I’m not sure what you want then, from us or the teachers. Is your concern making high grades while taking so many AP’s? Part of scheduling higher level/AP classes is knowing your own students ability and tolerance for workload. For example, my 2011 grad in a vacuum was fully capable of getting an A in AP Spanish. The same with AP Government. However when you add the workload of AP Spanish, AP Government, to AP Lit, AP Physics, AP Calc one or all of those grades were going to suffer due to the workload. He had to decide which classes were most important to him, important to him personally in admissions, and build a schedule that had rigor where he could also succeed at a high level. </p>
<p>It doesn’t matter if you have rigor but not the success. It doesn’t matter if you have the aptitude in any one of the classes alone, you have chosen to stack them and now have to show the ability to juggle as you will in college. In the end my son chose AP Lit, AP Physics, AP Calc, Spanish 5 (non AP), and Government (non AP). This was the right mix for him and he was successful in the classroom and admissions. Another student with another goal (not an engineering hopeful perhaps) may have chosen differently. Some kids are cut out to take 5-7 APs/year. That’s fine if you are succeeding academically in all of them. If not, you’ve missed your goal.</p>
<p>Do you believe a 4.0 GPA translates to perfect grades? The MIT GPA is calculated on a 5.0 scale. A 4.0 MIT GPA equals a 3.2 GPA on a 4 scale. Still impressive for an EE major :)</p>
<p>Hi CrewDad, lol, good one. Let me rephrase, he earned a perfect undergraduate GPA at MIT - that earned him admission to graduate school at MIT, where he earned with another perfect GPA, an SM and PhD in Electrical Engineering.</p>
<p>Thanks blueiguana. I wish we had known what you are saying before the semester started. By the time I went to speak to my son’s counselor, she told us it was too late to change any classes. Consequently, he was stuck with his schedule and had to study very hard. It seems like his hard work has paid off and he has managed to pull off a decent grade point average, but I am not happy about how things have unfolded. All I am saying is that at the old school, we would have known what to expect before all this happened. There would have been notices/ letters/ circulars from the school explaining how things are about to change in junior year. Some warnings that difficulty of AP classes vs academic is not the same as the difference between GT courses vs academic he was taking in the past etc. So, I am very disappointed with the school. That is all.</p>
<p>I am not sure you realize that son is in no danger of losing his auto admit status. He has a 4.0 GPA and will probably finish this semester with something higher than that. So, they can be on to it (what ever it is) and assume he would have had the same performance he has now and he would get into TAMU.</p>
I don’t even know where S’s final grades are right now, but somewhere around 78 in AP Calc. In reality it wouldn’t have changed anything if he got an A after getting a 5 on the test, since he had already been accepted, given scholarships, and registered at college by the time the AP grades came out. </p>
<p>It is my personal opinion that a course is about more than an AP score, and if the instructor wants to see a broader spectrum of performance that is his/her prerogative. OTOH, I don’t really care for it when they award points for getting mom to sign their progress reports.</p>
<p>You keep saying he’s in at TAMU as an auto admit, but please learn his rank to be sure and also confirm his school ranks beyond top 10%, and if not, how they verify top 25% for TAMU. A 4.0 in a vacuum means nothing. Some Texas publics scale to 6.0 (and with AP weighting, to 7.0). More importantly, the competition is so fierce, “A” students can find themselves shut out of the top 10% or even quartile, which is exactly why many competitive schools have quit ranking beyond top 10%.</p>
<p>TXArtemis, At my son’s school, AP and GT courses scale to 5, academic level courses to 4.0. (There is nobody in my kid’s school with a GPA in the 5.0 range)</p>
<p>Sounds good, but there will be a crunch of kids at the top separated by fractions of a percent. I encourage you to get that figure sooner than later so you know what you’re working with. Apart from Texas auto admit schemes, many other schools will consider rank as a part of evaluating an applicant in local context. When you check a college’s Common Data Set to learn SAT range and similar data, you can look at the admission factors considered to see how they treat rank.</p>
<p>I am assuming s finishes this semester with a 4.2 - 4.3 GPA, cum GPA 4.1, class rank in the top 20 percent, with the most difficult course load at this competitive suburban school and an SAT of 2100. I believe these stats are good enough to get him an auto admit into TAMU. They are also good enough to earn scholarships as a National Hispanic Scholar. So, I believe a change in schools will make no difference on whether he gets National Hispanic Scholar status or auto admit to TAMU. I feel it is true that if he moves his class rank will improve. On the other hand, if he moves, admissions officers will be able to see that the school is less competitive so improvement in class rank will not help him in getting admission to any school. So, there are no nefarious or unethical motives to make this move. Am I right?</p>
<p>Just wanted to add, S got his PSAT score today. He will most likely make National Merit Semifinalist. One of less than 10 in his class of about 600. </p>
<p>As a Semifinalilst, he not only gets auto admit to TAMU, but also qualies for a pretty good scholarship package to boot.</p>
<p>Congrats to your son and family, perazziman! He will have many options in addition to TAMU if he so chooses. His college application process will be interesting and exciting for all!</p>
<p>Thanks Erin’s Dad. Though, I should not count my chickens before they are hatched. S scored a 219 (99 percentile rank). This score, would have been, historically, a safe bet for semifinalists in our state of Texas, except the cut off jumped four points last year, from 215 to 219. So, hypothetically, it could jump again and take him out of the running. To my son’s credit, it seems like the curve is about two points harsher this year, so unless things are radically changing in Texas, the cut off should not rise and may even fall back a couple of points.</p>
<p>I believe I read on another thread that they are predicting the PSAT scores for NMSF to lower a little closer to historical norms this year. However, that is a prediction only.</p>
<p>Congrats! I think he has an excellent shot. (And even he should miss it, Commended is also very good! And there are scholarships for high ACTs and SATs, too.)</p>