@2plustrio That’s a good point - the preAP classes are weighted more than the regulars - wow - I just had to check - you’d think I would know this by now having 2 already graduated from HS. lol. Apparently preAP is weighted the same as AP soooo that says he really didn’t do as well as his preAP peers. Sigh. Really hoping that the rank was an eye opener for him (I really think it was).
My S21 ended up with only 1 AP. APUSH. It was something of a killer. He survived, got a good grade, and learned a lot, but oh my. He definitely wouldn’t have been the right match for AP classes sophomore year, although I do think there are a few additional ones he might have taken before graduation if he’d had more options available to him.
APUSH was such a time killer for him last year that he dropped down from AP Gov as a result, though that would have been a good match for him in another year. I think some of the elective ones might have been good matches for him this year, but they weren’t options. His only options this year (small hybrid homeschool) were AP Lit (ha, no)! and AP Latin without having done Latin IV first. We tossed around the idea of AP Latin but decided against it - not only because we thought he’d better off doing Latin IV first (which he is doing this year as a senior) but also because AP Latin seemed a lot like a literature class…but in Latin…and he’s not a fan of literature classes even when they’re in English. So I’m going to have one kid with 1 AP and another with something like 14…(and another with none).
@2plustrio I think that definitely shows rigor for 10th grade!
No rank at my kid’s school, and no APs either in freshman year.
Does anyone know anything about Scoir? That is the system the school is transferring to, after using Naviance (which I’m very familiar with) for years. We supposedly get access in December.
Non-AP/IB courses are now weighted some places?? The weighting of grades by schools is getting out of hand, IMO. Anything to make their kids look better in the admissions/scholarships race, I suppose.
Only AP classes are weighted by .05 I believe at my kids school (first kid had an IEP and LD and barely got through high school before he went on to tech school so even though it’s kid #2 he’s my first “real college research” kid).
As I said, my son turned down APUSH this year (and other than AP Psych it was basically his only other real AP option at his school sophomore). He is taking 2 “accelerated” courses (english and chemistry) for his core courses. He is taking pre-calc which at his school is 2 years ahead of the typical math sequence.
But I will be lucky if he ends up with around with a non weighted 3.5 at the end of high school. Not aiming for top notch schools but fingers crossed he finally agrees to a Jesuit and might get some free tuition.
Only AP weighted for us as well. (I think DE as well, but I haven’t paid attention as my D23 isn’t doing DE. IB also, but of the two high school choices in our town, only one offers IB, and it’s not ours. So for us, only AP is weighted).
I’m thinking that the weighting of honors-type courses that some other schools do actually only comes into play for rank within one’s own high school, because aren’t most colleges doing their own calculation of weighted GPA based on their methodology applied to the student’s courses (core courses only)?
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Kid’s school (and D19’s also) weighs honors as well as AP.
Honors get about a half step while APs get a full step.
At D19’s school it was .5 for honors and 1 point for AP, but that school didn’t calculate pluses and minuses.
S19’s does, and the weighting works out, I think, to the detriment of APs. An A+ is worth 4.3, honors A+ is 4.7 and AP A+ is 5.0, but if you get an A-, the AP course is only weighted at 4.3.
Anyway, I agree with @nichols51 - more and more colleges are recalculating because of these individual differences from school to school.
Yeah I noticed that when D17 and S19 were applying to schools and scholarships - they asked for unweighted 4.0 GPA (always throws me for a loop when all the school provides is weighted GPA). Anyway in our district, regulars is 5.0, Advanced 5.5 and Pre-AP/AP/GT (Gifted) is 6.0.
One fun (for certain definitions of fun) thing about weighting in my kids’ district: DE classes are weighted less heavily than AP/IB classes. When I learned about that wrinkle (with my D19, who did effectively her entire senior year DE) I was puzzled, to say the least.
Same at our high school. S23 is taking all honors classes this year, along with APUSH and AP Comp Sci Principles. (Can’t take AP Comp Sci A until junior year.) Although our school doesn’t rank and many college’s recalculate GPAs, or guidance office has made it clear that students will not get a “most rigorous” designation from them on letters of rec/transcript if they do not take a certain number of APs. D20 didn’t take APUSH (opted for Honors US History instead), but still received the rating due to her other APs. S23 wasn’t planning to take APUSH (he’s interested in Comp Sci and Comp Eng) until he saw the other kids that signed up–then his competitive gene kicked in. 
He felt “if so-and-so” who he attended school with since elementary was taking APUSH, it didn’t make sense for him to “just take honors.” D20 told him it was a mistake. Time will tell. He had all As in all honors courses last year, so I hope this isn’t the GPA-buster many claim it is.
Our school district (I’m in a North Texas D/FW suburb) uses weighted numerical GPA to determine class rank…Texas has it’s top 10% auto admit rule (top 6% for UT Austin) so class rank is everything here.
General Ed classes- 1.1 multiplier
PreAp classes (equivalent to honors) 1.1.5 multiplier
AP/Dual Credit and IB (for students who transfer in with IB classes) 1.2 multiplier
Only core classes (science, math, english, history) and Foreign Language classes count towards GPA.
In most Texas schools, if you have any hope of being in the top 10% you have to be in all AP or PreAp classes. Playing the GPA/class rank game is rampant.
In our district, Freshman are offered 2 AP classes: AP Human Geo & AP Bio. My S23 twins took both last year. S21 took PreAp Bio and AP Human Geo. Sophomores can take two AP’s: AP Chem & AP World History which is also offered as an AP Humanities Block along with PreAp Eng 2.
My S21 has a good mix of AP + Dual Credit, and prefers DC instead. Since he is planning on staying in state and only applying to Texas public universities, DC has been a no brainer for us since all his DC classes are guaranteed transfers.
With S23 twins, we will definitely be chasing merit and OOS is an option, so they will be sticking to all AP’s for the classes they excel in and align with their possible majors in college.
Our school gives an extra point for AP/IB/DE classes, nothing for honors. D23 is taking AP Government this year – the school makes nearly everyone take that as an AP because they want to all students to experience an AP class before college and they spread it over a full year vs. it often being a semester class at other schools. S21 took it in 10th grade too and it wasn’t too hard. D23 also took AP World History in 9th and that was a killer. This year should be easier, especially with marching band not happening. The start of 9th grade was rough for her!
First two weeks of all online school seem to be going OK. A few glitches to work out with getting things turned in online. And both kids need to get better at managing their time on Mondays, that’s an all independent work day.
The different weighting is so interesting to me. Our kids’ school has only rare honors options in 9th(AP essentially not allowed), then more honors/AP options added each year, but honors and AP get the same small gpa bump. Some years the val and sal haven’t taken more than one of the school’s hardest four APs(Chem, BC calc, PhysC, APUSH), and the kids with most rigorous APs aren’t even top 10%, but that’s just the way it goes. Other years the kid with the most rigor is the Val. Admissions seems to favor rigor over gpa…but hard to tell for sure.
More and more schools are recalculating GPA, so I don’t stress over the differences among schools.
My son had his first official football game of the year. They won (even with some of their major players out). He seems to be in better spirits overall with a lighter attitude. A college sent an info booklet in the mail and he actually looked at it. Hoping this means my kid at least is slowly getting out of his funk and more back to himself.
@2plustrio that is great. This is a rough year - glad the football team win is helping him feel as if he has something “normal” to get his groove back. My D23 is definitely happier when she’s been able to go to karate even though she goes for only 2-3 hours a week instead of 15, goes masked, has to stay 9 feet apart from friends the whole time so not much socializing. She didn’t go at all from March to June, then went for a few weeks in July before we felt we had to stop again, and now has been back for 2-3 weeks again, and I can see the difference in her. I guess the bright side is that they’re going to appreciate these things even more now!
Well, some of the key players are out due to being naughty. There’s a couple that did shock me to be honest. Kids I never would have guessed to do stupid things like they did. With a shortened football season these kids are now losing half the games. These kids have been playing together since first grade. I reminded my son that what he does affects other people and when you are on a team, doing something idiotic shows you arent thinking about anyone else but yourself.
I know the parents of 2 of the kids who are on suspension and I know they are hurting too. These kids just arent thinking straight. I mean I just had to bail my college kid out of jail (long story but the charge is being dropped and wont ever be on his record and his roommates are getting therapy themselves because they aren’t all mentally okay and my kid cant keep taking the blame and trying to bear the weight on his shoulders).
I do think isolation and the pandemic and losing much of what made high school fun (like dances, and games and social events) is negatively impacting kids in a bigger way than we realize.
Long time, no see. Just came home from dropping my oldest, Class of '23, off at boarding school today. Very surreal, seeing all these teens wearing masks around campus. Feeling optimistic because the campus is mostly a bubble. Hoping my little bubble of optimism doesn’t get burst, sigh.
S23 is off to the state tennis tournament tomorrow. He’ll probably ride the pine as one of the two alternates this weekend, but being there should prepare him for a leadership role next year. He will have a 3 week break until hockey tryouts. I am not looking forward to winter, but living up here there is no getting away from it.
Our district went to online school on Monday but will return to a hybrid in two weeks. I’m so thankful that my wife teaches in the same district so she can keep track of the moving schedule.
S23’s assignment before the first of the year is to start looking at baseball programs, and I will dig deep into the academics. I figure he needs to start contacting coaches this winter to get on their radar. We will see what kind of schools he thinks he is a match for. He has been asking about the academies (one of his tennis teammates has a brother at West Point), so we may have to drive by USAFA when we visit S20 in Denver at the end of the month.
Good luck to everyone’s kiddos!
Just curious how many other kids are still totally virtual. The county says no chance of returning before February. Band director is burnt out from virtual classes and virtual marching band so no jazz this year and marching band practice will end before Thanksgiving. Virtual classes are generally going well and some clubs like math team and MUN work okay.
Thankful the boys are twins so they have each other. They have only seen one friend since March and that was only 3 times outside. Also, virtual music lessons and contactless pick-up of library books help.
I can’t imagine what it will feel like to go back to school after at least 10 months at home. Hope everyone is well.