negative impact for transferring out of magnet high school at 11th grade

Parents Forum
1

<p>Hi, my daughter is currently a 10th grader at a magnet school and is in the 1st year of IB program (IB starts one yr earlier in this magnet school). She has several activities that she has been doing for years and are good at doing them (one sport, music, and debate). IB program is a high demanding program. In order to maintain all her activities while trying to keep 4.0 GPA (unweighed), she works very hard and cut short of her sleep. Even she is not complainting, we feel bad for her as she sleeps little.</p>

<p>We are talking about moving her out of this magnet school and quit IB diploma and move to our home high school which has lower school ranking than this magnet school. Our home school offers many AP courses and my daughter can pick a few AP courses to keep her academic challenged while in the mean time to be able to manage her activities better and have more sleep.</p>

<p>Making new friends at the new school won’t be an issue to her.</p>

<p>The only concern my daughter has about this transfer is the negative impression or impact to her upcoming college admission chance to the schools she desires (highly selective schools). She is afraid that college admission officers may view her quit IB half way and transfer to a new school at 11th grade is a bad sign. Actually we are only trying to keep her activities while still handling a reasonable amount of academic workload if she transfers to our home school. The number of AP courses she plans to take in the home school plus the existing AP/IB courses she has taken so far will be between 12 - 15 in total (by the time she graduates). But if she transfers, she won’t be able to get IB diploma.</p>

<p>Any advices or opinions about this is appreciated.</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

2

<p>Students change schools for many different reasons, and there are many reasons for not completing an IB diploma. Moving back to her home high school is no problem at all. Once she is there, she should take full advantage of everything that school offers. She will be just fine.</p>

<p>Please do not worry about this one minute more.</p>

3

<p>IB program is no more rigorous than top tier college courses. What kind of colleges is your kid shooting for? I would always opt for my kid to get the best education possible, whether it is high school or college. By going to a less rigorous school,will your daughter be bored? Why did she move to the magnet school in the first place? I would cut back on her ECs rather than transfer her to a less rigorous school.</p>

<p>If you should make the transfer, make sure her transcript gets properly transferred and recalculated at the new school. I would have it done right away rather than waiting until senior year. D2 transferred to a new school junior year, and she got penalized when it came to her GPA calculation. Some school also have rule which doesn’t allow new student to be a Val. </p>

<p>It is a major decision for a top student to move from one school to another. Think it through before you do it.</p>

4

<p>I’ve heard from a few people that AP courses look better than going the full IB route if you’re an American student. I’d tour the new school, see what courses they have and if she would want to take them, and make sure her GPA wouldn’t be affected. My cousin transferred sophomore year and they took .2 off of his GPA.</p>

5

<p>We have an excellent, very selective IB magnet program in our district. And every year, kids with the option of attending the magnet decide not to go because 1) they want to attend their local high school with their friends in their community 2) they have more flexibility in their scheduling and 3) they can fit their ECs around their academics better. Unstated, but also true, is that their natural academic ability will make them ‘stars’ at their local high school, whereas they’d be just one of the talented pack at the IB magnet, and therefore less likely to get into one of the most selective colleges. </p>

<p>Fit matters in high school as much as in college. I’d let your daughter make the trade offs here. All she needs to know is that you won’t think less of her for deciding to make one choice or the other. Assuming her grades were good at the magnet, she can easily explain, as part of the admissions process, that she changed schools for reasons 1, 2 or 3above, and assuming she took a rigorous program at her local school, she’ll be fine.</p>

6

<p>If your daughter makes the switch, she will probably be asked at various times (in college interviews, for example), why she did it. She should have an answer prepared, and it should be the truth – although it need not include every detail of the truth. (I would not emphasize the “I wasn’t getting enough sleep” aspect, even though it’s one of the leading complaints of IB students.) </p>

<p>People want to hear one or two good reasons for making the switch. “I realized that I would have to give up one or two of the three ECs that I love in order to do justice to the IB program” is a good reason. If it happens to be applicable, “I wanted to have more freedom to choose my junior and senior courses than I could get in IB” is another good reason.</p>

7

<p>At my kids HS most kids graduated with 3-4 AP classes. Occasionally an exceptional kid had 5. I can’t fathom what a load of 12-15 comparable courses looks like and how tough that is on a HS kid.</p>

8

<p>As the parent of a now-senior son who transferred for academic reasons in the middle of 10th grade – I would like to pass along a few thoughts. </p>

<p>First, if she is in a crisis mode, then absolutely, find a way to alleviate her stress and difficulties, without worrying for a moment about impact on college apps. Her mental, and physical, health is paramount. </p>

<p>Then, I would suggest considering what she will be getting out of coursework over the next two years in either IB or AP program and whether it suits her interests and learning styles. Does she have particular academic interests that are met with either curriculum? For instance, at my son’s IB program, it is still a newer magnet and so there is not as much depth in IB Math and Sciences as the best Math/Science students might want, so they tend to take AP Math and Sciences or more advanced work at local community college etc. and may, for that reason, not be full diploma students. This hasn’t mattered to him as he is an English/History type kid, but it could be a consideration for someone who wants AP Bio, Calc BC etc under their belt before college. </p>

<p>Can you or your daughter talk to some current 11th and 12th graders at the local school to find out about the AP courses? How good are the teachers, how well-prepared for the exams are the students? Do the students like those classes? My son, which is just my experience, had some AP classes because of scheduling issues, and preferred the seminar-based IB courses. AP felt relentless in a way that he did not feel in IB. Again, that is my son, not your child, so I would encourage you to ask around and get a better feel for student experience at the local school. </p>

<p>If you are thinking about college admissions, you might consider each schools’ track record of placement at the type of schools your daughter might be considering. Separate from the question of any local ranking of high schools, sometimes particular colleges just are more familiar with the students and the level of qualifications from different schools, based on how many apps they have received in the past, students they have admitted etc. For us, so much changed over four years in terms of our son’s growth, the insanity of admissions etc – we thought we knew what we might be looking at when he was in the early high school years, but that evolved dramatically. If you spend much time on these boards, you know the spring has been littered with valedictorian, award-winning, varsity sports, great everything students declined at top 20 schools so that they are now deciding among some great merit awards at the next level schools. That great resume gets a student in the door, but 9/10 will be declined, even though all of them are capable of success at the school. </p>

<p>Good luck to you and your daughter, it sounds like either school will be a good place for her.</p>

9

<p>My son switched schools for senior year, as did 2 of his friends.</p>

<p>In all his interviews and in his application it was never mentioned, and no one said a word about it. He got into decent schools and I feel it’s the best decision we could have made for his mental health. While most would think we were crazy switching senior year, sometimes one more year is too many to put a child through.</p>