is my counselor wrong?

Applying to College
1

Basically, I transferred schools the summer after my freshman year of HS because we moved. I had a 3.7 at my old school, but my counselor at my new school changed it to a 3.2 because that’s apparently what it would be at my new school’s standards.

For example, my 90 counted as an A at my old school but a B at my new one. They also don’t weigh honors classes here, and only counted my gym/health credit that was supposed to be 1.0 credit as 0.5 credits. My gym class was much more rigorous and twice the length of gym classes here, but because gym classes are worth 0.5 credits at my new school, she changed it. I’ve talked to her but she says she can’t change any of it.

UW Madison has you self-report your grades on the Common App, which is why I’m not really sure what to put. The certain counselor I have is known for making mistakes and being adamant, so I’m not sure if I take her word as law. Since they want me to report the grades exactly as on the transcript, should I use the grading provided by my old school or my new school? If I’m wrong I feel like it could mess up the application process, but I also don’t think that it’s fair to suddenly change my freshman year grades during senior year.

2

You have provided to little info for anyone to give an accurate answer.

If your old school provided letter grades, and your new schools provides letter grades, then in my mind, the grade is the grade. Although an A- at one school may be a 3.7 and another school may be a 3.5.

If your old school provided numerical grades and your new school provides letter grades, then there might be a conversion difference. e.g. a 92 at one school is an A- and at another school is a B+.

You can always ask GC to walk you through how she did the conversion.

For college applications, provide transcripts from both HSs and, if needed for the applications, report the grades as listed on the transcript of the school attended.

3

I would try to get a transcript from your old school and put in the values from the old transcript. ’
So did you get an A in the old school or did you have a 90? Whichever it was, put in that value.
Colleges want to know how you did in the context of your school…and I would say that you had two different schools. Have the GC send the transcripts from both schools to colleges for admissions.

Then maybe email the admissions counselor and say that you self-reported the grades how they were at each school…but your GC has created your GPA by taking your old grades and applying the new school rules to them. But you wanted for them to know the context for all of your grades.

4

Wondering if the OP could get the original transcript from the first HS and provide it to the colleges, with a comment that they’d like colleges to please use that instead of the way the new HS calculated it for that period. I wouldn’t give any commentary, just give colleges that option.

5

You should be using the grading provided by your current school. Despite the ding you feel, everyone from your school is being measured by this same standard.

What I don’t understand is why your current school simply transcript you credit/no credit, send in a certified copy of your transcript from your old school along with your transcripted grades from your current school and let the college (s) hash it out.

We are going through this same battle now because one of public schools that I work with is going to a A-F grading system (and the grade to letter conversion calculation in academic policy is lower than the college board and other sources ), where a 90 is now going to be a B+ (3.3 gpa) , where at the college board it is a 3.7. I have spoken to a couple of administrations about how this new letter grade policy will hurt their high performing students the most and if they can stick with a numeric system, that they should do so.

6

From another post, I think OP transferred from an easier hs to a more rigorous one.

Is UW asking for each course grade or this is about what GPA to self report? The present GC is also asked to report current GPA. I don’t think you can massage this to look better, based on 9th grade, followed by a soph 2.8 at the new hs. I think what OP needs to consider is how to make the most of the 11-12 GPA, strong LoRs, and any rest that matters to UW.

7

Here is your problem: whatever grades and GPA you report must, if you are admitted, later be verified by your transcripts. If your transcripts and the grades and GPA’s reported in the application vary from each other, you will face a high probability of having your admission withdrawn. Thus, if you are using the common application, you need to know exactly which grades to report and what GPA to report. From what you provide, I do not know whether it is as your counselor is describing or instead the higher grades for freshman year that you are describing. All I know is that the choice you make, one way or the other, better be correct, and you may actually have to contact UWisconsin for the answer.

Nevertheless, you have an easy alternative that likely avoids the problem entirely. You can apply to UWisconsin either using the common application or the UW System Application. If you apply with the common application,you are supposed to self-report all your courses and grades and probably GPA. You state you are trying to apply via the common app. You should consider instead applying via the UW System Application because if you use that application, you are not supposed to self-report grades and GPA, but instead are required to send offical transcripts from any high school you have attended. See https://www.admissions.wisc.edu/apply/freshman/materials.php. Thus, if you use the UW System applicaiton and have offical transcripts sent by both high schools, you avoid any risk of having your admisison later withdrawn for reporting incorrect grades.

8

We had exactly this problem when my child transferred (in 11th grade) from a more rigorous school to a school that was in fact less rigorous but which believed there was no more rigorous school in the world. (For the most part, it was right. It was traditionally the main academic magnet school in a large urban school district. Most people who transferred in were transferring from less academic schools.)

The two schools had completely different grading cultures. The new school had honors classes and AP classes with different weights. The old school had no honors or AP classes. The new school had grade inflation and used a 100-point scale. After weighting, 25% of the class had a GPA higher than 100. The old school used letter grades, and an A- average meant you were in the top 10% of the class and likely to get early admission to an Ivy League college or top LAC. The new school had 600 students per class and a median SAT of 1100. The old school had 95 students per class and a median SAT of 1320. That said, the best students at the new school were absolutely the equals of the best students at the old school, except more STEM-oriented.

There was a battle with the new school over how they translated the old school’s grades, and how they ranked her, but it was a battle we largely lost. They said, “Don’t worry, by the time she graduates she’ll be in the top 10%,” and I said, “Why should I care where she is when she graduates? When she applies ED to college, you are going to be saying that she isn’t even among the top 100 students at the school.” Then she was one of only three National Merit Semifinalists in her class, and the school administration – which cared a lot about how many students got into prestigious colleges – realized that they had not acted in their own self-interest, but by then it was too late.

When she applied to college: (a) She supplied the original transcript from her old school. The old school was familiar to the admissions staffs at the colleges to which she was applying, and she thought they could see that her transcript there was the transcript of a student who was competing at the top of her class, not someone in the middle of the pack. (b) She got an additional recommendation from one of her teachers at the old school, who addressed her curriculum there. © We negotiated specific language that the principal would instruct the GC to put in his school report to the effect that the way the school had imported her former school’s grades did not necessarily reflect her performance at the former school and was not consistent with her performance at the new school. (But we have no idea whether the language ever actually got into the report. The GC didn’t want to say anything like that, which is why we were talking to the principal about it.)

In the end, did it hurt her to change schools? From the standpoint of education and personal growth, no, it was great. From the standpoint of college admissions, who can tell?, but probably. She was 0-2 at the super-selective colleges she most wanted to attend. But she had a great, realistic strategy, and everything worked out fine for her.