Parents of the HS Class of 2024

In General if you look at the top SAT scores Male students have better SAT especially Math part of the scores.

Female students in general have better GPA than Male students and it is reverse for the SAT/ACT.

So this data is not surprising.

Our school does not publish average GPAs from what I can tell.

Did you check the school profile? Many schools publish this and this info or similar info will be there.

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was going to say the same as @RadM Our school publishes a school profile that gives gpa distribution. it is weighted but shows the number of kids with each GPA for the last few years.

I have no idea. The school doesn’t do class ranking.

Interesting that they dont publish that information. But guess they know their kids. Ours doesnt do a ranking either except for 1 and 2.

If they do publish it, I don’t know where they publish it. It’s not available on the school’s website. The counselor does submit a school profile to all of the colleges which the students apply to.

Can you ask the counselor for a copy of the school report they submit to college admission for each student? I think our school lists out average test, how many take APs, how many AP/honors offered, and GPA distribution. I think our counselor actual letter to the college also talks about how the student course rigor and grades compare to the average student in their grade.

The counselor’s write up of the school profile that gets sent to colleges does explain the rigor of the school’s curriculum. There’s no need for me to ask for all of that right now. The counselor has explained in “Rising X Graders Night” sessions before that a B at this school is equivalent to an A at a regular school because the classes are a lot harder. D24 got a C at the end of last year in Honors Bio
that class was easier than AP Bio has been this year.

I know that she’ll get admitted to college somewhere that’s a good fit for her. Because of the unweighted GPA though, the auto merit scholarships in state (NAU, ASU, UofA) won’t produce much because their merit scholarships don’t calculate it based on weighted GPA. As a result, for example, she’d probably get $5-7k off of tuition at ASU if she ends high school with a 3.5 unweighted GPA.

It’s a little frustrating but not much we can do about it at this point.

Ivy League schools regularly send admissions people to do in person presentations and usually every year there are kids who will get into an Ivy from our school. But my kid isn’t Ivy material. And we are totally fine with that. :slightly_smiling_face:

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That was my question, I was wondering how the school explained the curriculum and how it worked out in the end. So interesting how different places do it differently!

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Well, the time has finally come to do course selections for next year. D24’s core courses are already set, though (i.e., history, english, honors physics, AP foreign language, math, + a college counseling class w/the senior school counselor). School published the elective options. Since she won’t be taking AP Chem, school said that she has to take an AP elective. Here’s all of the elective choices in case anybody’s interested:

Basic Drawing
Keyboarding (aka piano)
Yoga, Barre, & Core Fitness
Neuroscience of Learning & Development
Anatomy & Physiology (she took this last year)
Art Studio 2D (she took this in 8th grade)
Art Studio Drawing
Strings
Martial Arts/PE
Musical Theater
Musical Production
Robotics (VEX) - taking that this year
Art Studio 3D
AP Seminar
AP Psychology
AP Human Geography
AP Music Theory
AP Statistics
AP Computer Science Principles
AP Economics

AP Environmental Science is not offered next year, so she’s bummed about that. Apparently, they switch off year to year between Env Science & Geography. 10th grade word on the street is that the AP Geography class is hard, so she doesn’t want to take that. She absolutely doesn’t want to take AP Econ. AP Statistics will be basically a 2nd math class (she’ll already be taking AP Calculus AB). That’ll be a lot of math HW if she did that.

DH & I would like her to take AP Computer Science Principles, especially since she likes Robotics club so much.

D24 read the description of AP Music Theory and wants to take that. BUT


  • it requires you to compose your own piece of music.
  • D24 sings in a choir outside of school & thinks that she understands everything about music theory as a result.
  • D24 has pretty good pitch, but thinks that will help with Music Theory class. LOL.
  • D24 doesn’t play a musical instrument other than messing around on the guitar a little bit this past month (i.e., she just started). Doesn’t play the piano or anything.
  • I took AP Music Theory in high school. I, too, had to either compose a piece of music OR pick a piece of music and compose an arrangement for it for concert band. And the final project was having the school’s concert band play it.
  • THE #1 thing I used to do the arrangement was using a piano.


which D24 doesn’t play.

So I don’t think that AP Music Theory is going to work. There’s too many hurdles. I think that if she’s interested in it, she should take a music theory class in college instead.

That leaves AP Psychology, which is definitely an option. She’s not too keen on that, however, because she “heard it’s a pretty hard class to get a good grade in.”

She’s not thrilled either with AP Seminar.

So that sort of leaves AP Comp Sci. Am going to discuss it w/DH later. We’ll see how this goes.

We are in the midst of course selection now. S24 is going with AP Lang, APUSH, AP Physics 1, AP Spanish and honors pre-calc. Undecided on electives, but GC suggested he pick some that will not be a ton of work. At our school 4 APs are the most you can take in a year and most kids don’t so I’m a little nervous for him. There is a chance he will not get all 4 because of scheduling (big school with lots of moving parts) so it could be a moot point.

Wow! Can he take a free period?

Correction: the college counseling class is in 12th grade, not 11th!

They have free blocks built into the schedule which are good for doing HW or general studying (they can also go for extra help, exercise in the gym or visit guidance during that time). They have this weird 8 day schedule (5 periods per day) and they have the free blocks 5 out of the 8 days. It’s complicated, but they don’t have every class every day so it breaks up the HW somewhat. That will be key next year.

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Absolutely! These kids work so hard, can’t figure out how they get it all done. My S has a study hall and orchestra as his electives. With otherwise honors and AP classes it will be vital to his mental health!

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That’s so crazy they are making your daughter take an AP elective? Especially when colleges don’t think they non-core AP are a big deal.

D24 submitted her list: AP Lang, APUSH, AP Bio, AP Cal AB, AP Stat (her current teacher will teach it or her 9th grade math teacher. She’s not ok with the missed oppty of missing out on getting taught again by current teacher), and Honors Biomed. Her back up is AP physics. It’s a similar schedule as S21 except he didn’t double up on math. He took AP Bio and AP Physics. I’m not fighting it.

Remember when I shared D24 had to make up semester one AP Chem final due to concussion? She got it all done the first week in Jan (lab, final). Still not graded. :joy: We don’t even know for sure her grade since she’s at an 89.4% :).

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D24 is lobbying hard this evening to take AP Music Theory. Apparently at ‘parent pick up’ after school recently, she asked the Music Theory teacher about the class and told him about her choir background, etc. She said that the teacher thought she’d do fine in the class.

D24 has decided to email her school counselor to ask some questions/concerns that I brought up when D24 & I were discussing it this evening. 8th grade D24 would never have done that
but 10th grade D24 is being proactive and pursuing some additional info in order to convince Mom and Dad to let her take this class.


which gives me hope about D24’s ability to launch at graduation into college! :slight_smile:

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my older S was a precollege student studying classical flute from when he was 5 years old. He took AP music theory as a sophomore and wound up dropping because he could not do the ear training. It is not an easy class and you have to be able to recognize intervals that can be complex.

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again, wow! I am so impressed that your kid can handle all that, APUSH and AP bio and AP calc plus stats, must be quite the organized and motivated kid!