I don’t understand that though… Aren’t the AP exams administered by the school? The school orders the AP materials and administers whatever AP a kid wants even though they don’t offer APs? My kids school is super strict about only sitting for APs they offer… I thought this was a CB thing.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek what’s SRAR?
@suzyQ7 Anyone can sit for any AP they can get a school to allow them to take (thinking in terms of homeschoolers here…the biggest problem is finding a school to let you take the tests with their students). What you cannot do is label the course as AP on the transcript unless your course syllabus has gone through CB’s audit for approval. Not that big of a deal. Lots of homeschoolers go through the auditing process.
I personally don’t bother. My kids have still been able to take AP exams, though.
SRAR are self-reporting academic records. The students have to enter in there courses from their transcript manually into a drop down menu type system. I personally hate SRARs bc my kids do not take traditional courses that fit their descriptions, but for most traditional school kids it is just a matter of entering the info.
On the common app?
@suzyq7 On the CA they have to do it for their sr yr. For other apps, it is for everything. (The coalition app is all Self-reporting.)
So a transcript is still sent , but the self reporting is meant to facilitate the data entry into the GPA recalculation for each college. Ah… Makes sense!
@suzyQ7, like @Mom2aphysicsgeek said, the classes are not listed as AP on the transcripts; however, they have AP test score with the CB that can be sent to colleges. The kids may choose which test they feel they are qualified to take and have the school order it. The parents pay the cost of the test since it is optional. The school admin staff does vet the process though because they want a kid who takes an AP test to get at least a passing score of 3, but really prefer and push for scores of 4 or 5. They are pretty firm with the kids (and thereby getting to the potential tiger parent) that they should not take an AP test unless they feel they know the material well enough to pass. It is an interesting process, but my kids were happy to not have to do all the busy work that a regular AP class entails.
@mtrosemom-One of the reason my son likes AP classes is the lack of busy work. At his school honors classes usually have lots of extra work compared to college prep courses but AP courses are more like college classes. Less graded busy work, more independent work. For instance in AP Calc there is homework but no graded homework. Kids are expected to ask questions if they don’t understand the homework. For the history classes the kids need to read and study. If they don’t, they don’t. The teachers assign very little busy work. There are more grades for the science classes but they still lack the nonsense of other classes.
For the benefit of other parents, my son goes to a school that produces 50-55 NMSF and none of them have been affected by taking PE classes in addition to their rigorous academic classes. Their schedule allows for 7 classes total. Kids typically take math, science, social sciences, english, foreign language, and an academic elective (arts classes are included). If they have finished their language sequence they take a second academic elective. There is space in the schedule for a PE class, an additional arts class or an independent period. Taking PE or arts electives do not affect the ability to get the most rigorous designation. I asked the GC yesterday if taking only 5 classes (all AP) the first semester and 6 the second semester (add Literary Magazine) as a senior would affect her ability to check the box and she said no.
Since our school does not rank we do not have the crazy nonsense regarding ranking that some schools have. Kids are encouraged to take the highest level classes where they can succeed (get an A/B). They are provided their general ranking (top 5, 10, 15%…) but only val/sal are recognized. The rest of the students are unranked.The school is a private day school and sends many kids to elite schools each year.
I don’t think parents need to stress out over the variations between school offerings for purposes of NMF. It is interesting to read about all the different school offerings but I don’t think it hurts kids if their school has unusual arrangements. Our unusual GPA scale doesn’t seem to affect our kids.
If you have weighted grades at your school, all applications will take both GPA’s anyway. It’s too hard to compare apples and oranges with just a number. I have a friend whose kid had a GPA of 7.something, which seems unreal to me. Technically my kid was 4.8/5.0, but what that doesn’t tell you is that the 5.0 is impossible, because there are required classes like gym and health that aren’t weighted. I really hope that colleges (and NMS) are smart enough to see past the tricks schools use to report higher GPA’s overall.
There is absolutely no way each Adcom is figuring out the GPA one app at a time… there must be a process where the grades are entered into their system and the grades are weighted automatically according to the college’s GPA waiting process. From what I have read, the application reads are all done online now (no paper files) so when the common app is submitted it gets loaded automatically. I’m not sure about the transcripts - I’m assuming they are not in a standardized format, but they must have admins that key in grades OR perhaps they are scanned in with a grade reader- then grades are converted.
@VABogart – we are also in VA and we have several grades that get included in the high school transcript, even when taken in middle school. In my kids’s cases they included foreign language, several math classes, and World History. However, it was explained to us in middle school, that these were high school courses. At the end of the school year, we received a letter from the counselor explaining that these grades were going to appear on the high school transcript. At that time, we had the option to drop the grade from the transcript BUT the student would not be credited for the class and would have to re-take the class in high school. It doesn’t sound like you were given that option at that time. Perhaps that is, in itself, a valid argument for having them expunged??
My D has a friend who will likely make the NMSF cut-off for the state and has an SAT score in the 1500’s. He is ADHD/Gifted with a B/C GPA with some D’d thrown in for good measure. He also has numerous discipline referrals, nothing serious, causing a disruption at a pep rally, wandering around school when he should be in class and the infamous “unauthorized chemistry experiment” are a few a of the ones I heard about.
I am sure there are 999 more kids like him out there. I would not worry about course rigor.as long as the student is on a college prep curriculum path.
Many schools (UCF included) will convert A- to a 4 for GPA calculation. If it was Honors Algebra I, which is typical with those on the accelerated math track, they will add another .5.
At my D’s HS it is virtually impossible for to get above a 4.6 W even with a 4.0 UW. The schools requires two years of an FL and a year of performing arts, but none of those classes are weighted. The most competitive take online AP classes to try to pass the 4.6.
I agree with @itsgettingreal17 It’s like the question that often comes up at college night. “Is it better to get an A in a regular class or a B in an AP class” The common answer is “Get an A in the AP class.” Some schools would rather see a student challenge themselves but succeed with just an occasional stumble (B). Those are the schools that value course rigor.
One of the schools my D offers rolling admissions and are known for quick turnarounds. They do not use SSAR (another variation of SRAR), but require transcripts be submitted electronically using one of the following approved transcript service providers:
SPEEDE
Parchment Exchange (including Naviance and Docufide)
National Student Clearinghouse
Credentials eScrip-Safe (formerly known as Scrip-Safe International)
Credential Solutions
Scribbles Software
I guess there is a whole industry around transcript submissions with standardized data formats that feed into the universities admission systems.
@CaucAsianDad AH- so transcripts are loaded electronically through Naviance for the schools that use Naviance? I was wondering about that! My kids school uses Naviance, but I didn’t see where they had grades or transcript data in there -but I did see that Naviance has a GPA. I assumed the school was keying in the GPA, but I bet what happens is that the transcript gets loaded electronically to Naviance, then transmitted to colleges. That makes sense.
Naviance allows for transmission of transcripts which is why it’s so important to link the CommonAp to your Naviance account. Although for the life of me I don’t know the details so don’t ask! (but feel free to correct . . . ). My daughter’s Naviance account has a way to request transcripts. I always assumed that’s just a means of communicating with the GC but I think there’s a lot more to it (the students were also told to request all rec. letters via Naviance as well.).
I know at our school all of the documents, transcripts, LORs, etc., get uploaded into Naviance and sent to the schools that way. On our school’s “Colleges I’m Applying To” page in Naviance, there’s a transcript, Office Status, and My. App columns. These change when things are submitted. Although I will say that our school doesn’t update the transcript line. D15’s transcript line still says "no request, although her “My App” has submitted and the schools she was admitted to say “admitted”.
D’s school sends everything electronically through Naviance (except to UT). We’ve already linked the Common App and Naviance and requested transcripts. We haven’t paid for them yet so as to not have them sent until they fix one remaining error. It shows as “transcript requested.” D’s teacher has asked he to upload the transcript but we haven’t figured that part out yet.
Homeschooler role call - What states do we have represented in this thread?