Playing the GPA game is a big deal in our area. We even know some kids who took physical ed online to make room for extra AP classes to raise their GPA. My middle school student missed a chance at a tract that enables an extra AP class in HS. Who knew 6th grade decisions were so far reaching. She’s my 3rd and I still didn’t know. My kids and I are in different places regarding this concept. I believe in balance and learning how to live your life but everyone else is so competitive that my kids feel they have to compete. Our school says that they don’t rank but will provide rank for scholarships and we have a valedictorian. I think it’s sad that students can’t take a class that they find interesting or exciting because they are worried about protecting their GPA.
Our school is small by some of your standards! It’s about 1600 kids, and we have a fair number of APs-- not as many as the other schools in the area, which can be frustrating. S has taken most of the ones offered; D has taken about half. I’ve left it mostly up to them and a lot of it has to do with who the teacher will be. There are must-haves, and must-avoids, which probably is the case everywhere.
Our school does rank. Both kids are in the top 10%-- D comfortably down around 20th at this point, which is nice because there’s a lot less pressure. S is part of a five-way race for the top two spots-- there are a few hundredths of a point separating the kids, so it’s anybody’s guess at this point. He’s got his top two schools’ applications done, so it won’t really help if he gets it, though I guess it would be on the mid-year report. I’m guessing he’ll probably come in third or fourth, mostly because of all those unweighted music classes. Like his sister, he’s taken what he wants to take, and ranking hasn’t been the driving force-- he’s just ended up where he’s ended up.
And welcome and congratulations as appropriate-- you all were busy yesterday!
Our school has 4800 students - and that may be why they don’t rank anymore.
4800 students?? Holy cow! That’s the size of a couple of the universities on S’s list, and bigger than a few of D’s colleges.
Yikes @BeeDAre! Your senior class must be more than twice the size of our total HS! We have about 550 students total (9-12), my S16’s senior class is approx. 135-140 students. Our school offers 8 AP courses total…so some of the students pick and choose which ones to take, but approx. 15 or 20 kids usually take them all (one sophomore year, 2-3 junior year, 4-5 senior year). No weighted GPA, everything is on a 4.0 scale. APs are only “weighted” in the formula to decide val and sal. Because of this, some students that would like to consider DE classes do not do them because those are not “weighted” for val/sal purposes and our school encourages the “AP track” instead of DE for those high achieving students.
At our kids school, there is a huge difference in rank if one does 2 or 3 classes at 4.0. Unfortunately interesting things like Orchestra etc fall under this category even if the student is not a beginner musician.
@4kids2graduate My son’s senior class is just a little smaller than your entire school population. I often wonder about how HS would be different in a smaller school. I guess there’s merits to both.
@petrichor11 Sounds like your son and mine are very similar. The one thing I can say about the upper ranking students at our school is that it has always remained a friendly competition . They all support one another. It is so tight between the top 5 students at this point any one of them could become valedictorian . Our school chooses at the end of the first semester , so I guess we’ll know soon enough
@texaspg My son was also in orchestra, but once they complete 2 classes at the HS level it becomes weighted as an Honors class. It helps to encourage continued participation in the arts and acts as an incentive to increase some students GPAs who otherwise might not have the opportunity .
I hate the GPA and ranking GAMES. It really inhibits a student from taking the courses that they truly may be interested in.
@AsleepAtTheWheel Thanks. I think the teachers have been more relaxed than the junior class class teachers. This time last year she was stressed as her teachers were saying NO ONE passes my classes, lol. It is a much different atmosphere.
Our school is very small - around 450 total students.
If any parents of homeschoolers receive NMS letters please post here or on NMS thread. First letter for Michigan was received today.
@carolinamom2boys : Yes, they do sound similar! S is friends with a couple of the girls he’s been trading spots with, and has actually gotten to be better friends in the last year or so, since the competition’s been acknowledged. They’re a nice bunch of kids even if heavily weighted toward Type A. There’re also only two boys in the top ten, and maybe one more if it’ extended to fifteen-- I’m not sure why, but the boys at our school seem a lot less competitively-driven than the girls…
Our music program only starts to weight at year 4, but it’s possible for a freshman with good experience to come in at band 2 instead of band 1, so that helps a little. We have a wide range of kids, from beginners who have just started in percussion to the occasional veteran who’s competed internationally. Most of them are pretty typical middle school veterans and “I started playing sax in sixth grade but I’m tired of it and want to try trumpet” kids, though.
@petrichor11 DS16’s best friend is ranked one a lot higher. They are very supportive of one another and his mom is one of my best friends. DS16 is not the least bit athletic so all of his competitive juices go into academics. He also plays the viola , but had to forego that class this year to make his schedule work. Senior year schedules can be a nightmare at our school with quite a few students leaving early making it hard to fit the necessary classes in.
Hi guys! I don’t post much though im always reading. Just had to write a milestone… D16 turned in two applications this week, yey! Almost done with the third, and then only two more to go. Much better than the 13 or so from D14.
Also dropped off D14 for second year of college, and happy to report that there was no tears (sobbing!). Only happiness and excitement for what is to come…yes!
Ok, I am mistaken! There are 1959 students at the high school, as of 2014. Sorry!! I saw the 4800 somewhere… went back to double-check the school’s website and it says 1959. I also thought, Wow! had no idea there are THAT many kids, lol.
Yeah - no. Only 1,959.
edited to add: Ok, I estimated earlier this week that there are around 480 +/- students in each class at her high school; based on dividing 1959 - the total number - by 4. I had it written down in a note on my desktop - when I replied to this discussion, I thought, oh - 4800.
I should remember to always double-check my info from now on…
Our school is at 2590 but a handful of kids in that count are middle school kids that attend part day. The senior class size is 602 (down from 610 in 10th grade). The kids that are in the running for Val / Sal have been planning this since 5th grade. The top ranked kids usually end up with a weighted GPA slightly above 115!
Just a reminder,Thursday is the deadline for US registration for October’s SAT and SAT II subject tests.
My D just told me that the president of the senior class gives the graduation speech, and not the valedictorian - and a val and sal are never named. Or at least, not as those titles.
She has played in the band at every grad ceremony for the past three years, so she’s been to the ceremonies.
However, she says she can’t remember if a second student gives a speech - but she insists that the (elected) senior class press does.
My DDs school has about 50 kids a class. No ranking. No AP. In fact, they encourage parents to NOT show kids their report cards. We do. I figure it is her work and her grade not mine.
Wow, I don’t think ours have had their eye on it for that long. Possibly one or two, but the ones who are that driven usually end up at a magnet school, because our district pushes the “IB is your ticket to the Ivies” theory very very hard. And the IB and STEM programs usually send a handful of kids to competitive colleges, so that may be right. Mostly though, our district is heavy into the community college and state university conduit. A large percentage of the val/sal kids end up at the state flagship school.