How Rigorous is my Transcript? (Scale 1-12)

gibby
Fri, 30 May 2014 18:32:40 +0000

Actually, since I don’t know how many students are in your school’s graduating class, telling me 10 people are taking AP Calc is kind of worthless. Is it 10 out of 10? Or, 10 out of 50? Or, 10 out of 100? If you want an honest, complete and accurate assessment of how rigorous your transcript is you’re going to have to spill those kind of stats.

For example, Does the average graduating student at your high school take 4 years of a foreign language? Or, do they graduate having taken 2 years? Does the average student graduate having taken AP Calc or Pre-Calc??

Have you seen your high school’s profile? It may have those details that you could share without revealing the name of the school. For example, see: http://stuy.enschool.org/ourpages/auto/2013/3/7/37096823/Stuyvesant%20Profile%202013-2014.pdf. Looking over this profile, it’s easy to see that about 60% of the graduating class is taking 3 or more AP’s, and about 1% are take 10 AP’s. That information puts a student’s transcript in perspective as it relates to the entire school. And that’s the way college admissions offices are going to be looking at your transcript – it’s evaluated as part of the whole, not in a vacuum.

Maybe this would be an easier question – Does your school rank? If so, where do you fall? Would you say your course rigor puts you in the top 1%, 5% or 10% of your high school’s graduating class? And like, wise does your GPA put you in the top 1%, 5% or 10% of your high school’s graduating class?