It is amazing how different high schools are! Our school only reports weighted GPA (I’ve had to manually calculate my own kid’s unweighted GPA to understand where she falls). Our school’s profile shows a perfect bell curve of weighted GPAs between 2.0 and 5.0, with the average being around a 3.7.
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this is something where the school report from the counselor probably helps provide some contextual background.
At our high school, there’s definitely no grade inflation. The school has mentioned in “Rising X Graders Night” info sessions, for example, that a B at our school is equivalent to an A at other high schools in the area. The honors college at the in-state public university D26 is applying to has stated that they most definitely take into account the rigor/difficulty level of the courses/curriculum that a student takes.
But Harvard/Yale/Stanford/equivalent universities? Nah, they expect 4.0’s across the board AND for you to take the hardest load of classes AND for you to get all 5’s on all the AP exams you take. And even with all that, it’s still a toss up if you get admitted, assuming that you don’t have some sort of hook.
By comparison, if you’re applying to a college/university where they give a set amount of scholarship $$ based on your GPA, then how much scholarship $$ might be a hard & fast rule that doesn’t use any “context” from the school report.
An example of that is the auto merit $$ that University of New Mexico or NMSU hands out. That $$ amount is entirely based on your unweighted GPA. For example, D26 I think has a 3.59 UW GPA, but her weighted GPA is 4.3-something. Technically speaking, another student at a different high school could take EASIER classes and get a 4.0 and they’d get more merit award $$ than MY kid would.
Is that fair? Maybe yes, maybe no. That’s how UNM & NMSU do it. If it bothers somebody, then don’t apply there. There’s plenty of other places to consider.
University of Alabama-Huntsville is another example. From what I can tell on their website, their auto merit scholarships are based on weighted GPA and SAT/ACT test scores. A lot of TX public universities also give out auto merit awards based on GPA and test scores. So it is “fair” if you take a harder course load? Probably not, but those are the policies at those institutions and there isn’t 1 universal way that they all handle it. 
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I hope they can both continue to flourish too! My S26 wants to major in philosophy and math because he thinks they are the most intellectually challenging and interesting things to think about. He has given little thought to how those things might make him a living but being a teacher or a professor has crossed his mind.
But he is certainly a minority among his classmates, who are choosing business and engineering in spades. He gets all kinds of eye rolls from them when he talks about his potential majors.
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You may have been exaggerating for effect, but I just want to say this is the one part of what you said that I don’t think I agree with. Stanford’s common data set indicates that over 26% of the students have under 4.0 GPA, and I do not think all of those kids have some kind of hook. I think some of them are top students at schools where top GPAs are lower. Some schools have less grade inflation and do not have weighted GPAs for example. And, kids also don’t always have to take “the hardest” load of classes either to get into these schools. At some schools the hardest possible is actually virtually impossible insane. None of those colleges require that to get in. I don’t know enough about the AP part to weigh in as my D26s school doesn’t have APs so they have been irrelevant to me. I do agree though, that even if you do all that, it is unlikely you will get admitted. Worse than a toss up, there are several times as many uber qualified kids applying to these schools than there are spots. So even the best profile has more than a toss up chance at getting rejected at these particular schools in my opinion.
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I wish our school did this. No retakes, barely any extra credit, and very few teachers accept late work. It would’ve helped S26 as he struggles with tests and that’s what has very high weightage, and where the majority of the grades come from. And it is pretty competitive Bay area public high school. Of course there are some teachers who are more lenient than others. And I have seen the school report, its just so basic! It definitely doesn’t give any insight into any of this. On top of that, our school only reports unweighted GPA. But thankfully, S26 is one of those kids who picks courses based on his interest, not how hard the teacher or the grading is going to be. His GPA has suffered quite a bit because of it. But the kid is happy and doesn’t regret the courses where he has gotten low grades. I think that’s something to be happy about, and I an pretty proud of him!
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Previously talking about schools promo materials going into overdrive.
D26 hasn’t mentioned University of Oregon at all, hasn’t shown up on any of her lists (even when she had 25-30 schools on it) - so I don’t know where this is coming from but today’s mail delivery is by far the most “lavish” and expensive college promo / recruitment material we’ve received for any of our 3 kids. This thing is bigger than a legal pad, 60 pages, color, glossy finish…looks expensive to produce:
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My S26 will be one of those business majors. He will choose a business major because it seems practical to him but he loves and breathes history and poli sci. We went to a lot of museums and historic sites this summer and it was amazing geeking out with him (I share his interest) about history. It warmed my heart seeing him so engaged and interested. But then he says he is not interested in teaching, museum work, library/archival work etc. and that he wants a job that pays. I see his point of view and maybe he can tag on a history minor just for fun.
I followed my bliss and got degrees in poli sci and history, thoroughly enjoyed my university days, left those fields far behind in the end and have an enjoyable career. So I know it’s possible to do fine studying things other than engineering and business 
I’m curious to see if S26 stays with business or ends up switching. So far I’m relaxed about it as he’s a guy that can bloom where he is planted.
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Thanks for the page, @momofboiler1.
@smurf00 My apologies for taking so long to reply. Are you referring to politically conservative? As mentioned, my daughter just graduated W&L in May. She is left-leaning personally but accepting of all views. She had friends who were quite outspoken on both ends of the political spectrum. In her opinion, the overall campus culture politically was moderate on average. A number of kids were apathetic to politics. Compared to NE LACs this may be viewed as conservative; compared to the country as a whole it is left of center, most especially socially.
My D found the student body to be very accepting. She had a number of friends in the LGBTQ+ community and from a range of socio-economic backgrounds. I do think the overall vibe is mainstream vs quirky artsy, if that is important to you.
If I can answer more questions or go into more details on this one, feel free to let me know by replying here or in PM. I’m happy to help. We loved W&L for our D and I’m going to miss visiting Lexington every year.
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That makes sense, and I totally get the employability aspect. I left academia for government, which came with a 50% pay raise.
D26 is looking at medicine or medicine adjacent career fields, not sure if it’s because of the employability factor, genuine interest, or a combination of both. I do know she enjoys research, so if she goes that route, she will have to choose between industry and academia.
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The stuff we’ve received from High Point is crazy! D26 has never shown any interest, but the mailers keep coming!
The amount of stuff that comes in the mail on the daily is ridiculous! D26 hasn’t gotten anything lavish, but there are some schools that are quite persistent. Her list was very short, so no idea why she’s getting all this love.
Oddly enough, there are a few schools where she went on recruiting visits to that haven’t sent a dang thing.
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Was not exaggerating for effect. Stating what school counselors told us at our high school.
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Got it. In that case, I revise what I said. They know better than I do what is true for your kid’s particular school. But, jeez, good way to ramp up the stress on every detail of high school life for some! Glad those criteria definitely aren’t universally true for getting into those schools.
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That was my S24- he got items from high point weekly- pens, pads, luggage tag, etc. He has no idea how he got on their list. This time around D26 has not gotten even a piece of mail from them.
I know a kid who is currently double-majoring in math and philosophy who intends to pursue a doctoral degree in logic. I think that is really very cool.
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That is very cool. Where are they going to school/do they like it?
Carnegie Mellon, and yes they do!
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Just info sharing for all the full-pay families on here. Was listening to a podcast discussion of financial aid and they said that some schools require the FAFSA be filled out in order to be considered for Merit Aid. So, to check with schools you are applying to because you don’t want to miss out on merit aid because you didn’t do the FAFSA. Figured I’d pass this on.
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I hear ya! S26 told me that he gets a LOT of email everyday too!
S26 came home and got the official (small - lol) certificate for being National Merit Commended. He is only 1 of 5 kids at his school, and 1 of those 5 made NMSF! I was surprised to hear there were only 5. Thankfully, S26 got over missing NMSF by 2 points. Our state’s score index is 224.
Still no progress on the essays (
) though…sigh….
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