Private HS to Public: GPA Problem

Parents Forum
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<p>I wonder if anyone has any perspectives on the following issue my D is facing.</p>

<p>She attended the "best" private school around here to start HS, then transferred to the public school for various reasons (eg more electives in area of interest).</p>

<p>In the private school, everyone is going to 4 year colleges, including significant representation at the country's top colleges. The student body is selected, and they have high SATs, etc.</p>

<p>At the public school, kids intending to attend selective colleges take mostly "Honors" sections of their core courses. They are given extra points added to their GPA in computing weighted GPA, which is then used to determine class rank.</p>

<p>The private school courses are at least as high a level as the public school Honors courses. However the private school does not offer designated "Honors" sections of their core courses. It would be relatively meaningless there, since their student body is academically better, as a whole, than the students who take "Honors" classes at the public school. At the private school the only classes designated as "Honors" are certain upperclass English electives.</p>

<p>My D recently got her first grade report from the public school, and lo and behold we found that she was listed as below the top 10% of the public school class because they did not give her "Honors" credit for the courses she took at the private school. I followed up with the district office and was told that their long-standing policy is to only give Honors credit for transfer courses if the prior courses were explicitly designated "Honors" by the prior school. Regardless of the degree of equivalence in content to their own "Honors" courses, which they do not examine. </p>

<p>The only option we were given is to request that they withhold listing of class rank on the transcripts they send. But it will be known that the school does rank, so I don't know that this helps or hurts.</p>

<p>IS D just screwed? We can write an explanation to colleges, but will they take it seriously? How common is this? Any other public schools have a different policy?</p>

<p>It seems to me like this is an issue that potential private school transfers to public schools should be made aware of.</p>

<p>By the way, her unweighted class rank is incredibly high, and she has taken the highest level courses available to her at both schools.</p>

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<p>we had the same problem. Added to the problem was a school counselor who didn't really see what a big deal it was. The first time my child saw the rank she burst
into tears. The solution that we ended up with was that the counselor would include a note with the transcript explaining that the rank was not an accurate picture of true rank in the class.<br>
It was painful to answer those questions regarding rank and top whatever percent on the apps. An explanation was included on the app but I don't know how much that helps. Especially if the apps are read quickly.
Where it especially hurts is the states that have cutoffs for guaranteed admittance to your State Uni for all students in a certain percentage.</p>

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<p>If the college is familiar with the private school, that may help. In addition, if the weighted and unweighted rankings are both sent, that will provide the colleges enough info to go by.</p>

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<p>My son has kind of the opposite problem. I posted about it yesterday titled "Private HS GPA and Rank". What is the same as yours is that the transfer is not to his advantage for GPA and rank. Like your counselor, the one here has also offered to say they don't rank even though they do if I ask them to. They list the old high school's classes and grades on to their transcript but they don't try to factor in the old grades to create a combined GPA. I have been thinking about what can be done come college admissions time next fall. I think my son will send in his old high school transcript and the new school transcript and on forms he will do a little customizing such as listing two GPA's and two ranks. Something like this: Pub. HS 4.01/Priv. HS 3.35. Don't some colleges recompute GPA's anyway. What do you all (second person plural) think about this?</p>