@fun1234 I think you have misunderstood. I do not know any university that alters a high school’s grading scale and then recalculates. If the scale states that 85-92 is a B, when they calculate GPA, a 92 as a B. There are plenty of schools where a 92 is a B.
More about our transcript. (I’m sure no one else cares as much as I do, but it may be helpful for comparison purposes.)
S’s transcript lists W/UW GPA, class rank and class percentage. For grades, it shows semester letter grades (including +/-) and as I noted above there is a separate section showing the grading scale. Grades for AP classes should be designated with “AP” after the letter grade per the note (S won’t take AP until senior year), but apparently there is no designation for honors classes. DE classes are noted with college name. HS-level classes taken before ninth grade are shown separately with letter grades but 0’s for GPA.
His ACT composite and subscores are shown in date order. The March SAT didn’t appear on the transcript I received, so I don’t know if it ever will or if it will show up later. No PSAT score shown either but I didn’t expect that. (SAT takers are pretty uncommon around here.)
@Mom2aphysicsgeek We took old SAT qualified for the Presidential we were told that was still good for Fall of 2017 so hopefully something does not change.
Personally, I would put this in the category of ‘in poor taste’ (and, I think if you look closely at the definition, most would agree). I think people are too quick to apply the ‘racist’ tag to things, but that may just be me. It certainly was in poor taste, and not funny. I’m constantly guilty of jokes in poor taste. My D17 (Chinese…I’m white) was constantly yelling ‘racist!’ at me when we were kidding around. Usually, she had a smile on her face. For instance, sometimes when I would set the table I would give her chopsticks instead of silverware: “Racist!”. I just laughed. She uses chopsticks a lot of the time now.
Getting transcripts - never occurred to me that we might need a transcript in the summer. I know there’s nobody at the school. I guess we can be happy we’re in an area that goes back early? School starts Aug 11 this year, gah.
Ah…the job. Sore subject in this house at present.
Older son has worked every summer since the summer after sophomore year. There are many beach clubs and country clubs in the immediate area, so plenty of seasonal employment opportunities as lifeguard, camp counselor, assistant diving or swim coach, water polo coach, sailing instructor, etc.
Younger son has not availed himself of any of these opportunities and I suppose older son would not have either if I had not enrolled him in lifeguarding & CPR course. He still finds the lifeguard position a nice one to fall back on to supplement income around internship positions.
Very few students work during the school year for many of the reasons mentioned here: they are just flat out too busy to work. Clubs meet before school and some meet after sports practice at 5:30 in the evening. Academic clubs often travel to competitions on Saturdays.
My house rule is that I do not provide spending money once the child is of age to be earning money. So while I pay for any EC-related expense, I do not pay for dinner or lunch out with friends.
@novicemom23kids – Do not dismiss watching siblings during summer so that parents can work. That is a ‘job’ and can be incorporated into her essay—somehow, some way…not sure how, but it is not insignificant. Same with the CIT volunteer position. I have heard this mentioned at more than one info session or college panel.
RE: Transcripts. Had son request one and drive up to HS to pick it up so that he will have it with him when he goes on summer college interviews. It is marked unofficial, but looks just like the official one. No standardized test scores although those do appear in Naviance.
@flatKansas I think it’s a midwest thing. D2’s first day is August 17. (Well, it would be, but she’ll be having a medical procedure that day, so…)
QOTD: Working. Yeah. My D2 decided to get a job last fall, WHILE she was in marching band. It’s only two evenings during the school year, about 7 hours a week total, but wow did it make the semester harder on all of us! She kept it through the school year, though, and is working this summer as well. I dread senior year (5 APs on the schedule) with marching band and work, but she’s a stubborn one.
Strategically, though, it turned out to be a wise choice – we live in a town with two universities and a community college, so there is a lot of competition from the college kids for summer jobs.
For all of you with issues getting transcripts, what happens to students moving in and out of your districts during the summer? What if a student moves and moves into a district which is a year round school and their calendar yr starts in July? Seems crazy to me that transcripts can be denied!
@carachel2 - It is cultural preference. kids from middle class and above working part time is not common in Asian countries. Opportunities are less and also education is so competitive, parents prefer kids to spend the time on studying. Some asian kids here started working as tutors to show it on college applications 
QOTD – Jobs: Story about this… Last week in the few days between my S’s summer activities we went to a local fast food place for lunch. He then freaked out when. he realized that two of the workers were classmates of his. Because neither of my kids have had jobs in H.S. he found it very weird to see classmates behind the counter.
I don’t really know how difficult it is for H.S. kids to find jobs because we never asked either kid to do this. I know it’s hard to find SUMMER ONLY jobs. My DD tried for two summers home from university with no luck. Except for camps there isn’t that many things that only run in the summer around here. And most camps require their camp councilors are at least 18. I know it’s easier for H.S. to find jobs if they plan to continue the job through the school year.
Most of the other teens in my area are on burnout just trying to keep their EC’s & homework done. Most H.S. student I know spend 3-4 hours a day or more on homework. They don’t have time for a job. Plus most ‘traditional’ teen jobs are done by adults around here. S17 is being a CIT at a sleep away camp, but that is not only not paid we still have to pay abet with huge discount for him to attend.
We are from the Chicago area and restaurants that have outdoor seating are often desperate for summer (seasonal) help (hosts, bussers, servers, food runners). In addition to camps, there is summer nanny/babysitting work. Amusement parks. Lifeguarding, park districts, concession stands.
I just filled out the form for D to get a copy of her official transcript. We should have it early next week. There is a notation at the top of the form that the only GPA on the transcript is weighted, which is what I expected.
D reminded me this morning – me, the mom obsessed with all things college admissions-related who certainly needed no reminder – that the common app is open today. She’s ready to get started!
I have fallen behind on QOTDs and related QOTDs (not sure I get the relation, but anyway…)
QOTD re: work - We neither require nor expect a part-time job; D17 has limited enough stores of energy just to make it through the day with her chronic health issues - we try to limit, not increase stress. Kids these days have so much on their plates; I’m happy to leave my daughter to juggle her academic and extra-curricular activities…she doesn’t need another ball in the air.
QOTD regarding potentially racist comment: Absolutely in poor taste AND offensive AND racist. Not all Muslims wear Burkas, not all potential visitors to an Islamic Museum are Muslim, and the majority of Muslims welcome people who want to learn more about their religion, history, and culture, regardless of their religious affiliation or lack thereof.
@LoveTheBard I feel the same about my D2, but didn’t feel I could forbid her from working, even though with her health issues, schoolwork (3-5 hours/night) and ECs it’s a LOT. She does swim lessons for young kids, and really enjoys it.
QOTD’s:
Conservatism-eh, there are so many facets to that spectrum-we’re probably fiscally conservative but socially liberal with some things and indifferent to other things. The girls have a pretty loose leash so they don’t tug on it a lot. They say their leash is way too short, though. I’m always around (except for this summer with school and H filled that space by working from home more), and they have to check in with me via text when they go off and do something so I know they made it ok, so it’s harder for them to really go coo coo for cocoa puffs because I try to be aware of what they’re doing(in general)-if I don’t know who the friends are, they don’t get picked up by said friend to go hang out. Actually that’s a standing-no in our house-I don’t let other teenagers drive them, ever. They have their own car to do that.
Friends who don’t want to meet (and get vetted by) us are not ok with me. The stuff that is ok, like weeks away at nerd camp, or going to six flags with a big group of friends (and they drive themselves), or driving to the SMITE world championships for three days is fine, because there’s a reason for it that’s meaningful. It’s one of those things where I let them do things that I think add value to their lives, but that means saying no to a lot of things that I think are an excuse to party or behave badly, or expose them to abuse or harm.
Like senior class trips. Often a lot of this stems from the parent “chaperones” getting wasted and not keeping an eye on the kids, or worse, inculcating them into their social rituals which involve behaving badly with regards to alcohol. I’ve also seen some ridiculously bad behavior from the grownups on mission trips with regards to thinking that their wedding vows somehow don’t count when they’re in a third world country. So, no senior trips and if you want to help someone, there are lots of people locally who need help, so no mission trips.
Whoa, I kind of got off track there, lol. They’re about the same as us when it comes to social values, spend vs. save, and political stuff, but their flavor of how they see the world is definitely different. Younger D had a really exhausting social justice warrior phase where she got sucked into too much social media stuff and we had to take it away from her and “deprogram” her, older D did the same thing, only self-deprogrammed, and her tumblr feed consists of kittens now. I was not super rebellious as a kid-the worst I did was lie to my parents about going in to Boston so we could see theater shows. I wasn’t allowed out of my town. I did not “go crazy” when I went away to college, unless you count moving to another country when my parents told me I had to quit school after freshman year.
Summer jobs-they’ve both been at camp for the majority of their summers (nerd camp), but D15 did work at an art camp this year for a week and loved it. I think D17 will be looking for a job next summer, since I think all the nerd camps are pretty much done.
I don’t have a preference to what kind of job they work at-whether it’s a grimy dead end burger flipping, or working at a startup helping with their programming and making $20/ hour, either job will teach you important life lessons.
I’m not touching that one-can you imagine being the person who got this humongous thread shut down? Oh the enmity…
@2muchquan wrote
Fake kid is taking on an awesomely surreal level of existence. 
I’m flashing back to that show on PBS where the kid was a chalk outline until he walked into the real world…
QOTD: Around here whether or not teens work is almost completely dependent on transportation. It is a rural area and most jobs are 20 minutes away, so the kids who have cars or access to them work, but many can’t. Especially since typical teen jobs have erratic shifts it can be tough to arrange rides.
My older Ds worked in high school, but S17 hasn’t. He has plantar fasciitis and can’t stay on his feet for hours at a time, which lets out most teen jobs. The museum he volunteers at has been hiring him for small jobs lately, so that is giving him a little spending money. He plans to get his life guard certification this winter (after apps are done!) so that he can work in the spring and summer as a life guard.
QOTD: DD has not had a job (other than occasional babysitting). I told her not to work until next summer so she could focus on her ECs and getting good grades. Honestly I don’t know when she’d fit it in anyways. She was in school from 7:15-3:45 during school year, she had 2 APs and 3 Honors classes with tons of homework, and she had something almost every day after school. She was on the school board last Fall which was twice a month late into the evening, she was on our city’s youth council which met every Friday after school, every other week she did some other youth meeting/panel, she did mock trial, she’s class president…it goes on and on. Plus she doesn’t have her license yet so she’d have to get a job near public transportation (which actually wouldn’t be too difficult where we live). And this summer she is doing the Social Justice Academy at UPenn smack dab in middle of summer. She has been volunteering a few days a week since school got out and will continue when she gets back. She was trying to fit in an internship at a non-profit law firm but hasn’t managed to do it with her schedule. I’m hoping focusing on her grades and ECs will pay off when her college acceptances come around. She will definitely work next summer before leaving for college for some spending money!
@MotherOfDragons The senior class trip when I was in high school was a free-for-all. Interestingly, most of the kids that went were not the studious ones, which explains a lot of that. I would not let D go on such a trip. I’m the one that pushes the trips in our family. D never asks to go. So far she’s been on 2 school trips, one fairly local, and one to Costa Rica. She had a great time on both. They were both pretty much nerd trips, so no bad behavior reported. D is eager to go on 1 last school trip. I don’t know if her school has a senior trip. If there is, whether she goes will depend on the group. D, however, will most likely go on next year’s Spanish trip to Spain, which again will be a nerd trip – only students in AP and IB Spanish are allowed.
@mamaedefamilia the entire scoring thing is odd when it comes to the ACT writing portion. S received 9’s on each component area for both the Sept and Dec tests but a 26 and 24 respectively. Funny math. :))
@NerdMom88 I will go through and double check but as of today, none of his schools require the writing. However as they are relatively decent (comparatively on the national % basis, especially in relation to his other scores) we will likely send the higher of the 2 at least to the schools that do superscore. I need to confirm on a few of them, it is implied that they do but not officially stated either.
@MotherOfDragons I just don’t see the value in him doing the essay again at this point and hope (though it’s unlikely lol) that removing that, will give him more time to focus on prepping for the rest.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek It’s not so much a stamina issue but an ADHD time management one. The old SAT was worse for him, diagnostically, so we’ve focused on the ACT and he has improved significantly since the process started (though that score may not seem to indicate that). He is a solid student, miserable miserable test taker. He just does not end up with the time to review his work and small silly mistakes kill him on any kind of test. We have discussed him possibly taking the new SAT and I suppose now that there is an August one…it could be worth a shot. He will hate the idea but if it was posed as a self study (versus the test prep and tutor)…hmmmn.
Since the new one as been a bit of a cluster I was glad to avoid it but you know, it kind of couldn’t hurt. None of his schools are send all scores and any improvement helps what little merit he may get. I didn’t want to deal with the October one. He’d still need to study for the Sept ACT though.
More Conservative/Not
Socially I was quite conservative in HS. Very social but no parties, drinking, etc though I was exposed to it and chose not to. H was a totally different animal! Understatement of the decade lol. So far, all 4 kids have been very much like me in that respect. Exposed, social but elect to opt out and generally avoid that party scene entirely, do not like it. As the kids age the groups of friends evolve into who parties and who doesn’t to an extent. S17 would rather go hang out at a diner with his friends or sit around playing board games or go for a hike. All the kids would rather go for a hike actually!
Politically all of the kids are very liberal/progressive, perhaps socialist and agnostic leaning. Which really isn’t much different than both H and I at those ages, though H was far less liberal politically growing up and has moved more toward the center in later years. The kids are more liberal than we are though it’s a pretty liberal household and S17 especially is much more politically involved, educated and aware.
Jobs
Most kids we know have jobs and that includes the high performing academic ones, the athletes, the drama kids and the musicians. It includes a wide variety of SES, including upper class. They can be hard to get for summer unless you look in the spring and as a result S17 is just now starting work as he turned 16 too late last year to find a summer position though he did try. He has spent countless hours volunteering at our performing arts center, that has now transitioned to paid work for the school district though I expect some volunteering to continue as he loves it and loves being needed. He has also just started a part time job that may be full time for summer and then drop down to part time during school. During the school year it sounds like it will be about 8 hours a week which should be (barely) manageable and then as needed for the school district when it works with his schedule. It will be a lot but he does MUCH better when really really busy. MUCH better. It really does help the ADHD when he is forced to micromanage his time and honestly, he’s just a lot happier if kept busy.
And as with many others, I don’t provide extra spending money for outings with friends etc or all the various things S might like to have.
He will definitely have worked the most, and at the earliest age of the 4 kids so far. SS11 had a summer part time job at this age and then nothing again until the following summer though did work part time all through college and often more than one part time job, some career path related and some not. At the opposite end of the spectrum, SD14 has never had a job. Never. She is interviewing now for something at her college so we will see. Her EC (soccer) really did eat up a ton of time year round, including the summers. She really would have to have more of a defined career path for any kind of internship or REU and she’s not quite there (plus is taking summer session at the local CC to stay on track for on time graduation). I am hoping next summer will bring something more career path related.
S19 has his first counselor volunteer gig this summer and while it isn’t paid, it is a 30 hour week so I definitely consider that working! He will do that at least 2 weeks, possibly 3. Which will be more than any of the others did at that age although long term, this one doesn’t have the work ethic/drive of S11 and S17 so I don’t expect more than something similar for next summer. He does hope to leverage this into a paid position with the same camp which would be perfect.
@MSHopeful – that is so cool that students sit on the school board. I cannot imagine how they would carve out the time. I had to attend the school board budget season meetings while I was PTO chair and I found it taxing (and dull). I learned a ton, but the detailed level of discussion was tough to sit through.