or June 
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Electives: How to find out which colleges consider electives grades in GPA?
My STEM kid works loves his drama/public speaking/econ/etc electives and works hard to get the highest grade possible. It is a bit sad that most colleges only consider the 5 core courses grades.
Is there a source for that?
This is just one of several websites that I have seen. Usually Ive seen language added as a core course too.
" Colleges look at applicantsâ core classes: English, math, science, and social studies. Many [colleges even calculate a separate GPA]
You can also check individual college admissions websites. Sometimes they tell you.
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Yes, Iâm aware that third party websites will have some vague generalization, usually phrased so that it applies to all possible cases.
I was just wondering if indeed âmostâ had been established as a fact, or if they all just keep copying that wisdom, until by now they cite each other as âcircular proofâ.
The only actual study I found is this:
(pages 15-16), which doesnât quite agree:
âŠfor the past three admission cycles (2016, 2017, and 2018), the percentage of colleges rating grades in all courses as considerably important has matched or surpassed grades in college prep courses.
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This is good data. Is there data available for more recent years? There would probably be more changes since the pandemic.
That is the report still being referred to on their current page. So I donât know if no later report had been funded, or if it might be âmembers onlyâ.
The other helpful resource is this one:
I figure if you look at the âadmission requirementsâ listed on the schoolâs websites, those are the courses they must look at grades for more than any âelectivesâ.
GPA isnât just a number. Ultimately, a school is evaluating whether or not a student will to be successful at their university. If a student is applying into a rigorous major such as engineering, schools will want to see that the student challenged themselves in certain core classes (ie. math and physics). Many schools look for students who show that they can balance schoolwork with hobbies/interests/passions outside of their intended field of study.
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Whether they technically take non-core classes out of the GPA or not, the basic underlying premise remains. a 3.7 kid who has a healthy mix of core and elective classes vs a 3.7 kid whose schedule is only core courses and/or the schedule is filled with AP physics, calc, AP Lit (as examples) â thereâs an obvious difference there in terms of kids who can (and choose to) handle harder courses. So, thereâs an argument to be made whether a college recalculates the GPA or not only matters to a certain extent. Even if they donât, theyâll still see apples vs oranges w/ kids who padded their schedules.
Not sure that we can infer that necessarily.
There may be a âbinaryâ criteria in the initial âsortingâ, followed by intentionally broad criteria to identify good matches for a particular college who are more likely to succeed there.
So, yes - if the admission requirements are not fulfilled, the application will fail.
But, whether those who had passed whatever the unpublished initial threshold for those required subjects, are then being assessed using their overall GPA (and weighted how), seeking applicants having shown broader interests/abilities, vs. only the GPA of a narrow set of subjects - we canât tell by looking at âadmission requirementsâ.
I donât know the answer - but parents jumping to (what seem to be obvious, reasonable) conclusions, could drive their decisions in unnecessary directions.
Senior year planning email went out today, first meeting with guidance counselor about college and to plan the schedule of classes. S really has to decide what he wants to do in terms of applications to music schools or not because the academic schedule depends on it! This is getting real all!
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Itâs crazy, isnât it? Before you know it, itâll be summer and all of our kids will be working on âpersonal statementâ essays for the fall.
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I find it terrifying, trying to get this child to finish his applications for a summer program has been mind boggling
I hear ya. This past weekend, the school counselor sent out an email about 4 additional biomed-related summer programs, all of which require applications which are due between 2/1 and mid-March. I told D24 to pick 2 this week and plan on applying to them. Got some eye rolls and sighs over that. LOL.
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I have a couple updates on S24. 
It turns out the PSAT score I thought he had was something else (??!!) and we didnât have access to his test from this year. After much back and forth with College Board we finally figured out that the school where he took the test (because he is homeschooled) mislabeled some of the administrative data on his test, so it didnât connect to his College Board account AND it registered him as ineligible for the NMS competition. The (maybe) good news is that his Selection Index is 221 which will possibly qualify him in MA; bad news is I have to do a bunch of administrative work to get the admin data & eligibility issue corrected.
Another development with S24 is that we decided to sign him up for âexecutive function coaching.â As his schoolwork has gotten more involved and managing his schedule has gotten more complicated he has showed some signs that indicate possible ADD. (It runs in my family strongly!) I think the issues would have showed up earlier if he was in regular school, but since he has always been homeschooled they were masked. Executive function coaching worked miracles with S23 who has mild ASD, so I am hopeful it will be as beneficial to S24. At this point, as smart as he is, I donât think he could be successful in college because he needs so much help staying on track getting his work done.
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Happy New year Everyone!!
School is back starting this Monday.
We also have the first in person Counselling session for college discussion and Class selection for senior year for Jan 24. Time flies. I expect this year to be crazy.
We are yet to visit colleges or even start narrowing a list of colleges. I canât imagine how crazy summer will be. He has started working on some essays for a couple of summer programs. Need to finish this in Jan so we know what to do in summer.
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Summer:
tip from lessons learned from DS2022:
- draft/be 80% done with CommonApp essay, and a few known supplementals before the 1st day of Senior year.
DS2022 applied to so many colleges, and heâs not a writer, so writing 38+ essays and keeping A+ with Senior year APs and ECs/sports was a KILLER!
DD2024 will be spending time with family in Dominican Republic for half the summer = Spanish immersion.
The other half will be to write essays, though sheâs applying to half the number of colleges as big brother.
Told my kids:
you can have fun in the 2nd semester of your Senior year, and in college.
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Yup, our plan is a music program for the first half of the summer and trip and essay writing and prescreen preparation for the last half. Next summer will be all relaxation, this one will be torture for all of us!
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