<p>Vossrol, sorry, but only using GPA/test scores/rank for 20% of an admissions decision is highly unusual. I have never heard of another college that does that, but I hear Reed is kind of a unique place.</p>
<p>As for the test situation: I don’t “encourage my D to discuss other people’s medical conditions”. She told me this because that’s what the girl told her. I myself have suffered with migraines so I would never make light of someone with a legitimate migraine issue, they are awful. But it was very obvious to D and others in the class that this girl’s absences ALWAYS coincided with test dates, because sometimes she would leave early or come in late in order to miss that class (our schedule rotates so that classes are not held at the same time every day) and they would see her at other times during that day, smiling and seeming perfectly fine. And this teacher was not the kind to bother to re-do his tests. It was a physics class, so it wasn’t so much a matter of knowing what to study as much as knowing how to do the problems. I’m not sure taking the test a day or two later really even helped her out. But anyway, D and I agreed that it really had nothing to do with D and there was no point in stewing about it. D is nowhere near contending for Val or Sal (or probably even for making top 10%) so she really doesn’t care if this girl’s GPA is higher than hers or not. It just kind of bugged her that some people are so willing to game the system. </p>
<p>As for Independent Study, S had a friend that did independent study for his musical instrument. At the end of the year he gave a concert that was wonderful. I don’t know how that course was weighted in his GPA, if it was college prep or Honors.</p>