades at the point in time the AO asks the HS GC). Some EA schools will ask too, but fewer and fewer as many EA decisions don’t come now until after first semester grades are available.
Not uncommon. No, they don’t care where in the spectrum you are (does your school not do A- or A+ either or is 91-100 really all considered an A? The transcript will also show AP or Honors level designations.
There’s always exceptions to the rule but generally speaking unless your school is one of the exceptions.
So the EA/ED transcript will show the final letter grades for the previous 3 years and maybe Q1 grades depending on when the transcript is run. Even if accepted to a program though the school will send updated transcripts with (typically) grades through mid-year and then the final transcript.
Amherst, Bowdoin, and Duke are a few examples of schools that require first quarter or first-marking period senior year grades for ED candidates. In my son’s case, for his ED application, since Q1 grades were not on the transcript (only semester grades are on the transcript), his counselor uploaded the Q1 report card with the Common App’s Supplemental Report. So depending on the school you decide to ED, you may need to work with your counselor to submit Q1 grades via a report card or some other “school official” format. Good luck to you!
Yup this is my experience and understanding. Most schools will want these grades to the extent available prior to their decision date (+/- 12/15 for most schools).