At one school my D is considering, the admissions counselor told her she qualifies for their top scholarship based on her ACT, GPA, and class rank in top 10%. She finished junior year 3x/6xx (can’t remember the exact numbers). However, she took summer school and is taking a full load senior year - no lunch, no study hall, plus AP or Honors (weighted) classes. It appears that many seniors are taking at least one “unscheduled” period and many are taking lunches and/or study halls. So, it is very likely (counselor said almost certain) that even though D received A’s in summer school and assuming she gets A’s in all her senior classes, her weighted GPA and therefore class rank will still go down. Whether it will knock her out of the top 10% cannot be predicted, but if it did…
Would they take away the scholarship or make her ineligible for the scholarship?
She will have already applied (and most likely have been accepted) before 1st semester ends and her rank is recalculated. I don’t really understand / know when the merit money becomes final. I’m going to ask this at the school in question, but am wondering for all schools she applies to. I don’t really know what any / all of them will be basing academic merit on. Her unweighted GPA would likely even go up and maybe some schools don’t consider rank. Bottom line, I just don’t know! Short of dropping electives, there really isn’t anything she can do about it. It seems crazy to me that if she earns straight A’s and her class rank drops, she will lose out, but it is what it is.
So, anyone know? I’m not worried about any schools pulling her acceptances, just $$$$$! Thanks!
Ask the school. Some with automatic merit do the calculation after Junior year - on academic classes only taken in high school at the high school. So it excludes arts, dual enrollment and middle school classes that counted toward high school.
Why would her rank go down again?
she needs to contact the college and ask.
40% of High schools dont rank their students at all, so I seriously doubt that a college would withdraw a scholarship due to a change in rank.
But its worth asking the question.
Please tell me why this student is not having a lunch period every day? I’m afraid I don’t understand the need for this very over filled schedule.
Also, just because she is taking more classes…why would her class rank go down? That makes no sense.
If her schedule is fully loaded with AP and H classes and no study hall or lunch then the OTHER students rank will go down in comparison to hers.
I think I understand the OP’s plight. My D had 6 AP classes senior year, no lunch, plus orchestra (graded at academic level, not honors or AP). Classmates who also had 6 APs (and there were plenty of them) with a lunch or study hall had higher GPAs as they were not penalized by the non-weighted orchestra class. This apparently happens all the time and affects art students as well as musicians. If a kid has a high weighted GPA, the minute they set foot in a non-weighted class where their highest potential points are 4.0, they are at a disadvantage. Study hall or lunch do not affect GPA whereas non-weighted courses do.
Whether it matters for this student depends on the school, so yes, check with them. The only school where my D was negatively impacted was Pitt, which requires top 5% for merit money. Otherwise course rigor should work to her advantage.
As I said, I am planning on asking at this particular college next week. I was just curious as to the timing and if her drop in class rank should be one of our concerns at this point - in general. I’d hate to have to call every school and point out the fact that we know her rank will be dropping, but I also don’t want to think she qualifies for $ that she won’t if it will disqualify her. It is important in our decision making process as far as which schools to apply to.
@thumper1 My D has not had a lunch since Freshman year. It is what a lot of music students do in order to take either multiple music electives or music electives and some other elective of interest. I don’t like it either.
@Erin’s Dad Oh how I wish you were right!! An example of how it works:
Student 1:
4 Honors/AP classes (A’s): 4 x 5.0 = 20
4 standard classes (A’s): 4 x 4.0 = 16
20+16 = 36 / 8 classes = 4.5 weighted GPA
Student 2:
4 Honors/AP Classes (A’s) 4 x 5.0 = 20
Study hall, lunch and unscheduled 1st or 8th hour, no summer school, etc.
20 / 4 credit classes = 5.0 weighted GPA
My D’s weighted GPA changed by .002 from 1st semester to 2nd semester last year and it was enough to change her class rank. So, something like the above could be quite significant.)
Our school ranks on weighted GPA. There is a whole differrent recent thread somewhere on here about this and it sounds like it comes up a lot. I’m not trying to start anything about how the system works and whether or not it is fair. I am just trying really hard to help my kid find the best schools for her that we might actually be able to afford!
The rank will be sent in with her Fall Application transcript. From that, her merit will be determined.
Not only do I doubt that the end of the year transcript that will be sent in June will have a rank, but even if it does, I doubt that it would change a merit award given earlier.