We will be moving out of state this summer. My daughter is currently a junior at a private Catholic HS. She is excited about the move and wants to go to a “regular” high school. I’m worried about college applications, graduation requirements, counselor recommendations, etc.
What should we be doing now to prepare - any advice about transferring? Anyone recently move with an incoming senior?
D2 moved when she was a junior, so we had one extra year of runway. We had to make a decision as to who she wanted to write her LORs. We ultimately decided to ask her teachers at her new school, which meant she had to make more of an effort to get to know her new teachers. She did it by participating in volunteer program her teacher was involved in, stay after school to meet with them, etc. In your D’s case, she probably can get her old school’s teachers to write her LORs (she should ask them before she moves).
Another challenge we faced was converting her grades from her old school to new school’s. Her new school didn’t want to give her credit for some advance classes she took. It took us a whole semester to get it sorted out. D2 did lose few GPA points and it meant she didn’t get to be the Val of her class (not sure if it was done on purpose). I would make sure you get it sorted out even before your D starts her senior year.
D2 also had to take few placement tests in order to be in their IB program. Make sure your D meets the new school’s requirements for APs/IBs. Many schools do fill up those classes pretty early and it can be a bit political as to who is admitted (unlike small private schools). Just be ready that you’ll need to advocate for your D.
I would talk early to the Guidance counselor at the new school so you can get your child into advanced courses…other kids have already picked what they want…you want to make sure your kid get get AP classes too
I would get LoRs from he current school.
I would also want to better understand how class rank will be reported by the new school
It can really build character.
We moved from an IB school in one state to an AP school in another state. When we visited, they were very evasive about credits at both of the new high schools. I couldn’t pin them down, but the clock was ticking in their favor. They kept saying the district will make it fair. After enrollment, ‘fair’ translated to ‘home cooking’ by the district. They couldn’t magically transform an unweighted A into an unweighted B. However, my kids’ IB credits were weighted below AP, to ensure my kids were out of the running for any awards. Petty, but true.
Don’t worry, better colleges have their own weighting system and even take into account both hs transcripts as separate. The new school was actually easier and they all breezed through with straight As. I think it would have been much tougher to move from a less-rigorous school to a more rigorous school.
Prepare for some interesting turns in ECs too. Same ‘welcome to our school’ in sports. We moved from a weak basketball state to a very strong basketball state. A ridiculous number of kids tried out for basketball. My son was the last kid to make the cut in 8th grade and put on the bench on the ‘B’ team. It took forever for him to work his way up, but I could tell his coach was excellent and improving him faster than any previous coach. By the last 10 games he was starting on the ‘A’ team and he literally turned their season around. I think they won 9 in that stretch. It was early in his career and it really helped him to have to prove himself every single day to earn respect. I am forever grateful to that coach for getting the most out of my son.
On the other hand, my eldest daughter was a junior and dominated in practice from Day 1. She was immediately the leading scorer on varsity, but it was a brand new immature coach (literally a ‘back when I played here’ coach). There was animosity instigated by the coach against my D for her skills from Day 1. The AD fired the coach at the end of the season and managed to hire a great boys’ coach from 50 miles away to take over the girls’ team the following season.
You get the idea. Some good, some bad, but it will build character.
As noted above, incoming transfers are often given disadvantageous weighting of previous course work to protect the class ranks of students already at the school. This may be of particular concern if you are moving to Texas.
Other things to consider:
Make sure that your D meets all state testing requirements for graduation.
Make sure that you get official copies of her transcript, sealed for the new GC.
The New GC will need at least one to transfer grades into the New School’s system.
They will most likely attached the official transcript to their school’s transcript for mid year grades, and will up load the official transcript along with their transcript for any EA/ED/Rolling schools that your D applies to.
As an incoming senior she will most likely not be part of the official class ranking. Speak with the GC to see how s/he is going explain this in the recommendations.
I’ve seen this a number of times and excuse my obvious naïveté in asking this, but why does it happen? I understand the rank/auto-admit issue in places like texas but why discriminate against a new student/state resident just because others have been there longer (and how is that even legal?).
D19’s school didn’t rank and I never heard of anything like this at her school.
There is nothing illegal about it. Many schools have s minimum amount of tint that students must be enrolled to be part of the ranking. Also keep in mind that all A’s are not created equally, especially when moving across states where some states may have more rigerius graduation requirements.
I presume you mean time (not tint), if that’s the case no need to downweight previous grades?
They are catering to local students and parents who will complain loudly if their rank drops because of inbound transfer students, while inbound transfer students have no previous rank to notice that their rank is lower than it “should be”.
My kids high school doesn’t rank now, but back when my daughter was there they stopped letting junior or senior transfers into the class ranking because people were moving into the district with higher GPAs than was even possible at our school.
Our high school doesn’t allow freshman to take APs and sophomores are only allowed to take one. Kids are allowed about 4 each junior and senior year. I’ve never heard of anyone with more than 9. But, we’ve had kids move into the district from other states who have many more than that. Several years in a row the valedictorian was someone who moved in during junior year just because they had more APs under there belt before they even started that there was no way someone going to our school for 4 years could compete. So they changed the rules.
Thank you all for the feedback! Since we aren’t 100% sure where/when we are moving things are a bit difficult. I am going to meet with my daughter’s college counselor and academic counselor in the next couple of weeks and will formulate a plan with them. I really hope that after paying tuition for two kids they will be helpful and agree to write letter’s of recommendation (I assume they will or at least the teacher’s will agree separately). I think she will be sending applications in before the new schools even start first semester - in CO we start in August, but I’m thinking midwest/southeast schools don’t start until September.
My daughter will also talk to the admissions reps at her top couple school choices about the move. She is applying to nursing schools which can be pretty competitive and we’ve even talked about my staying here with her in an apartment for the first semester, but she wants to get moved and make new friends…
I’ve been resisting writing this comment but here goes. (and remember this wa a long time ago so take it with a grain of salt) I moved (from a small catholic high school in the Midwest) to a very large public school in the South the summer before my senior year. It was okay for the first few weeks and then the novelty wore off and I went down a path that was not okay. Everyone had their friends and it was hard to find true friendship. I tried to fit in but it was a very different environment than my previous hometown. I really should have had a counselor/therapist but back then those things were not that common, especially for high school kids. The school had promised me that I could be involved in the 2 things I loved most at the time, cheer and track but of course cheerleading had already had try outs by the time I got there and they didn’t even have a female track team. I know it’s different now and you are being very proactive in your move to help your child matriculate but please don’t let her make this decision as my parents did. If you at all think she would be better staying at her HS for senior year, listen to your gut. I look back with SO much regret because my parents let me make a decision that I wasn’t equipped emotionally to make. I’m not trying to scare or make you feel bad but just another opinion for you to consider. Best of luck to you and your family!