<p>Hi CCers,</p>
<p>I posted earlier here, <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1004527-drop-middle-school-grades-increase-gpa.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/1004527-drop-middle-school-grades-increase-gpa.html</a>, about removing grades received in middle school for high school level courses from my high school transcript. The consensus was that, due to a sharp GPA increase, I should drop the grades. However, it appears that I will not be able to drop the B's I received in middle school from my high school transcript.</p>
<p>What are your thoughts on recalculating GPA for the Common App self-reported GPA to exclude these middle school grades if the recalculated GPA would bump me to the upper top 10% of my school rather than low top 10%. My school does not rank, but they do give ranges for top X%. Also, I would note that I have excluded my middle school grades because I feel that it is not fair to judge a candidate based on middle school grades.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Report your GPA exactly as your school reports it. To do differently will just raise questions. I seriously doubt that those 2 Bs will have the slightest impact on your application.</p>
<p>Unforunately, the 3 B’s (each one semester), do make a difference because my rank would jump from top 10% to top 5%.</p>
<p>This is causing you a great deal of angst, and angst doesn’t help in the college application process.</p>
<p>From what you’ve said, your school doesn’t rank. That’s becoming common among academic public high schools, and is often the case for private high schools. Trust your school’s policy: it doesn’t rank.</p>
<p>Your GC will be asked to rate your courses in terms of rigor. The middle school courses don’t go into that equation, and since you were able to accelerate your language study your curriculum is more rigorous than for students who started at level 1.</p>
<p>Admission committees look at your coursework holistically. Sophomore and Junior year courses typically count more (sometimes much more) than freshman courses. Middle school courses and grades don’t come into the picture. Also grade improvements from year to year count a great deal. So if your junior year is very strong (in comparison to your freshman year, or pre-freshman?) you’ll look better than other students who have a flat record, or have gone down.</p>
<p>Schools have widely different grading strategies. College Admissions compare like-to-like, and they are likely to focus on the more academic courses in your later high school years.</p>
<p>Finally, there is nothing you can do about the middle school grades on your transcript. You really should move on.</p>
<p>What you deem fair is unfortunately not relevant.</p>
<p>Trusting your school’s policy…well, I disagree. As you’ve seen they give colleges enough info to rank you. Not ranking is more so high school admin don’t have to constantly field complaints on the ranking system.</p>
<p>It’s dishonest to report your grades in anyway other than the way your school reports the, so tell the truth or it might be held against you.</p>