Hi @laroyri - My daughter’s school sends first quarter grades if the transcript is sent on or after 11/15 (but I believe the student has a choice to include them or not). Our first quarter ends on 10/30.
My daughter didn’t request first quarter grades because she was trying to meet Nov. 1 deadlines at a few places, but I’m starting to wonder if they will even send them by then. They ask for a full 30 days to send transcripts electronically, which seems like a long time, even in a large senior class. It’s been three weeks so far…
Our school’s college counselor told us that if a student is applying ED, the school will frequently request first qtr grades. Otherwise only first semester grades are sent automatically once they’re in (I.e., without being requested by the school).
I panicked last week because D had a class where the teacher hadn’t uploaded his grades for several assignments so it looked like D had a row of zeros on her 1st quarter grades. They are not sent at her school, so it won’t be a problem for her. Her school only sends out grades each semester, so colleges wouldn’t get senior grades at all unless they get a transcript sent after 1st semester grades are in. Her school is very small so transcripts are sent out the day they’re requested.
Our school only sends 1st quarter grades if the student requests it - they keep a list in the guidance office and the students sign up for which schools to send them to. Our 1st quarter grades won’t be available to mid-late November (the quarter ends early Nov). The guidance counselor assured us that schools will review the application even if some of the pieces (like 1st quarter grades) aren’t there - as long as the application etc. get there on time.
Our first quarter just ended, but I don’t think the school automatically sends quarter grades unless they’re specifically requested. I’m not altogether sure they send anything unless specifically requested.
The stress level here is getting high. S was having a difficult time with a Comp essay yesterday. He’s convinced the teacher grades him on a different scale to his classmates-- and I’m not entirely sure he’s wrong-- and an essay he’d’ve been pleased with last year was simply not going to do. “I’ll get a D on it and it will bring my grade in that class down to a B and I’ll never get into a decent school.” And he was serious.
Even though it drives me insane, sometimes his sister’s utter lack of focus or concern is a welcome relief.
And welcome to the madhouse, @laroyri !
At the schools my D is applying all but one want first Semester or midterm report cards (generally due mid Jan to mid Feb). Only one wanted first marking period grades no later than Jan 1.
@NYDad513 I had to google what Public Exam schools are! I assumed they are very selective magnet schools. We don’t have any of them in our state. We do have one or two great high schools in the state that had 20-30 NMSF kids this year, but none of them are in our county.
D attended a great small charter school (K-8) before going to a regular public high school. Kids from that charter school usually end up in several public high schools in different counties. A lot of those kids usually become the semifinalists. We didn’t even know what PSAT was until D had to take it with a terrible flu!! I am glad that D was one of the NMSFs this year.
As I mentioned before, not many students know about the SAT subjects tests until they are ready to apply. Most of the top students find out about it around this time of their senior year. By this time, it is too late to start studying or take them. That’s why we have a very few people going to highly selective schools/Ivy leagues. A lot of them end up in the state flagship school or the neighboring states.
We do have term grades (quarter grades) at our high school and get a “report card”, but only the first and second semester grades count toward the GPA. Therefore, often the term grades are incomplete because they have missing grades, zeros or Fs for certain assignments, etc factored in because the teachers haven’t input everything (and they know they can do it later prior to semester end). It would be too scary for us to have “first quarter” grades submitted to colleges (I would want a copy first to make sure there wasn’t something “bad” on there because often the input grades were incomplete). Our school sends transcripts from 9-11 when kids apply to colleges the first half of the year, then they send the “mid-year report” which is the first semester grades.
Not sure about which grades are sent but it did remind me of a question. Within the common application, in the school supplement there is an indication that the GC has been invited, I assume via the link to Naviance, to provide things like the mid year report. Can the GC see the list or does DS need to inform GC of the list? Or, asked another way, does being invited just mean the GC can upload but may not know what to upload until requested by DS?
@cheeringsection I would guess that the GC knows what to do and has the power to do it. That said, at our school the GC requested that the kids fill out a paper form listing the schools and their deadlines (and type of application). The guidance office then added these schools in my son’s Naviance account in the “Colleges I’m Applying to” section and it was clear there when the transcripts were sent. Meanwhile, my S16 had already connected his Common App account to Naviance, and made his list in Common App for the Common App schools. When the GC took care of the school report and the transcript for each that was also displayed in that school’s entry in the Common App.
DD sent out her first SAT scores but not to college… to NMF. Still it is good she aware all the deadlines.
@lonetreegrad Her school is very good school. However, I felt sorry for her because of competition between peers. Her school culture is not cutthroat but still competitive. I think it is a little bit hard for my DD because her character is very laid back and easygoing.
Question: D16 has one teacher recommendation that has been submitted to the common app but it has not been acknowledged by any of her schools. One has an early action deadline of 11/1, one (her first choice) starts making decisions on 11/1. She admissions be called to be made aware?
Question 2: One of her teachers (band director, very big name in the state) has given her paper recommendations. No school needs more than one, and one (her alma mater) won’t take a rec from her as she is “an arts teacher”. There are 5 of them on school letterhead, signed with blue ink. Can we send them in? Will the schools consider them? Or should we have the gc upload them somehow? She only needs one but I have read it and it is moving and portrays my kid amazingly.
@kandcsmom – You may get some good answers here, but honestly you’re best option is to call the admissions offices of the schools involved (for both questions). Can’t get a more definitive answer than that.
I am not an Common App expert, but this is the way my son explained it: In common app for each school you have listed, you designate which teachers will do the recommendation letters with the “add a teacher” feature. My son picked the school with the most LORs required first (3) so all would get the email as early as possible. Then with the other schools he could justpick and choose through “add a teacher” with a drop down menu (which included all those he initially listed). When the teacher’s get the email from common app and the LORs are uploaded, they are somehow “attached” to those applications that you have designated for those LORs. When the application is submitted, then those particular LORs go with it.
@AsleepAtTheWheel we called the school. They have the recommendation. Apparently there is “some change in the language” of the recommenders and it says submitted even after the school has obtained them from the app.
@4kids2graduate Yes, the app was submitted in September and she has one acceptance (it didn’t need an recommendation). We made the initial mistake of not designating the teachers specialty so they did not get the email inviting them initially. I’m not going to stress about the supplement unless it is asked for. The one that’s there is the most important one (Honors chem, Honors O-chem) for her major and the pending one (on the app) would be gravy.
Exhale. We should have an answer “first week of November”
Thanks everyone. Our school automatically sends first quarter grades (closing Oct 30) and we are kind of freaking out because his grades are not at the high level he usually achieves. This has been an extremely tough quarter, like everyone else, way too much to do, and not enough time. I would much rather wait until the end of the semester to send them to give him a chance to get the grades up, but that is not going to happen.
@4kids2graduate “In common app for each school you have listed, you designate which teachers will do the recommendation letters with the “add a teacher” feature.”
I am not an expert in Common App either, but I have never seen an “add a teacher” feature in Common App! Do you mean in Naviance?
@NYDad513 “Her school is very good school. However, I felt sorry for her because of competition between peers. Her school culture is not cutthroat but still competitive. I think it is a little bit hard for my DD because her character is very laid back and easygoing.”
Competitive environment can be good and bad. It can be great to motivate the kids to do more but adds more stress on the kids as well.
@Cheeringsection Your guidance counselor should know what to do. Like @crowlady our school had the kids fill out a paper form listing the schools and their deadlines. The guidance office then added these schools in my son’s Naviance account in the “Colleges I’m Applying to” section. My son had already connected his Common App account to Naviance, and made his list in Common App for the Common App schools. When the GC took care of the school report and the transcript for each that was also displayed in that school’s entry in the Common App.
I just want to say thanks to everyone–it never occurred to me that first quarter grades would be sent. I’m having DS check with his counselor, as there were big problems with one of his grades. If they would send quarter grades, he won’t be doing any EA apps. So this has caused a lot of stress–we were really counting on those EA apps–but at least I know now.