<p>My DS's school does not rank--it's a very competitive HS so this helps keep everyone sane. Just found out the school is considering revising the letter it sends out with the transcripts to include a breakdown by GPA. Here's the kicker--so many AP's and post-AP classes are taken that with my DS's 3.9/4.0 (depending on this all important first semester Sr. year), he doesn't make the top 1/3 of his class. How can that possibly stack up against those ranked in the single digits?? And the school may even send the profile retroactively to schools that this year's class has applied EA/ED to!! There is a PTSA meeting on the topic tomorrow a.m. We'll see if the P's and the S's get a vote at all!! I'm nauseous and trying to breath deeply. Que sera, sera...surely the colleges know...?</p>
<p>If your son goes to a competitive school that sends many to top schools, the colleges already know what rank corresponds with his GPA. In A is For Admission, Michele Hernandez, former Dartmouth adcom, explains that they have historical data and create formulas to assign the unranked a rank.</p>
<p>At our local public schools, a 4.2 just makes top 10%!</p>
<p>Okay, thanks much.</p>
<p>Rereading your post, the school must have rampant grade inflation if a 3.9 isn't top third! There is probably a reason the school feels the need to do this. Too many calls from colleges asking if the 20 4.9's are for real?</p>
<p>Is that a weighted or unweighted GPA? At my D's school, they're on a 5.0 scale, and honors and AP courses are weighted .5 above regular courses, so an "A" in an AP is 5.5. The median GPA is between 4.0 and 4.1, but there are a lot of kids with GPAs in excess of 5.0 because an awful lot of the top students take multiple honors and AP courses and get A's in them. A student who doesn't take honors and AP courses doesn't have much of a chance to be in the top 10 or 20%. This school doesn't rank, but I am sure that colleges already know, within a small margin or error, where the various GPAs fall in the context of rank. It's not an easy school, and I wouldn't say there's grade inflation - I would think that a median GPA of B is not out of line at a school where 92% of the students go to 4 year colleges and another 6% or so start out at 2 year colleges. However, there are a lot of very smart, diligent kids who work hard and challenge themselves with honors courses. It's unfortunate for the average student who makes A's and isn't anywhere near the top.</p>
<p>Well, I think you need to attend that PTSA meeting with an open mind, and listen carefully to what's said. Perhaps by tomorrow school administrators will have come to their senses and realized that ranking the student body in a highly competitive academic HS simply makes no sense when that requires using three significant digits in the GPA to do the job. "Oh look Ma, if my GPA had been 0.002 higher I'd have been in the top ten!"</p>
<p>If that fails, perhaps your S's GC would be good enough to note in his recommendation that just three B's kept your S from being Valedictorian. </p>
<p>Good luck with the meeting.</p>
<p>Don't worry if your son is REALLY a good student. If your school is really competitive, universities know all the details of your school's GPAs (and know what rank they would correspond to). So nothing changes with this decision.
My daughter went to a well-known competitive school. Kids with AP-heavy transcripts and not perfect grades got into very-very good schools (right below HYPs). Although the school doesn't weight courses and APs do not help with GPA, their admission results were no worse compared to those who had easier courses and perfect grades.</p>
<p>If this is a selective-admissions school, such as Thomas Jefferson, rather than an ordinary neighborhood high school, the college admissions officers are already familiar with it and understand that class ranks at such schools are lower than they would be if the same student attended the local high school.</p>
<p>But in any event, your son would be an in-state applicant for both UVA and William and Mary, both of which are fine academic institutions with reputations/rankings better than those of a lot of selective private colleges. It wouldn't hurt for your son to include one of these schools (or both, if he happens to like both) in the list of schools he's applying to. Because he's an in-state applicant, his chances of admission to your state's premier state institutions are very high. And neither UVA nor W&M would be a horrible let-down. There are out-of-state kids who would kill to get into either of them.</p>
<p>Our public school doesn't weight so we get many, many kids at the top. Straight scale all classes...(think all the kids who got As in the easy classes, all the kids who got As in the alternative classes, plus all the kids who got As and A minus in the AP classes and rigorous classes). It's quite hilarious at commencement seeing the odd assortment of sernior scholars. And to top it off they put the rank on the transcript. But somehow it all sorts out when they head out the door to college. I decided to give the colleges and universities credit for figuring out all these GPA systems. I'm much mellower than I was 3 years ago with S1. Sometimes it has nothing to do with grade inflation and everything to do with the schools. I decided it didn't diminish the really bright shinning stars because they are on to bigger and better things and the reality of it is that for some...it is their moment in the sun.</p>
<p>Thanks all. Sometimes I wonder how much good my scurring about and worrying does when things will probably work out fine like momof3 says. With only one, I tend to obsess. </p>
<p>Citymom--I can't even be objective anymore about what a really good student is!! Is that pathetic or what? But yes, he's good and he's taken tough classes. Hey, it's got to be good enough now!</p>
<p>Yes, Marian, UVA is on his list. Tho he knows it's great, his adventurous spirit wants to fly further from home and do something different. However, he may very well end up there and will no doubt love it as everyone else I've talked to does. Plus the price is right as far as we're concerned!!</p>
<p>So I will probably send an e-mail to the principal and/or attend tomorrow's meeting and see if changes are in the wind for this year.</p>
<p>Quick update--the County decided that the requirement to include grade distribution on the school profile could be interpreted in various ways. So his HS will choose to display something different, not a breakdown to that level of detail. Whew!</p>
<p>Mominvirginia, if your son is looking at schools that know your school, they will know where he is in the class. Where the problem can arise is if he is applying to schools that are not familiar with your school. However, unless those schools are very selective, his gpa will not be an issue if he has high test scores. And the very selective schools do know the top high schools. </p>
<p>Useful information would be where kids at your kid's gpa/test scores get accepted. I know that my son's school has ivies accepting kids even in the second quintile of grades, or slightly above a 3.0 average, if difficult courses were taken. The school does not rank, but you can figure out the quintile easily using the grades and some standard quintile charts. Michele Hernadez's book does give some examples of how this is done.</p>
<p>Thanks cpt--I go back and forth from trying to analyze these details to saying that the die is pretty much cast at this point. I think I could make myself crazy with quintiles, etc. and have looked a bit at the Scattergrams (or whatever those are called). His scores are good enough for the top school, but his GPA is just a tiny bit lower. Course load is very tough. EC's are good, not great. He is applying to some extremely selective schools, but he does have our State school on the list, which his GC says his GPA and scores are good enough for. I want to stop fretting but can't!</p>