Here is my dilemma today. DD was asked to submit her mid year grades. She has the following “number” grades 98, 97, 96, 93 The school wants the “letter” grades. Well in her school that would be A, A, A, B. Because here a “93” is a B. So does she enter that into the form as A A A B ? Or does the school go by their own grading system that a 93 is a “B”. What would you do?
It has to be based on the grading scale of the high school. By “school”, do you mean the college? College’s own grading scale has nothing to do the mid-year report.
yea so her high school grades a 93 as a “B”. Where as the college has the 90-100 is an A. If the college wants mid year grades submitted on their self reporting form, they want this listed in letter grade. So for her she has to list that 93 as a “B” as thats how her high school reports it. Kinda stinks as for other students that 93 is a A.
Then it’s a B.
High schools decide what percentage equates to each letter grade and then the teachers teach and grade to that. The colleges interpret a 93 to be considered “B” work at your HS. I hope that makes sense.
Yup… my concern is how is this fair when going up again a student who is putting their grades in the self reported college grade thing and its an A for them. What if my daughter got 93 across the board. So hers would be B B B B versus another student who was A A A A
Students need to enter the grade they earned because that’s the grade that will be on their final transcript the college sees.
ETA: you are tight to feel like a 93 being an A at a different HS is unfair, but that’s the grading scale at your HS.
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The difference that a single A versus a single B will make is miniscule. Also, AOs take into consideration that your daughter’s high school considers a 93% to be a B, and treats Bs from her high school based on this.
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My kid’s HS sends a mid year report with those grades. Does your D’s? For self reporting, is it possible to enter as follows: 93=B and so on?
Small differences in the A/B threshold percentage is not especially meaningful without knowing more about the grading system and grade distribution. For example, I had a freshman chem class in which the average grades on exams were only 30-40%. The highest exam grade in the class of hundreds of outstanding students was often under 90%. The exam grades were low because the exams had question that were on a far higher level than anything in the textbook or problem sets… not impossible, but you had to expand on ideas from classes and textbooks, rather than regurgitate. There were also too many questions for most students to finish within the time limit.
Nobody in the class had an overall >90% average in this example, yet the most common exam grades were still near A. While a 70% might be an A in this example, I believe this >70% = A class was graded more harshly than most other college freshmen chem classes in which >90% = A. The percentage score does not reflect that the exams were far more challenging than other chem classes.
If the admission officer is familiar with your high school and/or views the school profile, he/she can get some idea about what an “A” or “B” grade means at your HS.
Right “if” they are familiar. That is my concern.
My point is that for our school a 4.0 (unweighted) means their grades are above a 93% in all subjects. Where as in other schools (even the next town over) they would only need a 90%.
Rather than whether a 93 is an A or a B, I think a far greater difference is the level of competition at a high school versus another high school (or even the “average” high school). At my oldest’s high school (which sends ~20% to Ivy), the average ACT is 32. There are lots and lots of 99th percentile kids. Lots of competition. So, to answer the topic, no, I don’t believe a 4.0 is a 4.0.
HS GCs typically send the school profile (which has the grading scheme) along with the transcript, so the AO should have that.
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Does her hs call a 93 a B? Or you aren’t sure what the A cutoff is?
If the hs declares it a B, you’re set. Is there a way to show both the number and the letter?
The GC can always send the translation (number to letter) with the midyear report.
Nope they only want a letter grade entered.
It probably means that the high school where A requires a 94 has easier numerical grading or easier graded work than the high school where A requires a 90.
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Numerical grading scales are arbitrary and non-standardized. Presumably what is standardized though is the quality of work designated by letter grades. So in that respect, regardless of the percentage grade attached, an A is an A and a B is a B. Your daughter’s work represented by a B should be equivalent to the work represented by a B at another school irrespective of the numerical grade attached (and the school she’s applying to must think that they are which is why they are requesting letter grades and not % grades).
To give another example where I live in Canada in our schools an A-=80%, an A=85% and an A+ is 90%+. That doesn’t mean that because an A is 85% here vs 94% at your daughter’s school that it’s easier to get an A here. The level of work represented by that A is the same. The grading scale is just different.
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I would assume all transcripts have a legend explaining the breakdown.
My D’s HS used the same grading scale. All grades wee unweighted.
If this is the lowest grade on her transcript then maybe I would be a wee bit concerned but otherwise I would assume that the school just wants to see that her grades have not changed significantly. No senior slump.
No, that’s not the case in the US, certainly not when compared to the Canadian system.
Is there any place for an explanation? If not, you have to be truthful and show the B as a B. However, the college will have the school profile from her initial application and know that a B could be as high as a 93. The college will know that at a different HS a B means work below 90. There is always a cutoff and a range to letter grades and it is tough when your kids misses the next higher grade by a point. All those As look really good, however!