or do they list what they got after the first semester and what they got at the end of the year. Example; D’s school has two semesters and each semester has 3 marking periods. Let’s say Bio is a full year course. They will put on the transcript what she got in Jan and what she ended the year with in June. I thought colleges looked at the final grade for each class. What do your HS’s do and what will colleges look at. I ask because I noticed that last year she had an 89 in a class the first semester, but she worked hard and by the end of the year her final grade was a 96. Seeing her transcript today makes me reevaluate things. Today was the first day of school and everyone received their official transcript and her gpa was less than I had thought, because I was looking at the grades she received in June. Keep in mind these classes are 1yr classes and the grades are cumulative. When the new semester starts you carry over the previous semester’s grades. Sorry for the rant. Thanks.
When you look at your child's transcripts do they list the final grade for each class, each year ...
Our school only shows one grade for the course (typically a year). I am pretty sure this varies from school to school. (Our LPS shows each marking period.) Usually, a school has a school profile which it sends with the transcript and it provides the explanation on grading, the ranges of grades for the school, general context.
Colleges recalculate the GPA their own way. Some don’t care about non-core classes or how your school weighted classes.
It looks like the 96 is a second semester grade, not a cumulative grade, unless your school uses a scale of more than 100 or doesn’t count the first semester as heavily. (She would have need 103 in the second semester to pull that off if it were averaged.) Personally, I like this as you can see the upward trend.
But really – not to invalidate your freak out, bUT this is water over the dam. She finished strong and schools will see that.
Our kids were one grade per class per year. Their percents were translated to letters and the letter is on the transcript. This hurt my first who was notorious for 92s which is a B at their school and admissions only sees the letter.
My son’s HS reports grades by semester so each year long class would have 2 grades on the transcript. They also received quarter grades as progress reports but not listed on the transcript. Their HS gave out letter grades.
My kids school awarded credit each semester. The kids got grades for each quarter, plus a final but only semester grades were on the transcript.
It varies by school. Our school only shows the final grade on the transcript and uses only that to calculate gpa. So if you had a B first semester and an A second semester and your final was a B+, they only will see the B+. But I know other schools do it differently. For ED or EA apps, our school sends an interim report for first semester which is not factored into the gpa. For RD apps, they send first semester grades, also not figured into the gpa.
Our kids’ school provides the final letter grade for each course (uses + and -) and only reports a weighted GPA (although the transcript doesn’t actually say that it’s weighted).
Thanks everyone! @gardenstategal I think it is cumulative. There may have been extra credit projects involved that would make the avg jump so high.
Our school reports each semester on a 100 point scale. AP classes receive a weighting of plus 10 points to final grade. so an 89 and a 97 will result in a final grade of 93 but each semester gets calculated into any 4.0 conversion so it would be a 3.0 for first semester and 4.0 fr second semester. they only calculate 4.0 GPA’s on request when needed and it tends to be a potential negative not a positive as they calculate everything for class standing etc. on a 100 point schedule. For top 10% (auto admits in TX to public colleges) and for top 10 standing in class it is all on the 100 point scale. Top 10 standing typically takes at least a 103+ cumulative and often higher.
Our transcripts showed just the final grade which was an average of the four quarter grades, or for Regents courses the four quarter grades and the grade received on the NYS Regents exam (which usually bumped my kids grades up!) The Regents exam grade was also listed separately on the transcript.
Course grades are listed unweighted - there is an unweighted and weighted GPA for the entire four years listed separately.
So it looks like every school is different. I guess it would be a good idea to get in touch with each school D will be applying to to see what grades they use.
My DDs shows each quarter letter grade and the corresponding amount of credits next to it (she is on a block schedule so two quarters is actually a full year class). For example, it says AP Calculus AB Qtr 1 B 5.0, Qtr 2 B- 5.0. I guess they do that because some classes are only worth 1/2 a class (Leadership for example is 2.5 credits). Then at the bottom is lists each subject, how many credits are required and how many were completed.Then it lists 4 different GPAs (9-12 w, 10-12 w, 10-12 uw, 10-11 Cal Grant). Also lists rank.
Why, @citymama9, does it matter? The high school will send the transcript in its (own) official format, and the college will review it itself. You can’t change what it is, and your D is clearly a good student.
Some schools focus more on junior year, some ignore freshman year, some may be less troubled by a B in physics from a kid who wants to be a journalist, but none will give you their exact recipe.
I am not sure how you would use their answer.
My kids’ high school is on a semester schedule, and there is a grade for each course each semester. They give mid-semester grades as well, but they are informational and don’t count toward GPA. However, the class grade starts fresh in the 2nd semester - the grade in the 1st semester does not impact the grade in the 2nd semester.
@gardenstategal You’re right, but in D’s case her gpa with end of year grades is fairly higher than when you include end of first semester grades. In a couple of cases she jumped from the equivalent of a B+ to an A+ in a couple of classes. I think this will determine the schools she applies to. She just started junior year so we shall see. I may be overthinking, as usual! As of now, she still has a good avg, just not as good as I thought.
I’ve never heard of a school around here doing only one grade per year. How do semester only classes work then??
ETA: Each semester starts new though.
While our HS has four quarters, only the final grade for the course is provided is on the transcript sent to colleges. Again, every HS operates differently.
Again, every school can do its own thing, but the most common way in cases where the school reports 1 grade is that year-long courses are indicated as 1.0 credit and semester courses are listed as 0.5 credits (or whatever proportional scale the school uses).
Final grades only for each course. So if it’s a year long course…it’s the end of the year grade. If it’s a semester course…it’s the end of that course at the semester.
EXCEPT…senior year, mid year grades are on the transcript UNTIL the final grades are released…because many colleges want these mid year grades.
For the semester classes (not many of them - Health is one) they list the semester grade and show it as .5 credits.