<p>My other daughter who is applying this year is a 9th grader, got straight A’s in JHS and is struggling this year. She says she might get a C+ in science, and I’m worried about how this may affect her chances as an applicant to a competitive school. She tells me that the rest of her grades will probably be A’s though, and she’s taking 7 honors courses at a good high school. What could I do to help?</p>
<p>Have your daughter meet with the science teacher for additional help as often as possible. There’s a likelihood that through these consultations, she may find the breakthrough needed to achieve higher grades. Moreover, she should find out if the science teacher is willing to communicate this proactive approach to improving her grades to the person preparing her school (counselor/principal) recommendation. The preparer can then incorporate this crucial bit of information in the recommendation. </p>
<p>BS are realistic. They know that there may be an occasion where a student does not achieve stellar grades in every class, in every term. What is important for them to understand about the applicant is that if they were to run into a similar situation on their campus, the student would have the tools necessary to proactively resolve the problem. Documenting these consultations (and hopefully, improved grades) would clearly demonstrate this. </p>
<p>It’s very early in the am; eyes are still bleary…Hope I’m making sense…Good luck!</p>
<p>Which part of her science assignments is causing her grade to suffer? Is it that she doesn’t understand the concepts? Is it a problem with a lab partner? Or, is it the first class of the day, or the last class?</p>
<p>Some teachers like to scare kids at the start of the year with draconian grading policies. The first term of the freshman year is a good time to do this, as it doesn’t matter too much in college admissions. You might ask your daughter’s guidance counselor if this teacher is a tough grader. If so, and if other students have successfully changed schools after freshman year, I think there’s hope.</p>
<p>In my experience, junior high school is a lot easier than high school. All three of my children were stellar jhs students…all top ten students, 4.0, hs level math and foreign language. One of my children went directly on to bs, one went to public hs, and one did a year of public then went to bs as a repeat. None of them continued on their perfect grade path. Some kids might, but everyone is different and for some kids, the increasing difficulty is a challenge.</p>
<p>What is JHS? I don’t think one bad grade for a term would be a problem.</p>
<p>However blurry eyed nylecoj007 may be the suggestion is a good one. BS are familiar with many JHS / Middle School curriculums and corresponding academic challenges. I have asked A/O that question point blank. Obviously they don’t know all of them. The BS Admission teams revisit the counties of states that they are familiar with and are acquainted from where former students applied. 8th grade science was known to be very difficult in our Middle School, where a C+ in the beginning was acceptable also taking into consideration in part Periwinkle’s comment.</p>
<p>My youngest did get a C+ in honors algebra II his first go-round at public school. He did get admitted to bs and re-took the class (with a much better instructor). However, I know in our school system, middle school is much, much easier than high school and I don’t feel as if our middle school does a very good job in preparing the kids for high school.</p>
<p>Benley…JHS=junior high school aka middle school</p>
<p>Oh thanks keyleme. For a moment I thought it was Jefferson High School, another name for TJ. Silly me.</p>
<p>Wow, thanks for all the responses! Tests count about 75% of the student’s grade, and my daughter got an 85 on the first and third ones (there are three this term). However on the second one, there was a problem with the multiple choice fill in order (skipped a problem and forgot to mark it), and she ended up getting a 59. She tells me that she is going to talk to her counselor, and hopefully he might address that in the recommendations? Also, the averages for each test is around 77-ish.</p>
<p>Wow…her teacher didn’t cut her any slack with the MC fill in problem?? Strict…</p>