<p>This is my first post, & I’m asking for advice. My 10th grade son is interested in MIT & Ivies for math/science. The 3rd quarter grades came out & he has A- in Phys Ed, B+ in Art. Is this a problem? He has been an all A student so far. Art was the elective that fit in his schedule, but it’s a bit of a struggle for him. In PE he just didn’t turn in a paper, otherwise would’ve had an A. I wonder if parents step in to talk to the teachers with something like this. Do 3rd quarter grades matter much?</p>
<p>A- in Phys Ed and B+ in Art are not going to keep your kid out of any college, Ivy or otherwise. </p>
<p>Do NOT step in to talk to a teacher. Your son didn’t turn in a paper - let him learn the lesson from it. </p>
<p>Some high school transcripts only show the final grade for a class, others show each quarter.</p>
<p>Also, please keep in mind that Ivies and MIT are now accepting about 10% of their applicants. Subtract from that 10% kids who are recruited athletes and kids with parents who are alumni and make large donations, and your kid has about a 1 - in 20 chance of being admitted. Do NOT use this information to flip out about an A-minus in an elective. DO use it to broaden his vision of colleges that he could attend and be happy at.</p>
<p>Ivies and the like do not admit purely on the basis of GPA and SAT. Yes that is a huge part of their decision. But frankly, once you cross a certain plateau of mostly A’s in difficult classes and very high test scores, they stop looking at numbers and start looking at other things. You cannot predict what they want, because they don’t know right now what they will want in 2 years. They may need writers for the newspaper. Or they may have too many people on the newspaper but they need french horn players. You cannot predict these things. The wise thing is to open your son’s eyes to the many, many wonderful colleges out there that will be thrilled to have him, beyond the 8 members of an athletic league known as the Ivy League, or one Tech School down the street from Harvard.</p>
<p>What would you say? “You need to give my kid an A because he wants to go to MIT?” Why not have a conversation with your kid about turning in his paper on time, whether it’s in a PE or history class.</p>
<p>Many, many colleges and universities recalculate GPAs without electives. So, I wouldn’t lose a minute sleep over this and I wouldn’t talk to the teachers. I, would, perhaps speak to my son and let him know that not turning in the paper was silly and make sure he sees the consequences.</p>
<p>Lafalum is right too. These schools are “lottery” schools. Far more applicants that are qualified than spaces. Make sure you and he both understand the huge variety of colleges out there.</p>
<p>Thanks all. Great advice. There are definitely many, many schools besides Ivies. My son is just a very serious student in the “hard” classes. I won’t say anything to the teachers. It is a good consequence for him this quarter to have missed a 4.0 because of Art & PE. Lessons to be learned!</p>
<p>He also does not need to have a 4.0, even in the academic classes. I hope you will not put undue pressure on him to be “perfect.”</p>
<p>He struggled with Art… well, struggle is good. People need to learn how to work through that; to work in areas that are not a “natural” for them. Further, exploring areas that are new is a broadening experience.</p>
<p>I hope that you are emphasizing these values, and others, beyond the value of a perfect GPA.</p>
<p>Quarter and semester grades don’t show on the transcript - just the final grade.</p>
<p>^^^ kathiep, that is not necessarily true. It depends on your school.</p>
<p>My kids hs showed all 4 quarters plus the final grade when S graduated, then switched to only final grades when D was a senior.</p>
<p>A close friend is the college counselor at a private hs, they report grades on a semester basis (not quarters) and show both semesters plus the final year end grade.</p>
<p>A- is counted as A. Your son will required to re-take PE at MIT (I am serious).
He will be OK. He needs to have some other passion that matches MIT profile.</p>
<p>jmmom, I am glad he is taking Art, even though it isn’t his thing. It is definitely good for a student to try something outside of their comfort zone. For that alone, I’m glad my son is in this class. Maybe it was a surprise to him & me, seeing a B+, but it’s OK.</p>
<p>Lafalum84 - Thanks for the correction. Our schools transcript does not show quarter or semester grades. I much prefer that and don’t know what purpose it would serve to show the minutia.</p>
<p>coolweather
What do you mean that A- is counted as A? Do you mean specific college like MIT recalculates is to this? My son’s high school converts A- on the 4.0 scale to 3.66 and A to 4.0.</p>
<p>mmprl1997
Welcome to CC. There is a thread for parents of the HS class 13 you may want to check out.</p>
<p>I don’t think PE or Art will effect college admissions unless 1. Major will be in Art or 2. The grades are so low it shows a significant lack of effort.</p>
<p>^ My kids’ high school counts A-, A+ as 4.0. I don’t know any college counts A- as A. It’s just a PE class. PE classes don’t factor into GPA in my kids’ HS. Some colleges may throw away PE classes too.</p>
<p>Our hs counted every class in our GPA. Their reasoning: “If its important enough for us to pay a teacher and take time to teach it, then it’s important enough to count the grade.”</p>
<p>Also, at our hs: A = 4.0, A- = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, B= 3.0, B- = 2.7, etc. Then there’s the weighting system (in Mass, add .5 for honors and 1.0 for AP, in NC add 1.0 for honors and 2.0 for AP). There are a ton of old threads on weighting systems.</p>
<p>And frankly, all of that is irrelevant, except for class ranking purposes. Because colleges re-calculate your GPA using their own method - weighted or unweighted; academics only (most colleges) or all classes (Clemson told us they count EVERYTHING - including PE - so put in some effort, please). When you look at a colleges mid-ranges for GPA, be sure you understand what weighting system, if any, they are using. Unfortunately most won’t come out and tell you this - you have to ask. Example: Lafayette College’s page with the profile of accepted students says, “*All GPAs reflected here represent unweighted GPAs that have been recalculated using actual grades in major subjects for the first three years of high school.” Elon University’s doesn’t say anything about their weighting system, but if you ask in an admissions info session they will tell you they use academic classes only, and weight them with +1.0 for honors and +2.0 for AP. Providence College told us in the info session that they use an unweighted core academic GPA - but they also calculate a separate “strength-of-schedule” type number based on the amount of honors and AP classes you take, then they combine the two numbers. </p>
<p>So basically, how your hs calculates GPA only matters for your hs class rank. Each college is going to use their own method to calculate. As long as they use the same method for all of their applicants, it’s perfectly fair. As a student and/or parent, your challenge comes when reading the mid-range for GPA, and figuring out where you fall in that mid-range. You can’t figure that out without knowing whether (and how) the college weights GPAs.</p>
<p>Certainly is confusing, isn’t it??</p>