<p>Do school transcripts from years BEFORE the current year have a big impact on the results of admission?</p>
<p>For example; if you are a 9th grader applying for 10th grade, does the 7th and 8th grade transcripts have a big impact on the admission process?</p>
<p>I think they use the information they have to get a good picture of who the student is and what s/he might be like and how s/he’ll fit in.</p>
<p>If they have previous years’ transcripts, you should expect that they’ll look at them. The admissions director at one of the most talked about schools told me that it depends on what they’re looking at. If the grades are so-so for the first semester of the current year, they’ll want to see if there’s a dip. And if the grades are stellar, is this also an anomaly or just par for the course on the continuum of the student’s education. The current semester’s grades are something of a snapshot. The earlier grades help provide a better picture of what type of student they’re looking at and what kind of learner s/he is. How big an impact those earlier year grades will have is – I suppose – related to how much they vary from the current semester’s grades.</p>
<p>So, yes, at least one of the most discussed schools here looks at all the data. </p>
<p>Oh, and here’s a warning or heads up: there are some schools that may be confident of a student’s academic ability but want one more marking period (or two) to consider. One school actually wrote back to my son’s school sometime in mid- to late- February and asked them for his latest grades. The Admission Director at that school also told me that, sometimes, they use the Wait List to take one more look to see if the student can sustain performance. If the student keeps up the grades (and the yield rate isn’t off the charts), the school will accept them. If the student collapses – perhaps because s/he hits the wall in math once they get into the quadratic equation – the school will look to another wait listed student. So, if there’s a wait list in your future, work hard. That may be all that’s required to get in to the school of your dreams. Don’t slack off and effectively tear up the admission letter for you that that school has waiting in the admission director’s Out Box. That would be too cruel to even read about, let alone experience first hand.</p>
<p>Students need to understand that they can’t let up just because they’ve sent in their applications. Grades may make the difference for placement for those who are accepted. They may determine whether you get off the wait list. And, if you want to consider other educational options, they may decide whether those opportunities will be opened up to you. Students SHOULD, however, decompress and de-stress once those applications are in. Try to live your life, engage your friends, and stop sweating about decisions that are 60 or so days away.</p>
<p>I believe that some schools look for transcripts from grade 6 also. My son’s elemetary school did not use grades, only comments. Should those still be sent or do you think I should talk to those schools?</p>
<p>I would always send comments (even for years when you have grades) unless there’s some reason not to.</p>
<p>D’yer…do you mean that Grade 6 and 7 grades carry more weight than Grade 8 grades do?</p>
<p>I’ve previously gotten decent grades, but if I got straight As this semester, how would that affect their decision?</p>
<p>I can’t imagine that they do. I’m saying that 1) they wouldn’t ask for information that they don’t consider; and 2) the prior year grades give some context to the most current data.</p>
<p>Think of an actor on stage giving a soliloquy. Now add in scenery and a backdrop. The earlier year grades provide a little scenery and backdrop. You’re still focused on the actor – the current year’s grades.</p>
<p>They may only look at earlier year grades for a handful of students – perhaps where the current grades and a teacher’s recommendation don’t comport. They may weight the earlier grades very highly. I don’t know. I’m just basing it on what I’ve heard – regarding one specific case – and putting it through my personal bias sieve.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t assume they ignore the earlier grades, so if something requires explanation or additional context, I’d convey some additional information in the application rather than taking the chance that they’ll ignore those earlier grades or make assumptions about them that are in line with what you hope they’ll assume. You just have to look at what the schools are seeing and decide if you need to give them more information or if the transcripts speak for themselves. For instance, if you got a low grade in some fingerpainting class in 5th grade and are kicking butt in Algebra in 8th grade this year, who cares? Then again, if you are doing well in English this year in contrast to previous years, is it because you’re no longer working on grammar or is it because you spent last summer working on English or you read a ton of books and now you’re more comfortable participating in class? You might have a great story to tell that foots with your transcripts that shows you’re more of a shooting star than an on-again, off-again English student.</p>
<p>So. They might take into consideration of your grades and performance in the 6th, 7th and 8th grade, and overlook most of the 5th grade? That’s my only year i didn’t get straight A’s. I got a B+ in some banal exploratory subject which the teacher got fired for abusing students. </p>
<p>Also, aside from the academic field, will the schools look into your extracircular achievements from the 6th through 8th grade? For example, I was voted “Most Improved” and my swim team in the 4th grade. Will they look into this because it is very hard to improve dramatically in swimming after your first year? Therefore my chance of getting such award would be slim to none nowadays. Also, I set many team records prior to this year. Most of them when I was in the 7th grade, some in the previous years. I got one record my second year of swimming (5th grade), will they even bother looking at this achievement because it was three years ago? Also, I was captain of my soccer team in the 6th grade, lead them to two back-to-back undefeated seasons. I got no such achievements in the 7th grade or 8th grade because I got into a different age group and my team was terrible. How do you think schools would view this?</p>
<p>First of all, please understand that I am just speculating and reading between the lines and extrapolating.</p>
<p>Second, if you got straight A’s this year and last and the year before that, then I don’t think they’re going to really pay much attention to the year before the year before that. Looking at A’s can become boring. And if you got some B’s in 5th grade…who cares? Especially if you’ve delivered A’s consistently for over 2 years?</p>
<p>As for swimming, they might think you hit the wall in terms of achievement. They might think you lost interest and have other priorities. If it’s important for them to understand that you’re performing as well as ever and remain committed to the sport, you can probably work that sort of thing into your essays…with the whole thing about facing ever-increasing challenges, remaining loyal to your team even though it doesn’t earn the accolades, and all sorts of good stuff.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice. As for swimming, not a lot of people understand it. Hopefully the schools do because in swimming, the first year is the year you improve dramatically. After that, improvements come rarely and slowly. Often, powerhouses at a young age don’t improve at all or even get slower when they are around my age because they hit puberty early and development has slowed down. That’s called a plateau, a place where most swimmers quit or become skeptical about swimming. My case is that, I’ve never been a powerhouse until recent years. I think I’m going to show the schools that I got more and more records year after year. However swimming faster is getting harder and harder. Also, my improvements this year have been inauspicious but i have a goal to go to national championships as a 13 year old (most of the other swimmer are seniors in high school). I could have easily dropped 10 seconds my first year, but now, dropping 1 second is a great improvement. I don’t think I hit a wall in terms of achievements because I’m improving, even if its by tenths or hundredths of a second every few months. I’m very tenacious to make the national championships too. Unfortunately, the schools may look down at that.</p>
<p>Thank you to everyone who replied.</p>
<p>Any other thoughts..?</p>