<p>This thread <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/245650-naviance-4.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/245650-naviance-4.html</a> has guest passwords for a bunch of schools. Keep in mind that you don’t necessarily know what their grading system means. (For example at our school 106 is about the highest GPA one can get and 96 is approx the cut off fore top 10% of the class.) I haven’t checked the passwords to see if they still work - it’s an old thread. If you search +naviance +guest +password you may find other threads.</p>
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<p>Since “best” is subjective, how could there be data? On the other hand there is much data that shows advantages of attending top colleges including better grad school acceptance rates, higher salaries and access to jobs/certain industries.</p>
<p>It’s clear to me why kids and parents are anxious for access to these schools.</p>
<p>Sure - but hmom and others – go easy on Dad II. He was obsessively Top 20 focused last time around, to the point of drinking heavily when the Harvard rejection came in (despite D absolutely nailing several top 20’s!), to the point of not understanding why anyone would be “proud” to send a child to a state flagship, so it’s really good that he has a healthier focus this time around and understands that top 20 is not the be-all end-all.</p>
<p>Hmom5 – Thank you for inviting Michele to post on our thread. </p>
<p>Michele - It was nice of you to enlighten us with the admission pattern you saw over the years. Please do post more on this thread. Your perspective is greatly appreciated.</p>
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<p>You knocked the wind out of me!</p>
<p>I must admit my “encouragement” may have conveyed to DS1 an overly optimistic expectation. I need a few cold facts weaved in with wise words to bring me down to earth and reset my frame of reference. </p>
<p>DS1 does have the “fatal” junior year grade drop. I was too eager to brush that aside and only focus on his “good” stats. I just didn’t want to believe the case is almost as good as closed. Time to recalibrate my optimism.</p>
<p>In the spirit of learning something new – I never, ever heard of GPA’s being framed as 86 or 93 or 106 before coming to CC. All my life, I had only heard and dealt with A’s and B’s (and, ok, A- and B+). One person might have gotten an average of 94 on tests and another a 96, but they both were summarized as A’s and the specific number was never used.</p>
<p>^ I believe the numeric grading is characteristic to New York public schools, and some private schools. My school, a public charter magnet, puts numeric grades on the transcript but calculates GPA using the converted letter-grade equivalent (and I think uses numeric grades to break ranking ties? Or else I have no idea how I’m in the top 10 with unweighted band every year).</p>
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<p>Our school uses all 3 -GPA on a 5.0 WA scale, letter grades and the numeric grade. But I did notice on the transcripts and on the secondary school report (the individual report that is sent for each student) they used the numeric grade average (for example, 92.3).</p>
<p>Honestly, I don’t think it matters. We were at Emory yesterday and they said the take the numeric (unweighted) grades, put it on a 10 scale and recalculate the GPA on a 4.0 scale. It seems like every school we’ve talked to recalculates the GPA on a 10 point scale and aren’t all that interested in WA.</p>
<p>Emory was very clear that things like AP courses don’t matter except within the context of your particular school. They just want to know that the student took the most demanding coursework available.</p>
<p>PCP
I’m not finding MH post- where was it?</p>
<p>^^^^ I think her alias is ClassicsGeek or something like that. Around page 38 f this thread.</p>
<p>The grading scale at my son’s school is confusing. The student handbook says that 90=A, 80=B, etc. However, on the transcript they only put the numerical grade, and they don’t rank, so I don’t understand why they bother specifying what’s an A, B, etc. Maybe they’re just trying to provide some context for kids who came from other schools that used letter grades.</p>
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<p>I’ve been wondering the exact same thing. To make matters worse, our school switched from a 7 point scale in 9th and 10th grade to a 10 point scale last year in 11th grade, even though the state still uses the 7 point scale.</p>
<p>I suppose this is the reason colleges recalculate the GPAs.</p>
<p>Sure would be nice to see some national standards in place. I don’t know how the colleges do it but it must take a huge amount of resources to wade through all those applications, each with own unique grading scale and system for allowing AP classes.</p>
<p>There has been some discussion on this thread about if ED can help our kids get into better schools. I came across this on another thread, and think it is relevant here:</p>
<p>Post 27 from <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/776716-additional-info-sections-applications-pretty-stupid-question-2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-admissions/776716-additional-info-sections-applications-pretty-stupid-question-2.html</a></p>
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<p>DS1 is in sorrow now. He learned last week that one of his friends is dying. He cried a few times and asked us to give him some room. He wants to do something and yet he feels powerless. “Dad, do you know how much money I have in my bank account?” “Not much left. You just paid for your summer classes.” DS1 has always been empathetic and loyal to his friends. We don’t give our kids allowance. He made most of his money from chess tournaments. “I’d like to give the rest to my friend if he needs it.” I was touched. His friend is from a divorced and not well to do family. To make matter worse, his friend’s dad is also dying from cancer. It is a truly tragic situation. “Everything is falling apart for him.” </p>
<p>College application seems very far and distant for him now. He is in pain, and I hope he can recover from this quickly.</p>
<p>So sorry to hear this story. </p>
<p>Really puts all of this college stuff in perspective, doesn’t it?</p>
<p>PCP, best wishes for both your son and his friend.</p>
<p>PCP, such sad news for your S’s friend and his dad. Give that thoughtful, sensitive S of yours a big hug for wanting to make things easier for his friend.</p>
<p>Thanks for the support. I’ll be sure to give my son a big hug today.</p>
<p>On the more positive side, we attended a MIT admission session on Sunday. The MIT Dean of Admission, Stuart Schmill, gave a very informative speech and aswered a few interesting questions. One that stuck with me was about what MIT is looking for in a candidate other than stats. Mr. Schmill said MIT looks for students who do what they like to do as opposed to students who just do what they are told to do. I think this ties to the “passion” we talked about upthread.</p>
<p>PCP, I’m so sorry to hear about your son’s friend. Sounds like you did an outstanding job in raising your boy, he’s very sympathetic to his friend.</p>
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Did you have a lobotomy over the summer, Dad II??</p>
<p>What are you talking about jym626? Haven’t I been saying the same thing from day one?</p>