Good afternoon all! So after a recent college fair, D19 got print out of unofficial transcript. GPA was off what we had thought. Turns out they counted in 8th grade classes and Regents scores. So frustrated. We were never informed of this going in and quite frankly, had we know, probably would have encouraged her to do a traditional course vs accelerate. She does not need the credit for the classes to graduate, and she is/has taken full load each year and will graduate with enough and probably surplus credits from just courses taken in 9-12. Any body else in a district where they count in middle school grades into GPA?
Wow, maybe Iām parochial, but I have never ever heard of such a thing, @EENYMum!
To give you a bit of solace, there are many many schools that would just throw that calculation right out the window. If you have a list of schools already, you might want to investigate how they determine GPA; might be worth a few phone calls if you feel that admission or merit might be hampered by this wrinkle.
If 8th grade brings your GPA down then you have a definite rising trend, which many colleges like.
Our school district includes HS courses taken in 7th and 8th grade in HS GPA and they appear on the transcript (so usually Algebra I, Geometry for some kids, one or two years of foreign language). But they certainly let parents know about it! Parents can request that middle school grades be āexpungedā up until the end of the first quarter of freshman year, I think. If the student passed the class, they can take the next class and donāt have to repeat it.
My S19 has a B in 8th grade French 1 and a B+ in 8th grade honors Algebra I on his HS transcript. I feel like most parents in this school district would have erased those, but oh well!
A limited number of courses taken in middle school can count here if and only if they are legit high school courses (read, for local purposes, math above pre-algebra, foreign languages at level II and higher, and a very limited set of English courses)ābut you have to petition for them to be added to the high school transcript, they donāt just go on automatically. Apparently itās more frequent at my childās school than most places in the district, since sheās at one of the two schools that house both a middle and a high school, so thereās more opportunity for middle-schoolers to take high-school courses.
(For mine, just thinking in terms of GPA, itās worth having D19ās Spanish II grade and her one high-school-level-in-middle-school English class added, but not her two math classes that would qualify. Iāll have to get D19 to get on that sometime soon.)
Thanks for the replies so far everyone. New to cc, and all the information is great. Our situation is that we are in NY, and the class of 2019 was the first to have to tackle all new common core curriculum AND all common core Regents exams, and the exams were way more difficult than in years past. On top of that, most school districts had long term policies (although it was not mandated by the State) of counting said Regents exam as 20% of s studentās final grade! Well that first year (2015) of common core Regents, tests results were down miserably. As an example, we are in a straight up middle of the road district. We had 1ā¦ONEā¦student score at mastery level. And unprecedented failure rates. Our student passed in 8th grade, but the grade was low (but ironically because of the completely insane grading curve was considered at a mastery level 4 out of 5) but that grade was 20% of her already low class grade. Feel like it will follow her for rest of hs! And I am not sure admissions folks are aware of all this. Trying to have a dialogue with the district about it, but they are being all status quo. Student will have enough credits for hs with ms classes. @dfbdfb, are you in Virginia? I came across the request form for this. Great idea! and thank you @Gatormom for letting me join in on the conversation
@eandeasmom ā how did the college fair go?
D19 is in the last two weeks of tech madness for theatre. She is rethinking attending National Portfolio Day, as she has not had (and will not have) the time to update her portfolio based on feedback sheās already received. My thought is it would be better for her to catch up/recharge after the theatre stuff is over in mid-November, and she can take the time to update her portfolio in December. Next round of college visits starts in January.
All the college talk with D19 seems to interest my 8th grader (S22) who says he wants to continue music into college (maybe as a minor). @eh1234 ā I may be reaching out to you for advice later on!
@EENYMum we are also in a district that includes JH grades in their GPA. What I am hearing which is quiet annoying is that in some districts the Regents grade is not calculated into their final course grade. Is yours? It seems to be handled differently with each district. Some do not include the grade, some it is 10%, some it is 20% and others you can retake it if you donāt get a grade you like to recalculate your final grade. There does not seem to be a uniform practice which is the annoying part.
@sunset88, yep, each district is different. Our lazy butt district chooses to continue to include regents score at 20%, which really negatively impacted so many students. That 2015 Algebra regents was basically a harder version of old Trig regents. And including MS grades in high school gpa also varies by district. I am getting the āthat is how we have always done itā answer re: 20% and " it is mandated" to the MS grades in HS gpa. So I contacted apptopriate person at State education department and guess what, neither is mandated, but are local decisions, AND, the commissioner sent out letters to school districts stating so about regents and encouraged them not to include regents in final grade. So I have started advocating locally. But we parents may have to advocate at the state level as well since most districts tied their APPR (part of teacher evaluation) to regents exams. Let me know if you would like to team up 
OK, that puts some added pressure on me to figure this thing out by next fall, haha. S19 has no clue, DH simultaneously wants S19 to get a ābass scholarshipā and to attend a school that barely has a music program, and I am currently feeling sort of overwhelmed by the search when it comes to this kid.
This first quarter of school finally ends this week! Not really sure what to expect from the report card. S19 insists that some grades are a little low now because of things that havenāt been graded or entered into the grade book.
We have always told our kids when they are studying for their APs and the Regents (who decided to give 2 major ones on same day) that everyone else is doing the same thing and you have to plan according. It gets frustrating knowing that it is not a level playing field. Others only need to hit a minimum as to not affect their grades so they can concentrate on other tests. I commend you for trying to make it that level playing field it should be! I am hearing test changes are coming. A little late for the 19s!
Another NYer popping in from the main parent of 2019 thread.
Itās been awhile since it was discussed for my d19, but IIRC our district did not factor the math regents exam grades into GPAs for those kids who were taking the new ones those first years. It was algebra, geometry and algebra 2 for my d. I recall them telling us that admissions would see the regents exam grades themselves (all scores) though, in case any parents preferred not to have their 7th and 8th graders take the regents classes until high school. I believe typically other classes did figure the regents in as 20% of grade for the classes, but I donāt remember for sure. That would have included Living Environment, earth science, chemistry, and global studies so far.
Living Environment was taken by my d in 8th grade and the grade is not calculated into her GPA, from my understanding.
The regents grades did need to be at or above the cut off for the honors on diplomas thoughā¦ I canāt remember if that was at or above 85 or 90? Thatās statewide.
@OrangeFish it went well, exceeded my expectations. A college fair with S17 was like sending him to the gallows. S19 really ate the whole thing up and made the schools sell him. It was fun to watch actually! I posted this on the main thread as well but hereās our week at a glance!
Between the large fair yesterday and the one at his HS on monday he visited:
HS Fair: Macalester, Central WA, Seattle U, Seattle Pacific U
NACAC: Oregon State, Santa Clara, Redlands, Occidental, RPI, WPI, RIT, Virginia Tech, Digipen. Rose Hulman, Michigan State, Northern Arizona
He skipped ones he felt he knew well such as UW, Western WA and ones I might have liked him to hit such as Colorado State, Chapman, U of Portland and San Jose State.
We were there at the end and some had cleared out already, we were both a bit disappointed to miss Lawrence.
Winners for the week were Macalester, Virginia Tech and Northern Arizona. None which I had on his list. Well, I had Mac and took it off as I am concerned about reach status and price but I am ok putting it on. NAU isnāt even a ranked school and you know what, I donāt care. We know happy thriving kids there and itās a fabulous financial and admissions safety (WUE plus heād get extra merit bringing it down to instate prices) and I am comfortable (thrilled really) having it on the list in that category. S17 only had one admissions and financial safety and that stressed me out.
Followed by Redlands which we will tour in December and Santa Clara which we will tour in the Spring. Interestingly enough Redlands was the ONLY rep to immediately introduce herself and shake his hand. Which made us both realize no one else had. It went a long way.
He did feel he didnāt get enough time with RIT and RPI and wants more info. WPI moved a bit down though.
As you can see, his tastes run the gamut! He is worried about wanting to apply to too many schoolsā¦ There are another 13 on our working list he needs to know more about. But it felt like progress and really reinforced the gpa and test scores to him which was my goal.
Weāve been to a couple of fairs now and I have to say, we donāt get a heck of a lot out of them. There isnāt much time, others crowd in, and you basically get the brochure regurgitated to you. Even when you have specific questions that make you seem somewhat better than just a kid with a pulse, I donāt get the sense that these reps are actually taking note of you.
Just what Iāve observed; ymmv
@Gatormama In general I would tend to agree but I have seen a few times, something clicking for both of my kids, with a particular school. When you canāt afford to tour the whole country (or choose not to spend funds doing so) they can be the only option a kid has versus the internet so to some extent are a necessary evil.
It was funny, my inclination is to move in and listen to what they are saying to those ahead of you (without crowding) and S19 absolutely will not. He will wait his turn, not listen at all until he is up. It was kind of fascinating.
@EENYMum Our school also factors in middle school grades for high school level courses. D19 had one semester B in Algebra in 8th grade and it drives her nuts. (of course now she is getting a high C in Pre Calc so she will probably forget about Algebra pretty soon!) What really bugs her about it is that the private school kids that transfer into the public high school do not have their middle school grades go towards their GPA so many of them get ranked higher than the kids who have been in public the whole time. I cannot figure out how they do their ranking at all.
@eandesmom ā sounds like a productive set of visits! (And Iām with you for happy and healthy kids at strong safeties that do not break the bank.)
Did S19 work off the list you started preparing for him, or did he pick the list of schools to visit on his own?
@EENYMum @momtogkc It is very interesting to see how each district handles the Regents. When speaking with those outside of NY, we are askedā¦what are Regents?? I believe, you just want it to all be the same as it can be frustrating when some include the grades and some donāt. At he end of the dayā¦it is finding that right college fit for our studentsā¦canāt believe it is that time already!!
The NACAC college fair is in our neck of the woods next Sunday, but I donāt know if makes sense to go with S19 since there is no ālistā. Maybe Iāll ask him if he wants to go with a friend, but I expect the usual ānah.ā
He did tell me that he had a ādeep conversation about collegeā with his Uber driver while coming home from his post-homecoming festivities last night! He still wonāt tell ME anything, lol.
Just curious. What does a 3.0 - 3.4 GPA equate to in number grades out of 100?