<p>Hello–my 16 year old wants to attend college early and completed aps to six ivy league institutions. He skipped 9th and 10th grade and went right to his high school’s IB program as a junior–is a senior now. Has a 4.0 GPA unweighted and 2180 on the SATs, plus 800 on the math SAT II and 760 on the physics SAT II. He’s on Varsity ski team (and xc running) but not a lot of other ecs but some volunteering. He didn’t see the point of applying to a variety of schools when he could just keep attending high school for another year. </p>
<p>Thing is, he just got notice that his grade in Linear Algebra via Stanford online high school (he has run out of local math classes) is a NG. It was a challenging, self-learning type class–his first experience with proofs–and his high school counselor is now saying might be a game changer and that he should apply to some less selective schools. The NG doesn’t affect his high school GPA. What do you all think? Is this going to be a game changer? He kind of knew what was happening with the online class and addressed it in his college essays along the lines of “take the biggest challenge; sometimes fall”. Thanks for feedback!</p>
<p>Does the NG indicate No Grade, the course is in progress, or No Grade he didn’t complete the work and the course is finished? If the course is in progress I don’t see how that could hit him, so I’m guessing it’s some version of the latter. </p>
<p>I guess this all depends on how badly he wants to head to college next year, and if the GC thinks his chances will be better next year if he has a chance to regroup, and look for a new crop of schools to apply to (many deadlines have past), as well as participate in some ECs. Also, if there may be a chance to address the Linear Algebra in the meantime. Personally, I wouldn’t encourage my son to toss applications out anywhere he wasn’t really in love with to leave hs early, but I don’t know all of the details.</p>
<p>You already said he is willing to stay and apply next year so what is the problem? Chances are slim he will get an admission anyway, regardless of the NG whatever that means to his transcript. They will look at the highest level attained so far, I guess. The GC is going to know better than anyone here anyway.</p>
<p>fyi, a long time poster and Yale alum and interviewer here has said that Yale has an unspoken rule about not admitting younger students, I tried briefly but can’t find the original post. Maybe if he will be 17 it won’t be an issue.</p>
<p>I would also wonder why he is just applying to random colleges. Maybe next year he will put more thought into it.</p>
<p>It was a pretty educated and thorough college search, actually, except that he knew he had time and second chances if his batch of highly selective colleges didn’t work out. We did the whole visiting colleges, interviewing math departments trip last summer and he got some good feedback. Thing is, there will be nothing left for him to take in terms of math or sciences at the high school, except perhaps an IB history sequence…and maybe starting another language…and he has maxed out our local community college courses in math and science, with no other higher ed around, so his strategy kind of made sense in his particular context. He’ll have just turned 17. He’d rather not stay for a third year, but he can. I think NG means no grade as in he failed the final exam…not sure about that. His gpa in high school and community college math courses has be a straight 4.0 and up through the differential equations sequence so this online course broadsided him…could have been a variety of reasons.</p>
<p>He really doesn’t know why he got the NG. Perhaps this means something is missing- like a grade. Will he be allowed to repeat the class? This would be one way showing that he challenged himself and kept at it.
Most kids his age would not take such a class, and being online made it all the more of a challenge. He’s only 16. I really don’t have any idea how a college sees this- as I am not an admissions officer, but I would not hold attempting a difficult class against him.
I would suggest contacting Stanford to see what went wrong and what his options are. As to college admissions, all he can do right now is wait to hear, like all applicants.</p>
<p>That’s very interesting grading. I would definitely have him look into the grade until he’s clear, if nothing else as a litmus test. Let’s say he is accepted to one of the schools he applied to and heads off to school next year…any and all conflict resolution regarding grades and deciphering what happened will be up to him. At that point the stakes will be much higher. Technically as his legal guardian you could call, but he will be trying his best to be seen as an equal to his 18-22yo peers in the eyes of his professors. Calls from mom won’t help that cause. </p>
<p>Is there a four year university within commuting distance that he could attend for a year or two until he’s closer to the age of his peers? He would have a much wider variety of classes to take but still have home base as a teen.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback–good info about son investigating the NG as a litmus test for handling issues away from home. No four year university within 150 miles and over mountain passes (often closed in the winter). We’ll play the waiting game and take it from there…thanks!</p>