<p>My son was accepted to Stanford early action. The admission is contingent on his final high school transcript. As my son explained, he got seniorities so he was heavily involved in clubs and extracurricular activities as opposed to the academics. As a result of that, instead of straight As he will probably get Bs. I am really worried how Stanford will react to it. Someone suggested talking to the school and nicely asking if teachers can close their eyes on how he did and give him As anyway. The leverage is that my son spent lot of time on the school’s JSA debates club (he is a president) winning the city’s 1st place and then 1st place nationally. In my opinion it makes school looks good as well, even though my son says it only concerns the club not school. Do you think I should talk to school about his grades? Does it even sound right? I am not sure if I am comfortable with it but I am really concerned sending the “B” transcript to Stanford. Appreciate your opinions!</p>
<p>I honestly don’t think Bs would be a concern. Most colleges, even super selective ones like Stanford, will only rescind admissions if it drastically drops or gets multiple Cs, Ds, or Fs. If you are unsure, you call call them up, but I don’t think teachers would look favorably upon inflating any of his current grades</p>
<p>At our high school, second-semester seniors are not required to take finals, which usually account for 20% of the grade. If you have a similar situation, maybe your son could ask to sit for for the final as an option to bring his grade up in at least a couple of the classes. Just a thought. </p>
<p>He isn’t failing his courses. He is getting B’s. Just remind him that he will need to work, not have freshmanitis, when he gets to Stanford.</p>
<p>"Someone suggested talking to the school and nicely asking if teachers can close their eyes on how he did and give him As anyway. "</p>
<p>Personally, hell would freeze solid before I did this. It’s just…skeevy, and not a message I want to send to my kid.</p>
<p>I agree petichor, I would never do that. Perhaps an extra credit assignment to boost to B+.</p>
<p>
There have been several threads about Stanford sending warning letters when an A student becomes a B student. However, I’ve never heard of anyone being rescinded with B’s. Instead the rescinded persons I’ve heard about had multiple grades of C or lower (or non academic issues). I suspect in sending such letters Stanford is making it clear that they want you to take senior year seriously and not drop grades further to the point where you are likely to be rescinded. I agree about trying to do extra credit, even though it’s extremely unlikely that B’s would cause problems with admission.</p>
<p>I am floored that any parent would ask a teacher to “close their eyes” and just hand out an “A” for anything less than “A” quality work. You need a value system adjustment.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your input! You validated my thoughts on it! I was not comfortable with the idea from the beginning but that person was presenting it like it’s a normal practice for seniors. For a moment, I started doubting myself thinking I might be behind… that’s why I needed your second opinion :)
Unfortunately, there is no extra credit available at this point and my son is taking finals this week but I don’t think this will bump up his grades to an A. So, I am crossing my fingers that Bs will be acceptable to Stanford and his admission won’t be rescinded.</p>
<p>I suspect, at worst, Stanford might send him a warning letter or put him on ‘academic notice’ for his first semester. 9 (Remember double-secret probation from Animal House?) Most likely they will do nothing.</p>
<p>With SCEA, you don’t have to start worrying about rescinding of admission offer unless grades start dipping into Cs. DD had the same thing and it was not problem at all.</p>
<p>@ikaps1. Your son should be fine “even” with the Bs…but, he should focus on trying to make sure it is no less than Bs so that he does not receive a “warning” letter…</p>
<p>…you could use this opportunity as a “learning opportunity” and a “wake up call” for your son…because…the classes will get tougher come freshman year at Stanford…and he will need to learn to balance work, ECs, and play while at Stanford without the watchful guidance of a parent…</p>
<p>DS’s good friend is sophomore at Stanford and I know that B’s are fine in second semester senior year. But the bigger issue is that you really need to have some serious conversations to make sure that the young man has an appropriately internal locus of control. It is possibly a concern that he was getting straight A’s TO get into college, but once that motivator was removed, he no longer had a natural drive to learn and do well. Obviously, debate team activities may have been a distraction, but an EA Stanford admit would typically have a lot on their plate during all of HS, not just second semester senior year. As a med school professor at an Ivy League University, I am always concerned when our students let their guard down after they match into residency. This is often a clue that the kid only performs well when they know someone is watching them and evaluating them rather than that they do well because of a passion for learning. </p>
<p>I agree that this is a good time for a sit-down with your son and remind him that when he gets to college he needs to take his education seriously. He needs to be careful that he doesn’t let his social life take over. We get many posts from students and parents of high performing high school students who let partying and other activities become the priority that first semester, often with disastrous results.</p>
<p>Barbfam1: the clinic where my daughter works was supposed to be hiring a new doc when he finished his residency at the hospital that owns her clinic. He had even worked at the clinic last summer. After being offered the contract the resident began failing to keep up with his record keeping, and now not only will not have the job but may not be able to practice medicine at all.</p>
<p>"Someone suggested talking to the school and nicely asking if teachers can close their eyes on how he did and give him As anyway. "</p>
<p>As a teacher for 37 years, hell would freeze over before I would do that, regardless of how “nicely” I was asked!!!</p>
<p>“Someone suggested talking to the school and nicely asking if teachers can close their eyes on how he did and give him As anyway.”</p>
<p>If I were the teacher and I heard that, I’d look for reasons to give the kid a C. I’d round the numbers down rather than up, maybe that essay was a little worse than I previously thought it was… And I’d have serious reservations about the value system of a kid who had a parent who would ask for that.</p>
<p>A senior admitted to Stanford getting a B second term senior year is HEALTHY!</p>
<p>He probably spent some time finally getting a “real” education. </p>
<p>It’s all good. Don’t worry. Relax. Congrats. </p>