HS grade trend: up, down or steady?

DadTwoGirls
Tue, 07 Nov 2017 20:04:06 +0000

My oldest had flat grades with steadily increasing course rigor. Freshman year she had mostly A’s (one 89) in mostly regular classes with one honors class. By senior year she had mostly A’s (one 88) in mostly AP and a few honors classes. Thus her weighted GPA had a steady up trend even though unweighted GPA was almost precisely flat. She had to work a lot harder her last two years.

My youngest went to a high school that did not have any APs, and had flat grades all A’s (one B+ on an interim progress report which I think probably wasn’t on her final transcript). She was the top student in a very small school.

Both got into their top choice universities. Neither had any interest in any Ivy League or equivalent school.

For parents whose kids have not yet reached senior year, note that in senior year kids have what is in terms of effort essentially an “extra” class, researching and applying for universities. My oldest daughter’s school required her to take a really easy class senior year that was a gym class that was almost free time. We complained mildly, they insisted, and they were right (and I told the principle that he was right about half way through the year).