<p>Thanks! But unfortunately, depending on how you calculate GPA’s, if he keeps those grades he might just make the stats to get IN to this thread!</p>
<p>^^ I hear ya; we are teetering as well…</p>
<p>As of about 10 minutes ago, my son is an ex-high school student. He doesn’t walk for two more weeks, but pencils, books, and teachers’ dirty looks are officially behind him.</p>
<p>:)</p>
<p>I hear you, nightchef! My 7th grader’s ‘rock band’ played at his school’s end of year picnic, and his rendition of Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out for Summer” was a big hit!</p>
<p>Regarding Shrinkraps Son’s great grades and GPA in general. My son has done really well this year EXCEPT for mid-terms. I dread upcoming finals but the good news is that his 2 AP classes don’t have finals, they have projects and he’s good at projects. His unweighted GPA is around a 3.1. and but I hope his weighted classes bump him up just a bit.</p>
<p>
CIA, I think it depends somewhat on where you are in the range, and also perhaps on your test scores. Our son started this year with a 3.2 weighted GPA, but 2230 combined SATs. By midyear, thanks to good performance in some AP’s, he had raised that GPA to 3.4, which is still pretty low for Rochester–but he got in. It was the only one of his reaches that admitted him. I had heard that URochester puts more emphasis on test scores than most schools in its peer group, and our experience seemed to confirm that. He did also visit and do an interview, and I think Rochester emphasizes that, as well.</p>
<p>Thanks for the input. Well, right now my GPA is a little out of this thread (3.4), but but a B in one class will bring me down to a 3.25 or so. I’m taking the ACT next week so we’ll see how that goes. I’m also expecting some good recs and plan to interview this summer.</p>
<p>I guess it’s a reach, but knowing that others in my range have gotten in makes me feel better!</p>
<p>Edit: Did your S submit SAT IIs?</p>
<p>Well, my S has finished his Sophmore year. I’m still trying to get over the frustration with his grades. He ended the year with probably about a 3.1 or 3.2 GPA. His school only calculates GPA 10th-12th and only academic classes, so it is probably a little bit higher if his theatre and dance classes are added in. URGH!!! He just hasn’t figured out that you actually have to study hard to get those A’s. He is a true B student. No C’s and every once in awhile he’ll get in a B+. He is a slightly ADHD so struggles with focus and organization. His PSAT scores were excellent though. I had a talk with him and told him that if he really needs to figure out a way to get better grades next year, but I really don’t know if he will push himself or not. Has anyone seen improvement in grades in their juniors? I’m not expecting miracles… but a small upward trend may help him a lot.</p>
<p>
Yes. My son entered junior year with a cumulative 3.09. He’s graduating with somewhere around a 3.5 (haven’t seen final grades yet). Like your son, he’s a bright kid and good test taker with severe organizational/procrastination issues…we used to say that there was nothing he couldn’t accomplish as long as he thought he was supposed to be doing something else. </p>
<p>Our experience is that at a certain point–fairly suddenly, late in junior year–something clicked and he just understood what he needed to do. There wasn’t anything we did differently. He apparently figured out that if he didn’t get better control of his workload he was going to miss out on some opportunities, and he adjusted his approach accordingly. Unfortunately in his case it was a wee bit late–if he had made the same adjustment a bit sooner, I think he would have gotten into a couple of places where he was waitlisted–but at least it happened.</p>
<p>Judging kids on their high school scholastic record has a high potential for error because an adolescent is not a finished product but a work in progress. You can’t worry about it too much. Just keep up the encouragement, nag when you think you need to, and cross your fingers. Your son will figure it out for himself at some point, and then the key thing will be to make the most of the opportunities he has rather than waste time regretting opportunities he may have lost.</p>
<p>“Has anyone seen improvement in grades in their juniors?”</p>
<p>I have, and I’ve seen many threads suggesting the same. My son had a 2.5 or so GPA, (would have been 2.0 or less if just core classes) end of first semester sophomore year. Yesterday it was 3.87. He has been treated for ADHD since age 4, and “discipline” problems have been a bigger problem than focus, but he has really channeled his energy into positive directions this year.</p>
<p>Much of my sons motivation and life lessons come from soccer, and I am learning from it as well. Many of the kids on this thread are boys. If you follow girls and boys soccer, you can see how the girls are fully “developed” by eight or ninth grade, but the difference between a 16 year old boys development, and a 22 year old mans, is amazing!</p>
<p>5boys brings up an interesting point and question…</p>
<p>If a 3.0-3.3 or even lower GPA is comprised of all B’s and B-'s will it be looked at differently than one in which there are a combo of, for example, a smattering of B+, A- but also a number of C’s? just looking for your opinions on this…</p>
<p>My son’s grades improved dramatically as a junior, perhaps because of a positive incentive plan I offered.
Re straight Bs, vs. a mix, I think it helps if the better grades in a mix relate to your proposed major or if the worse grades are concentrated in 1 area (math is a common issue for girls, foreign languages for boys). My guess is that mixed grades across the boards may be viwed as indicating a lack of effort</p>
<p>Sadly, I doubt that what is often the real answer–poor work in substantial part because a few teachers are awful–is not given credence.</p>
<p>I suppose it depends on the size and motivation of the school. My son had five C’s in his entire life. Unfortunately, four of them where first semester sophomore year, which for California public colleges, are 1/4 of his entire academic record. REALLY bad timing for a medication change. Sigh. Similarly, B-, B, and B+ are all counted equally. So to them , his 88’s are no better than his 79’s.</p>
<p>So, do we like the scenario where grades are consistently B, B- over the other scenario?</p>
<p>just wondering since that is my daughter’s pattern (and ain’t changin anytime soon)…one thing to note though; this puts her smack dab in the middle of her class…(No weighting, no grade inflation)</p>
<p>Shrinkrap: if all our B’s were 3.0 she would be golden; she has a lot of B-'s…which are anything from 80-82.9 here…</p>
<p>I LOVE THIS THREAD!!! Rodney… i was wondering that too about having a 3.0 that’s all B’s or a mixture of A’s B’s and C’s. I’m wondering if they just look at the GPA alone or do they look at all the grades in context. My S has had a few B+'S… first semester he had 3, but 2nd none. 1 B- each semester. It’s funny with him because the classes he does good in the first semester are not the same ones that he does well in the 2nd. He is VERY inconsistent in some aspects but he is pretty consistent in his 3.0-3.2 GPA. He has never been on the honor roll at his school because it doesn’t go by GPA… you have to have at least 2 A’s in academic subjects and nothing lower than a B-. I think it’s weird because you can have a kid get all B-'s and 2 A’s and someone get 1 A- and the rest B+s and even though there GPA’s are very different one would get on honor roll and one would not. </p>
<p>I know this is a VERY classic problem that a lot of boys have. High test scores but low grades. The girls out number high GPA’s at our school by far. I think someone once said on this thread that colleges have to lower their GPA expectations with boys, otherwise there would be very few boys in college.</p>
<p>^^my d’s grades are only for full year; if they had split semesters, they would look exactly like your sons…the original reason I brought this up is because she may not even hit the 3.0 for junior year, but doesn’t have any C’s in anything (including electives)…she is looking at 3 B-'s, 2 B’s and a B+ as preliminary grades…(the B+ may hit A-; not sure yet…)…but I guess I will ask her GC how they differentiate between the two scenarios…</p>
<p>I hope colleges don’t look at it quarter by quarter, some quarters my d’s grades are C’s and others they are A’s…average can end up anywhere from low A to high B that way. Very inconsistent over the school year depending on if she did poorly on one test or paper, or if she is time stressed due to an EC. Junior year grades have been the worst by far. Much to my displeasure!</p>
<p>Reaching out for some help with college suggestions for my D2. She liked the feel of the Colby Sawyer campus and the organic chem class that she participated in. She looked at New England College and took it off her list. She wants to major in Biology. Test scores are on the low side. Looking for a small school and would love it if it had varsity field hockey(but could live without it). Here are her stats:
SAT 1550: CR 460, M 530, W 560
GPA: 3.2
16 college credits (Calc, Spanish, Eng)
EC:Band 9-12
Field Hockey 9-12
Softball 9-12
Basketball 9-12
Yearbook
Humanitarian Club
All County Band 9,11,12
Volunteer: Habitat for Humanity, Local Soccer League
Hook: URM</p>
<p>Looking for small schools in NY, VT, NH, MA, PA. Not sure what would be reach, match and safety school.</p>
<p>My S’s grades were all over the place, A’s one quarter, C’s the next.He would ace a test but not bother to turn in homework assignments. Some of these assignments were completed, he just didn’t bother to hand them in. :(</p>
<p>Much like nightchef’s S, my S had an epiphany late in his junior year. Has been on the high honor roll all of senior year.</p>
<p>In his case it was a combination of lack of maturity, organizational skills, maybe a touch of ADD; except if he really cared about something, the forgetfulness vanished.</p>
<p>Our school’s official transcript is only semester grades, doesn’t include exam grades or quarter grades. You can find out from your GC. I would think semester grades are more standard.</p>
<p>Those of you who are worried, have you considered rigor? Are these “lower” grades in classes that are harder, that colleges will notice? In our case, I think my D is doing slightly better than she did the last 2 years, for which I’m grateful - she’s buying in more, for whatever reason. Her worst grades are in her 2 AP classes, thank goodness. I think she’s growing up a bit, and she’s hanging out with some kids who care a bit more about their grades, too.</p>
<p>She’s keeping up rigor next year, taking 3 APs (don’t get me wrong - at our school they are the only classes worth taking if you don’t want to be bored to insanity), but only 4 academics. Choir, Art and maybe an advanced music class (not sure yet what’s being offered), and maybe a semester on the yearbook for fun. I think it’s a healthy schedule, but we’ll just have to see how colleges see it. Also with the courses she’s taking she’s very likely going to come up with 3 Bs a semester, again in classes that probably would be weighted, but still not going to push her GPA up.</p>
<p>Her overall is more like a 3.5, but not if you take out music and art classes. I’m figuring the schools will end up making a lot the decision for us…but as smart people have said here, go where you fit, not to where you have to mold yourself. I think the schools will know if she’ll be all right. And she knows she still has growing to do, wants somewhere that will help her do that.</p>