<p>There seems to be a consensus here at CC that schools DON'T look at ongoing 1st semester senior grades for ED/EA students. Except that theory just ran into this fact - D has a close friend who is a recruited athlete with a strong academic record applying ED to a NESCAC school, and the first thing they did after getting her ED app was to ask for her CURRENT in-progress grades senior year.</p>
<p>So, don't be surprised if some schools ask for your current grades or you hear from your GC that they asked for them. At least one top ranked school is asking for them from at least one student.</p>
<p>I know that my daughter’s counselor included current grades from mid-semester progress reports in her portion of D’s ED application. We expected she would. I figured that was normal.</p>
<p>I’ve never gotten the feeling that this theory is the consensus on CC. If anything else, just the opposite. It’s more common than not for students to have to submit their midterm grades.</p>
<p>During the admissions cycle 3-4 years ago, Tufts admissions liveblogged their ED final committee sessions :eek: (albeit without specific names and some details changed to protect privacy). Again and again, you’d read about the committee members getting excited about an applicant…until they saw his (generally it WAS the male applicants) current senior year grades. What looked like an ED acceptance changed to a rejection or deferral to RD.</p>
<p>I’ve never seen that “consensus” on cc, and I’ve been around a long time.</p>
<p>btw: IMO, anyone who follow that advice is foolish. There is always a good chance that the early app will be deferred, and those that get in during RD will need a strong first semester transcript.</p>
<p>The idea has been repeated often enough around here, without anyone shooting it down, that it seemed like consensus. Sorry if it wasn’t, which is why I thought it worth starting a thread that I had found out differently.</p>
<p>I’ve always told D to not expect that to be the rule. She’s kept up the grades and if she gets to the decision point in the ED round, at least she won’t lose it because of senior grades.</p>
<p>Excellent advice on needing the grades for RD, BTW.</p>
<p>If anyone hears of another school this year doing what Tufts did, that would be awesome to read.</p>
<p>Yesterday I made the mistake of asking why an applicant to Duke ED was worried about their first qt grades; D too requires qt grades for ED applicants.</p>
<p>I absolutely agree that students need to keep their grades up, no matter when they apply. And if it’s not because of admission decisions, there’s always a slew of kids worrying about recision in the spring as well.</p>
<p>Often the question of sr grades comes up when students ask: Should I apply EA/ED or RD? And in that context they are told that if you have improvements sr year (grades, awards, etc.), then it could be beneficial to wait for RD when they will be considered. Of course with everything in college admissions, there’s always an exception…</p>
<p>Senior year progress reports are of critical import in many early decisions. Even a small drop from prior years’ grades can lead to a deferral. </p>
<p>Schools don’t have the benefit of as much information about early applicants as they do with RD, so they put a good deal of weight on senior mid-term grades. Top schools have to find ways to draw fine distinctions between the many applications they receive from qualified students. </p>
<p>If a student isn’t taking quite as challenging a load senior year as he/she did junior year, or if senior grades seem like they might not end up consistent with the prior year, a deferral allows the committee to wait and take into consideration actual results from the fall term.</p>
<p>The idea is that second semester senior grades don’t really master. Which they don’t as long as the person passes their classes or gets above a predetermined minimum (often a 3.0)</p>
<p>@halcyon: While it’s true that EA/ED decisions can’t be based on the final 1st semester grades, it should not be any shock that for the most competitive schools, they are on the look out for anyone who seemingly pushes themselves for 3 years and then signs up for a powderpuff Senior schedule (Which is normally submitted with the EA/ED appl) or has a dramatic drop off in grades the first part of the senior year.</p>
<p>Another attempt at beating the system that I have heard of is the student who signs up for an aggressive schedule senior year. She applies ED and pushes her GC to submit transcripts early. Once the transcripts are in, the devious schemer drops multiple AP classes, replacing them with fluff classes and/or study halls.</p>
<p>For the reasons stated by other posts above, this is an even worse idea that I can’t imagine would work.</p>
<p>There is a form available to counselors in the common app (Optional Report) that allows a counselor to notify a school if a student’s course load changes materially after the initial report and transcript are sent. So, a student who drops hard classes can easily be found out even by an ED school.</p>
<p>^Summary of that article, a few students get warning letters and an extremely small number of students actually get rescinded, often for things that had nothing to do with academic performance. Again, if a student passes their second semester classes or clears the minimum GPA posted by the university in question, s/he won’t be rescinded. </p>
<p>However, it’s an idiotic idea to let grades slip first semester senior year since many students don’t get into the schools they applied ED/EA to and thus have to resort to EDII/RD schools as a backup.</p>
<p>I don’t think it is a consensus there. It is just part of the process. Even if you are accepted EA/ED, they school would request mid-year and final school report. If an admitted student has much lower than expected performance, he/she may be rescinded. Also, many applicants that are sitting on the border for admission, the adcom may request more up-to-date transcript or defer the applicant.</p>
<p>@whenhen,
I don’t think your statement really summarized the message of that article. You are understating the outcome which is just the opposite of the intention of both articles.</p>
<p>Some schools specifically state that they absolutely do not look at any senior grades during the ED/EA evaluation process. And I have to take them at their word.</p>
<p>However, I dont understand the real issue here. What effect does the myth or theory have? Because, if admitted, the college is definitely going to look at the grades anyway and rescind if they see an issue.</p>
<p>So, seniors need to keep their grades up regardless.</p>
<p>I brought it up because we repeatedly see threads from kids who have some pretty low or atypical middling grades 1st semester senior year that are applying EA/ED and someone inevitably replies that schools don’t look at midterm senior grades, only grades through junior year and then the final grades at graduation. </p>
<p>It’s not just a problem of being rescinded, you may blow your chances at EA/ED if you don’t have good midterm grades 1st semester as well. As several people have reported, low midterm grades can result in an otherwise successful admit being turned into a defer or even a deny. True, some schools may not look at senior grades as part of the process, but it would be a huge mistake for seniors to assume that all schools don’t look.</p>
<p>The one thing I don’t know is if schools will look at midterm 2nd semester senior grades. I would think they would have enough to go on, but I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that at some schools when it gets down to candidates on the bubble, a check of midterms 2nd semester may swing the decision one way or the other. At least I’d be playing my cards that way until I had an admit letter in my hand.</p>
<p>I’m in this situation - due to some odd circumstances where I was out of school 2d to last day of quarter and missed a pop quiz and the teacher was out the last day when I could have made it up, a B- in my hardest class dropped to a current C because a placeholder “zero” went in. I’m a recruited athlete at the top of the coach’s list but obviously this is not ideal. </p>
<p>The teacher in question didn’t know I was an ED and fortunately is letting me come in tomorrow morning to take the quiz (which I am ready for, though I’m getting a different version than the class got) and I guess I will have to get my GC to send in a corrected transcript or optional report or something ASAP by Monday.</p>
<p>However, for the moment, I’m freaking out. I have NEVER had a C on a transcript.</p>