<p>Hi parents. I hope you can help my daughter. I've read innumerable times on here that getting the most rigorous schedule box checked is of the utmost importance. However, I don't think DD will get that box checked.</p>
<p>Here's why.
Junior and senior years she's been taking classes at a different school, basically she's enrolled in two schools. At her "main" school she has taken 6ish fewer classes than her classmates (off periods are not generally allowed). The principal and GC know this because we had to get special permission and stuff. However, the CC is oblivious and she's filling out the form. Easy solution right? Just tell her? Except we have, several times (verbally and in writing). And then during DD's next conversation with her it's clear she's completely forgotten. To add to that, I'm getting the sense that she rather dislikes DD because a) she's not exclusively applying to community colleges and in state schools and b) because she has an unusual situation that the CC has to deal with.</p>
<p>Anyway, when you look at both transcripts together it's pretty clear that DD has a rigorous course load. Will colleges understand that, without the checkmark in the box? Is it tacky to approach this directly with the CC?</p>
<p>Could you get a short letter from the principal describing the situation? We sidestepped out GC by getting the recommendation from the vice principal.</p>
<p>Okay step back and take a breath. That box is not the be all end all of college applications.</p>
<p>For a very few select schools it might be a tie breaker of sorts. But for the vast majority of colleges it is not an auto reject if the student is in the next box. </p>
<p>An exageration, but not by much… Which is of course contributing to my stress.</p>
<p>The principal could be an option, but DD is adamant she doesn’t want to bother him. He just recently pulled some strings to allow her schedule this year to work, and she doesn’t want to “mess anything up.” Although he knows, he isn’t behind it per se (understandably because it isn’t connected to his school at all). We will consider that though.</p>
<p>The common application gives you the option of mentioning anything that you think the ad com might need to know that didn’t appear elsewhere in the application. One option is for your daughter to mention her unusual academic situation and explain that as a result, her GC may not be fully aware of the academic demands of her program. I’d be careful do it in a way that doesn’t fault the GC - rather, that D’s program is outside of the scope of the GC’s experience and therefore perhaps not factored in. At very least, this should cause a thoughtful adcom to take a second look at your D’s situation.</p>
<p>Tacky, hell! I think it is very important if she is applying to highly selective schools. You don’t want to waste precious space on the Common App explaining something that could be taken care of by someone checking a box! They are reading these applications under extreme pressure and your D has only so much time to make an impression. You don’t want your D to stick in anyone’s mind as “the kid with the awkward explanation of her lack of rigor,” you want to highlight her accomplishments</p>
<p>It sounds as if your school has an arrangement where all of the seniors are transferred to a single GC who handles college applications: the CC. So your D has had a GC who helped arrange her current coursework, but for college will have this CC? I sympathize, because my S fell afoul of an idiot CC in the same situation. I would have a chat with the sympathetic GC and see what s/he suggests. Try to do so without putting the GC in the position of criticizing a colleague.</p>
<p>From your other posts, I am gathering (correct me if I’m wrong) that your D is not planning to apply to schools in the stratospheric acceptance range. Her grades, SAT scores, and the course names on her transcript should be more than enough to speak to her abilities. </p>
<p>At D’s HS, they can’t honestly say that more than a handful of her 350+ class have taken the “most rigorous” schedule possible, and hers certainly wasn’t. We still have a faint glimmer of hope that she will be allowed to attend school somewhere.</p>
<p>If you insist… HYPSMC + Chicago, Cornell, Columbia, Dartmouth and safeties.</p>
<p>Consolation: Yes you’re right, since middle school she has worked with the school’s gifted counselor, then in high school every student is assigned a GC for all 4 years, and then there’s 1 person who handles every senior’s college stuff. Why they don’t have the GC who actually knows the kids write the recommendations I don’t know. But I think I will call up the GC, she has been very helpful in the past. It seems this silly box can be the kiss of death, but I’m trying not to push the CC as she is holding DD’s college options in her hands.</p>
<p>If all else fails I guess she’ll have to include an explanation on the commonapp, she had been planning on using that space for other things though.</p>
<p>Yes and no. Your daughter will have LORs from 2-3 teachers. If all of those teachers checked off the box which says your daughter was top 1% and the CC didn’t, it would just be one data point. It would be even more apparent if her LOR is vague to show adcoms that she doesn’t know your daughter that well. </p>
<p>The best scenario would be for her to check off that box and say she is top 1%. I think most schools have pretty strict rules on how they determine that. It was the case at D2’s new high school which she transferred to when she was Junior. I had numerous meetings with her GC, academic dean, headmaster of high school and ultimately the president of the school. They didn’t want to give D2 credit for honors courses she took at another school, which would have brought down her WGPA. We eventually reached an agreement, I had to tell them what was important for D2 when it came to college application.</p>
<p>I would set up a meeting with GC, principal and CC at the same time to discuss your concerns.</p>
<p>I think the importance of having that box checked is very exaggerated here on cc. The important part is actually having a difficult curriculum-- not having the box checked. As long as all coursework is sent to colleges, they will judge it themselves. </p>
<p>A similar situation happened to one of my kids. The kid took a very difficult curriculum but the counselor wouldn’t check the box because she had a very narrow definition of what she thought had to be taken for that box to be checked. Kiddo got into to plenty of very competitive schools. </p>
<p>In your case, if it worries you, I might try getting the gifted counselor to talk to the college counselor-- but, if it doesn’t work, I really don’t think you have to worry about it.</p>
<p>You might be correct, but what do you base this belief on? Your kid’s experience? That’s one data point.</p>
<p>My feeling is that when so many highly accomplished kids are applying and a hairsbreadth of difference might make THE difference, it is better not to have such a complication, however minor.</p>
<p>^Don’t you think this whole data point is really very subjective and subject to the whims of what a particular school gc considers the “most rigorous” path? I mean, in the most narrow definition, there can only be ONE “most rigorous” schedule. Is a student who has taken, say, 27 of 28 classes in that schedule really inferior to his fellow applicants from other schools? This just seems like a rather subjective criteria on which to decide the fate of thousands.</p>
<p>I think that it makes a difference whether the student’s school is perceived to be getting behind them and presenting them as one of the truly outstanding students in the school when applying to the schools on the OP’s list. It probably doesn’t make much difference when apply to some other schools, perhaps even the majority of schools. But it does with these.</p>
<p>I agree with Consolation on schools which actually care to get their students to top tier colleges. I think some GC/CC just don’t even know or care on getting kids into that calibre of schools. They don’t know the importance of checking off that box.</p>
<p>My nephew didn’t take any APs until senior year because he moved while he was in high school, therefore he wasn’t in the right track to take the most rigorous curriculum. His GC addressed it in the LOR. He also took 3 APs senior year and aced all of them, which showed adcoms that he could handle college level courses. He was admitted to a top 15 school.</p>
<p>But, this kid is pretty much applying to all top 15 schools and , based on this list:
</p>
<p>…the safeties are really not a first choice! </p>
<p>If one could assume that the classes at the other school are more advanced than what’s offered at the “home” school, and those classes will appear on the transcript, then that will help “balance” if the GC doesn’t select the “highest rigor” box. Pick LOR’s that will indicate “one of the best student’s I’ve ever taught in 25 years” or “better than every other kid I taught who was admitted to your school.” Those could help balance out any questions created by the college counselor.</p>