14 year old 'doomed' already?

Mrs_Weasley
Sat, 25 Apr 2009 13:45:37 +0000

Kayakmom, I guess I misunderstood your posts. I thought you had information about how U Maryland treats grades from classes taken in middle school. The link you posted tells how the high schools treat grades from HS classes taken in middle school, but doesn’t clarify what U Maryland does with that info for applicants.

I know some universities put more weight on grades from the later years of HS. With so many special admit categories, I wonder if UMd has different ways of considering grades from different applicants? They look at class rank (among about 25 different considerations), which HS classes taken in MS will affect, but will they really care at all about a couple of Bs from 8th grade if your son continues math at this accelerated pace, or will they care what level of work he is able to achieve by HS graduation? According to the admissions website, “Each category is assessed by a combination of quantitative and qualitative factors. These factors are flexibly applied…” That would seem to indicate that the qualitative factor of taking a class as an 8th grader might well counterbalance the quantitative factor of earning a B in that 8th grade class. Unless you know for certain how a college considers grades, I wouldn’t cross that college off the list for your 8th grader!