Yes, the presidential invitation is worth including. My son will add it to his mid year update at MIT.
my S20 had a good first semester his senior year. 4.0. A few colleges heās applied to want those mid-year grades; so heās glad about that.
But he just asked me what the point is of continuing that 4.0 second semester . . . . and Iām not quite sure what to say. He wants to take it a little easier in his AP lit class I think . . . . so does it matter if he gets a few Bs second semester? Heāll have chosen a college by then . . . .
A few Bs second semester senior year are fine. The only kids who donāt want that are the ones who are competing for Val/Sal or maybe some other Senior award (our school does awards for the top 20 I think).
My son started falling apart the last couple weeks of Fall semester. Final exams and the first quarter grades saved him and he still ended up with 5 Aās and 3 A-'s. I donāt think heāll be so lucky second semester. I just hope he doesnāt COMPLETELY let things go.
They still have Val/Sal? Our district hasnāt done that for years and the ones that do are smaller and/or religious schools. Our schools academic awards are through 7th semester. its requirement is 3.9UW/4.7W. itās usually 30 or so out of 500 or so. We have 5 high schools in our district and our numbers are about in the middle. My kid had 3 Aās, an A-, and two B+. She had 5 APās too. A- are Aās and B+ are Bās.
My kidsā public high school still has val/sal. They will use quarter grades to project final semester GPA and class rank.
Our school does Val/sal, too. They only use grades through the first semester of senior year, though, which seems weird to me.
Same here, I guess it is really telling everyone to go ahead and get senioritis ?
DSā submitted the mid-year report to all his schools. The waiting game officially started.
At our school itās more for a practical reason. The top 30 or so get invited to a breakfast in the last week in April. It seems like a nice affair since they get to also invite their favorite teacher.
Re: Senior grades, Iāll just share the anecdote that when I was a high school teacher, a very strong student, who had been admitted to Oberlin, got at D in my class second semester (because she failed to turn in her final project in my class and got a zero). This did trigger a phone call to our guidance counselor, but even then it didnāt end up affecting her admission status.
D20 managed straight Aās last semester and I have given her my blessing to have fun her last semester and that I wonāt be asking about sleep, homework or tests anymore. I donāt think things will go that far south, but I donāt want her to have me to blame for missing out on social activities her last semester. 
Sheāll be making these decisions on her own starting next fall, so may as well get her started.
@bigmacbeth Same here. My D20 is really good normally good at keeping on top of it. Time for me to take a big step back. Also, I am the parent that told her if its a choice of an A or getting a B and spending some time with her friends to take the B and enjoy her senior year. Life is short, they should enjoy it.
Bs are definitely fine for second semester. Now, when my S18 started having Cs and Ds in most his classes his second semester, that was an issue! He did bring them all up to Bs eventually. Main thing I care about is how D20 does on the AP tests. Those 4s and 5s will make a big difference with her freshman classes vs a 3 and then needing to take the course in college. Every school she has applied to takes Micro and Macro with a 4 or 5, and sheāll need to take both in college with her intended major. Would be nice to test out of them. My S18 is most likely graduating in 3 years instead of 4 due mainly to several AP credits. So, report card can have those Bs and Iām fine but definitely hoping for strong AP scores.
Northeastern is out! MyS20 got into the Honors college. If anyone knows anything about it, I would appreciate the information.
@Octagon Congratulations to your son! My daughter got in too! She is at dance so I do not have any details. Did they notified of aid/merit scholarship?
The waiting for the portal to be back running was brutalā¦since she had to leave for dance class., but she got the notification and checked it real quick.
@ildro Congrats to your daughter as well. Yes, they notify of aid. On the left side are links for decision letter, financial aid and scholarship (merit).
My poor D20 is so burned out by all of the college and scholarship applications (while keeping up on senior grades in advanced classes) that I really want to tell her to just chill for her last semester. But she still has 4 IB tests to take and dozens of service hours to report to get her IB diploma. Like AP credits, these IB credits can make a huge difference for her in college. We have a trip this weekend for a scholarship competition and I am putting a lot of effort into making it really fun (despite the fact that she still has to focus on college/competition during the trip). Just hoping she feels like there is some down time during the trip as well. 
My daughter got in too! Honors college and a merit scholarship so we are happy tonight! Congrats to everyone who got good news tonight! I had no idea it was coming out today.
Oh, yeahā¦AP/IB grades would definitely have me a little more concerned as well. My D20 is headed into nursing, and while sheās taking 3APs this semester, I am not sure she needs to do particularly well on the AP test. She wonāt get out in less than 4 years due to her program, and has said she wants to take everything over again so sheās not too stressed in college. Even if she gets 4/5s she will probably not take the credit.
D20 just completed her midterm exams yesterday. She was very upset as she thought she was going to get a B in AP Chemistry. I dropped her off at the airport today as she was heading out to compete at a gymnastics meet. She texted me right before she boarded the plane that she did well enough to keep her āAā. She was so happy and I am so relieved as I would hate for that B to have been the determining factor in getting into her reach schools or not. She likely will not get in, but at least she wonāt have to play the āwhat ifā game if that grade had ended up a B. For the second semester, I donāt think it will matter if she ends up with a B and I will encourage her to enjoy the last few months as a high schooler.