@vwlizard I’m not sure how it will work for your child in particular. For mine the issue wasn’t really that he had to work harder, it was more that he chose not to work as hard as some of the other students and that is why he was in the lower half of the class. I think that in general, all these kids are incredibly bright and talented. Some of them are willing to put in more work than others and that shows in their GPA. He knew that if he spent all of his time studying that he could be in the top percentage, but made other choices. He wanted to have fun while there as well as play varsity athletics, he didn’t care at all that he wasn’t getting the same sort of results as kids who stressed about their work.
We all know our children. If your child is the type who puts in hours and hours of work every day in order to be a “top student” and prides themselves in being at the top, then the experience might be difficult for him or her. On the other hand, if you have a more laid back type of child who isn’t as concerned about their rank then it might be fine. My son graduated in a school which some would describe as a pressure cooker, however, that wasn’t in his nature and he was never overly stressed.
Some kids are chill no matter where they go and some have their own built in pressure cooker. Ain’t that the truth!
I completely agree. If a kid is working very hard but still can’t keep up, then the school is a mismatch for him. That’s a kid parents should be concerned about. Some kids are just late boomers. They have plenty of capabilities in reserve and can kick it up a few notches when they are motivated or found their passions.
Do most boarding schools give extra ‘bump” for Honors level courses, or not? If a student is taking multiple Honors or Accelerated courses and not getting any extra bump for it, what has been your experience?
No. Most don’t. Choate is one of the few that does.
Define “bump”?
@Calimex - at the local public schools and many private schools in our neck of the woods, students get an extra point for taking Honors Level or AP Level courses. This is how some students end up with a 5.0 GPA and higher ranking or top % of class. Just wondering if any boarding schools do that.
See my earlier response.
Additionally, few boarding schools rank. You might know what decile you’re in, and based on GPA guess where you are approximately in that decile, but that’s about it.
Some schools don’t even calculate GPAs.
There is a lot less emphasis on playing the GPA game at many boarding schools. I think it is healthier than what is found at many competitive public schools. All that competing for the highest GPA brings its own level of stress and competition. It’s unhealthy, IMO.
A high school student should take classes at the level that fits their needs and challenges them. In my perfect world, it shouldn’t have any bearing on whether there is a bump to one’s GPA. Colleges do consider rigor. Let them factor that in through that means. Competitive colleges are very familiar with the top boarding schools.
Thanks, ski. I did not know that.
My understanding is that most boarding schools do not give extra points for honors and AP classes. Is this correct? I should find out but also don’t want to know as I want my kid to take honors/AP courses as warranted for learning the most possible.
I don’t think weighted GPA matters for most top tier colleges. They typically take the grades of the courses they care about, and compute their own metric based on their knowledge of the courses and their own weighting factors.
Additionally, there is no common metric for weighting, so weighted GPA does not been much outside the 4 walls of the HS.
Reading what I just have, colleges look at course load relative to grades. So kid X has all As but took no advanced classes (outside of requirements), no honors and no AP…Kid Y has all Bs but stacked their schedule with advanced mathematics classes (just an example) and took the maximum number of allowable AP/Honors courses. So, kid Y is in middle of class but has a stronger academic profile…AOs will prefer the latter. Obviously, there are always exceptions to this rule. But I think that is a reasonable scenario. It’s all about pushing themselves.
So, I guess in that context, does bottom 20% matter? It all depends.
Actually, AOs will prefer option 3: Kid Z that has all As (or close to it) and has challenging courses (however a school decides to names them - Honors, AP, Advanced Topics) across most, if not all, core subjects.
Ok @skieurope … that is true…but it muddied my point a wee bit. 
And let’s not forget that an average class at a competitive boarding school is definitely NOT average. 
And its corollary: the students who post on CC are not a statistically representative subset of college-bound HS students.
Why? Are we all more anxious and obsessive? =))
I still can’t wrap my head around the uwGPAs, wGPAs, high school GPA vs. GPA calculated by the colleges for admissions, what colleges report for average/range for GPA for incoming classes, etc. Especially in the context of many boarding schools not reporting GPAs, most not weighting classes and others (most?) who only report GPAs or equivalent for the 5th form year, since students enter at various grades. The only method I see in the madness is to encourage my kids to take the hardest classes they can, do their best and let the grades fall where they will. Any objective understanding beyond that would qualify as having solved a millennium problem.