<p>I see, I Austin dad. I guess it never occurred to me that kids would be assigned an unweighted class when they requested otherwise. It would seem to be an inappropriate academic placement and hard to justify. </p>
<p>I’ve never heard of that happening in our school system and we are one of the largest public school systems in the country, struggling with budget cuts like everyone else.</p>
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<p>Yet, as you’ve learned, the only time I’ve ever heard a top-tier school even mention “Val” in its presentation is to take perverse pride in telling you how many Vals they reject every year. Colleges understand that Val/Sal is more a statistical anomaly than a true distinction. But how do you convince your kids of that? (Fortunately, I don’t have to. Our school is smart enough not to rank.)</p>
<p>novamom, budget cuts in public education here in Texas in the past few years have been quite extreme. The worst was when they cut all foreign languages except for Spanish, after my S had started in German.</p>
<p>Often there were more kids than spaces available in the AP and dual enrollment classes, which are both weighted, and the administration would try to be fair in assigning most kids most of their preferred classes, resulting in few kids getting all of theirs. For my S in his junior year, his alternates were also AP or dual enrollment, but those were full too so the school basically randomly assigned two of his eight classes to him. No matter how well he did in them, he could not keep up with someone with weighted classes.</p>
<p>Oh, and I wanted to add that the competition for valedictorian here is often fierce because many public universities give $$$ for that, some quite a bit.</p>
<p>CT1417: He needed 10 points on the CR and M. Got the exact same score as last time-- missing just one on the math each time! He could register with the late fee, but he really is burned out on testing and everything. His brother says he probably will regret it, but surprisingly, he is really okay with it. He wants to explore the other options he has, including the chance to run in college.</p>
<p>Just stopping in to say good morning, everyone. I am enjoying hearing about acceptances and visits. DS is meeting with his GC today to review his application, so hopefully he will be hitting the “submit” button for the first time tonight. </p>
<p>I am interested in the discussion about class rank. DS’s school does not rank.</p>
<p>@momreads: bummer about the 10 points! I’m glad your son is philosophical about it.</p>
<p>Congrats to all on acceptances. I am finding this a stressful & tiring process, but it will be more fun once the paperwork is in & D & I just have to get her to her auditions. D did not get a lead role in the musical this year (found out yesterday), nor did she get the choir solo she was hoping for (the day before). The usual suspects took both. Two blows in two days, but she is being very mature about it. This is perhaps more rewarding to see than if she had gotten the parts. She will need a tough skin to go into music. I also think she is feeling a little bit “over” high school & has her eyes on next year.</p>
<p>momreads, can he try ACT? If he decides to take ACT, tell him to use Barron’s 36 which helped my D a lot and doesn’t need much practicing. Her score jumped to 99 percentile. Editing to add, she just went through the book and spent less than 5 to 6 hours I think. </p>
<p>I am going through emotions about what I could/should/would have done if I can redo the whole thing of raising D again. It is bittersweet, I am sure it is a result of going through this process clueless the first time. I feel like the emotional swing is pretty high with the first child and slowly balances out with each child.</p>
<p>GertrudeMcFuzz, I guess it is one of those days. I keep telling myself and D that highschool is part of a journey not the end result.</p>
<p>In a lot of ways, I wish my D’s school doesn’t rank OR she’s not into running as Val (or Sal for that matter) so that she can concentrate more on her college apps because right now most of her apps/essays are on standstill. I was trying to tell her to concentrate on the long term goal rather than on the short term. It’s stressful enough for the college application process and then add that, it’s too much. But it has been her goal to be Val since 9th grade, so let’s see.</p>
<p>UC schools don’t see the student’s rank, all they see are grades and the classes, so in that respect, I don’t think #1 and #10 doesn’t really make any difference. And I think, that holds true to most top schools, as long as the student is at that top 1 - 10%.</p>
<p>chrysanthMum - LOL, she acutally said she thinks a little rejection is good for her. I have to agree - it’s a reality of life.</p>
<p>I’m really looking forward to Dec. 1, since that is when all apps are due, even if the previous day is hectic and miserable with final essay writing & audition file uploads. Here’s to Dec. 1!</p>
<p>GertrudeMcFuzz, You have raised a great daughter if your D has the maturity to think that way.</p>
<p>The class ranking can be tough…from what I have seen at our school I wish they would get rid of it. We are a small Catholic school, about 40 per grade, filled with many high achieving kids. Usually we have around 5 Valedictorians with 4.0s and a few Salutatorians with one A-. We do not weight classes.</p>
<p>So my daughter who was 4.0 until mid Junior year is now ranked 12th. She had an A- and a B in a college level class. So I agree that what-you-get-is-what-you-get and I don’t begrudge the other kids but it just seems weird you can go from #1 to not even in the top 10. Our school makes a BIG deal about the top 10. I wish they would just chose different color cords based on your GPA and not based on how the other kids in the class do. </p>
<p>It also makes it tough for the kids at the “bottom” the class – usually we have maybe 4 or 5 kids with less that a 3.3 but greater than a 3.0. The feel sooooo stupid even though they are not.</p>
<p>Interesting hearing about the other schools…</p>
<p>Hit submit for UC apps(and paid the credit card bill :-/)</p>
<p>Now DS needs to finish up Common App…</p>
<p>chrysanthMum: He hated the ACT. Took it twice. Did not do well either time. But, thanks for the suggestion.</p>
<p>DS received a big envelope from one of his schools that he has applied to. Should be a safety, but I was still excited and couldn’t wait for him to get home from school. He got home and opened it - just advertising materials encouraging him to apply. Really??? Do they not look to see if students have applied already??? (haha! I know that’s impossible, but still…)</p>
<p>Minnymom, I hope that is us re: UC apps tomorrow. I have given my D tomorrow morning as the deadline for final review and submission!</p>
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<p>Well, we just got some very disappointing news this afternoon when DS hit the submit button. He is NOT deemed by the UC system to be in the top 10% of his class at his high school. This was a shocker, as he has received only 3 Bs in his entire HS career. I know his school submitted paperwork recommending him for ELC status. So I’m not really sure what happened. He sent an email to his counselor to ask.</p>
<p>All I can think is, he goes to an extremely rigorous private school. He only took 1 AP course last year (3 this year), and only takes honors classes in STEM subjects, not the humanities. Other students must take more honors classes.</p>
<p>He blows the statewide path to the top 9% out of the water. Does this mean he will still be given ELC status?</p>
<p>I wonder if this will hurt his chances? His SATs are very good.</p>
<p>Hi parents. Stressed?</p>
<p>Calla1- what do you see when you submit UC app if you are ELC? We did not see anything either but DS is ranked 6 out of 568- 2 Bs in high school. Am I missing something?</p>
<p>Ok- we just logged in to My UC and checked- DS14 is in top 9% of class. Calla- try checking again. Maybe it takes a while to process. Good luck!</p>