This is the first time I heard that a teacher can be persuaded to assign a different letter grade from the school’s established correspondences between percentages and letter grades. How is adcom going to figure this out? As @MWolf correctly pointed out, it’s already an impossible task for the colleges (and their regional reps) to figure out the rigors (with any precision) at the tens of thousands of high schools across the country. This will surely add to their problems.
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Apparently it happens more than people realize. I read a thread on Quora where teachers confessed to having done so, usually for students they liked and who tried hard or had tough circumstances.
Yup, there are no standards. Very unfair and makes AOs jobs so much harder.
I think essays are playing a significant role this year, especially compared to my other 2 college students. At most they wrote their common app essay, and a why… essay. My DD this year is writing 3 and 4 essays for every college application she submits.
The whole grading scale differences from one school to the next is really interesting. My son did 2 years of high school in Europe where the grading system is VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY difficult. (By the way did I say VERY difficult?!) Particularly the French system does not believe in perfection, and to add to the mix his school was by admission by testing only with extremely high standards. He worked his tail off…He was often up until 2 a.m. at night because he played two varsity sports. He actually ended up with all A’s and just one A-…but he put his ENTIRE energy into this objective!!! He transferred to a US high school for Junior and Senior years and is in a very reputable IB program. He has a 5.0 GPA this year since he is taking all IB classes but it is much easier in his eyes than France. His opinion is that A’s are entirely achieveble in America (with less effort) if you show interest, motivation and spend the time. In France this simply was NOT the case… Based on his experience he believes if you are committed to getting an A in America you can do so (at least in his high school). I don’t know what other high schools across the country are like…but I do know that if they are at all like the French system then oftentimes it requires WAAAAY too much effort for elusive A. I do love the holistic approach in the USA because along with SAT, grades and activities they can get a real picture of the student. At my son’s school he is top 1% in his class and also scored top 1.5% for SAT so it was very accurate. I’m actually a fan of the SAT for this reason. I love the American system as it seems more balanced than France. His IB school is amazing and is preparing him so well but he still gets to go to bed at night if he wants an A.
I love seeing people write UW GPA as a 4.xx, because it is not unweighted. They just have no clue. Our school does not figure GPA, weight classes or rank, because when the transcripts go into a college, it is refigured to where all the applicants are being evaluated the same. My child got a B+ in AP Calc AB. I notice some of the schools count it as a 4.0, others don’t, and assign merit accordingly. There is no reason to stress over it.
Because there’s really no perfection.
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Not rank but the number grade. So on an unofficial parent report card, we’d just get the letter grades. On the official school report, they listed the number grades along with the letter. So in the case you mention the 88.42 would be there along with the A, and likewise the student with the 99 would have that clearly shown.
D’s HS didn’t officially rank either but they did report to colleges the val/sal and top 10%. Only one Val/Sal.
It was also school policy to have every standardized test attempt on the transcript so most students strove to take tests only once, twice max.
@cgemaj - My D’s grading scale was the same. School report went with the transcripts. It wasn’t a problem.
If you feel they can game the transcript, then that’s a high school problem. Not for an adcom to solve.
Top level work is top level work. If a hs feels 89-100 is Outstanding, then that’s what the reviewers deal with.
Most hs report letter grades. No, adcoms don’t know if an A is 95+ or a 90. But it’s an A on the transcript, that’s that. And few hs dip below 90 for an A. It’s the way it’s always been. 90-100 or 92-100 is the usual bar.
But remember, stats are just a first-pass, yea or nay, good enough or questionable. For an elite holistic, the rest of the app is the make-or-break.
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I’ve never heard of that. I wonder how common it is for a hs to report that kind of granularity. I bet some parents at your hs are lobbying the administration to get rid of that.
“It was also school policy to have every standardized test attempt on the transcript so must students strove to take tests only once, twice max.”
Your school is very tough! Wow. D18 had a friend who took every single ACT and SAT that was offered in his junior year!
My DD goes to a private school that does not do grade inflation. It has managed to stay open for in-person learning much of the semester but has still maintained its grading standards. This in a way has been detrimental to my daughter. Her friends go to public schools that have remained 100% online or hybrid. Grading for this year has been a joke with A’s pretty much the standard while my daughter is working harder than ever trying to balance the times they were online with the rigor her teachers expect when in person.
She has a 4.0 right now but after finals I don’t think it will hold.
No idea how common D’s HS practice is. Students get good results with admissions every year so whatever they are doing, is working for them.
I will add that test prep was integrated into the curriculum of the english and math classes and a free prep class was offered before school for all juniors. There was not a lot of stressing about ACT and most students looked at it as just another test. Preparation, yes. Stress, no. The average ACT score D’s year was a 28.
I definitely agree with this…but in order to achieve straight A’s in France the kids are almost “abused”…I can’t tell you how many nights I woke at 2 or 3 a.m. and literally FORCED him to turn off his lights just to get 4 hours of sleep. In America (even in an IB program), he feels very calm and confident that with a reasonable amount of work and commitment he can receive A’s for his efforts. I believe that hard work deserves compensation in life (like in the workplace) but France doesn’t offer this same mindset (unless you literally break your back for it.) I agree perfection in academics does not exist, but it is heartbreaking to see it be so difficult. He LOVES his American school and feels so much more in harmony.
Wow, is that a private school? Our school doesn’t have anything like test prep. 28 ACT is very high, right? Idk what ours is.
Yes, private STEM focused school/charter.
There were a number of privates in the area with higher average ACT scores (one school’s average was a 32).
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I actually think adcom’s jobs at fancy colleges are easy at the heart of it. Stressful, to be sure, but easier than we make it sound. For every kid they accept there are probably many that can handle the school. They could probably throw a dart at applications and pick a class that could succeed. Sometimes it feels like people in here think adcoms are searching for a needle in a haystack. Mostly they’re searching for the shiniest needle in a needle stack.
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32! I can’t imagine the GPA competition there!
Hm, I checked D19’s school profile. Average ACT was 29.3 in her year, SAT was 1310. Well regarded public high school. No in-school test prep. Interesting on the breakdowns of the standardized tests, those doing SAT tended to score higher in math than ERW, for ACT the higher scores tended to come in English and reading.
Breakdown of school AP scores showed nearly 90% passing grades, and roughly a third 4s and a third 5s.
This all generally combines with no grade inflation. There were a couple of classes she got a B in class but a 5 on the AP.
On the B-> A discussion. They did not automatically round up 89.anything, but there were a couple of classes she got rounded up to an A on a discretionary basis.
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Also, the quality of the LoR can depend on the quality of the recommender in terms of how well they write the LoR to market the student to college admission readers.
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Not only that, but at my kids’ HS teachers have the choice as to how to handle rounding situations. So one teacher might give an 89.5 an A- (A/A-=90+), while for another teacher that would be a B+. Admin says it’s the teachers’ prerogative.
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