<p>By lower level I meant lower than HYPSM, but still very good. I was thinking perhaps ED a school such as JHU or CMU. What would you recommend?</p>
<p>It is a catch 22. Applying ED at a lower ranked school may solidify one’s chances but it then becomes a single shot goal. What will he be applying for?</p>
<p>Until very recently it was EE and Physics. However, his interest seems to be shifting towards mathematics & literature. He is taking Calc BC and AP Lit this year and really enjoying both of them. Half the class in Calc is failing, but he is doing well, so he is thrilled.</p>
<p>Jersey is most attractive because of the weather and family that he does not get to see much. Also, have family in Boston, but the weather is not as good.</p>
<p>CMU has different requirements for different schools. Some of them have a low threshold and others like CS are ridiculously hard to get into.</p>
<p>I believe he has to make up his mind by tomorrow. His teachers want to know the deadlines so they can have his recommendations ready. Ah well, good night to all.</p>
<p>perazziman</p>
<p>I don’t know exactly what people think when grades and AP test scores don’t match up that well. There are a number of possibilities–that the teacher was bad or was a mismatch with the student, but the kid was smart and managed to study on his own for the test and do well, that the kid is smart but didn’t apply himself throughout the year and crammed for the test, that the kid isn’t that bright but is super diligent and managed to do well on the tests… However, the admissions staff will definitely notice and rather than leave it up to them, I would definitely address it in the application in a positive fashion. By the way, this depends on the grades. If someone received an 88 or 89 in AP US History and the rest of the grades were 90s, I don’t think that would warrant a comment. However, if the AP grades were all in the mid 80s or so, I would probably raise it.
And by the way, I think your son sounds like a great kid and an attractive candidate for any school, so good luck to you and him!</p>
<p>midatlmom, thanks for the post. </p>
<p>Thanks to everyone else who posted too.</p>
<p>I think there is a compelling story. But spinning it in the right way is imperative. your son needs to make sure to elaborate on why his experieinces have caused the downward trend but not do so as a main topic of an essay (menion in passing and dont highlight but still talk about)</p>
<p>So what is the best way to raise awareness to the contradictions between grades and external tests without sounding negative?</p>
<p>Frankly, I was more surprised by how casually his high school, in the beginning made an administrative decision to exclude him from a shot at the top 10% (that excludes from auto. admission to all state universities) than by internal grades, that appear to justify that administrative decision, but contradict results of all the other outside standardized tests he has taken. By the way, he also has perfect scores on the stateside, Texas Assessment of Knowledge Tests (Science, Writing, English & Social Studies). He also has an off the chart Lexile score. These results appear on the transcripts too.</p>
<p>I feel like an idiot, but I don’t actually understand what the school did. How did they count pass fail courses? Did they give them a grade? If not, are they just listed on the transcript? Could you explain how they are counted (sorry for not understanding).</p>
<p>I think that high schools make a lot of administrative decisions that don’t make sense and I wonder if it’s not too late to revisit this one. If you think that there is a way to raise your son’s average, I would go in and speak with the counselor and then, assuming that nothing changed, I would go as high up as necessary. Ask them to give you examples of other times they have done this or to point you to the written school policy about this–a lot of times the school has some flexibility in these types of decisions.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>There is a grade associated with them, but these grades are not counted towards the GPA. They are treated as Pass / Fail on the high school transcript. I believe MIT does a similar thing in freshman year. I think xiggi or silverturtle attended a school district with a similar policy too. The idea was to allow top middle school students an opportunity to experience high school level material at the middle school without threatening to destroy their GPA. </p>
<p>The high school at this district has done two things, first it decided to treat those internal grades as real grades. Then, secondly, decided to weight them on the lower 4.0 scale used for academic courses. This is not how the grade issuing district expected these grades to be used and not how the student taking these courses was told how they would be used.</p>
<p>I feel what the school did was akin to taking a child who was in a 10 foot deep academic hole (minority schools with poor education) and built a 10 foot high wall around that hole and said, since you are in a 10 foot hole, let us see if you can jump 20 feet. So, he jumped, went passed the hole, past the wall and continued going higher than 75% of the kids who were standing on the wall and jumping. This is what I believe the GPA says. I am not sure how to put a positive spin on it.</p>