Parents of the High School Class of 2017/College 2021

[robinb]

This whole ranking thing makes me angry. We are a non-ranking school, but we were still told our son's rank. We wont send it to colleges, but it would be easy for them to figure it out. He has just over 4.0 GPA which puts him in the top 22% of his class. I remember when a 4.0 used to be an amazing GPA. Apparently, there are at least 25 kids out of the 100 in his class that have 4.0 or better.

Isn't that all part of the weighted GPAs v/s the non weighted GPAs?

We thought a small, competitive school would be best for him four years ago. Now it has bitten him in the butt.

Nah. I'm sure he's better prepared for college by going to that high school . Not all students that are auto-admitted go to the University of Texas, do they? There should still be a spot for him with that GPA .

 

[aprilgail]

Sorry, but grades are intended to measure academic performance, not to be used as a tool or consequence to control behavior. I have never heard of any high school class that would lower your academic grade for a behavior issue.

My daughters calc teacher takes one point from your average for every minute you are late to her class!!

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

This whole ranking thing makes me angry. We are a non-ranking school, but we were still told our son's rank. We wont send it to colleges, but it would be easy for them to figure it out. He has just over 4.0 GPA which puts him in the top 22% of his class. I remember when a 4.0 used to be an amazing GPA. Apparently, there are at least 25 kids out of the 100 in his class that have 4.0 or better.

We thought a small, competitive school would be best for him four years ago. Now it has bitten him in the butt.

You would have hated my DS's high school then! It was a small Catholic all boys military school. They posted the class ranks for freshmen through seniors every single quarter on a public bulletin board. Everyone in the whole school saw it. It did create a sense of competition among the boys and made a lot of them work harder.

DD goes to a public high school. I have been trying to get her rank for the past several months. Turns out they only calculate it during senior year. Now I just need to figure out when they will give us those results - beginning, middle or end of the year. I'd like to know NOW!

 

[AustinTink]

You would have hated my DS's high school then! It was a small Catholic all boys military school. They posted the class ranks for freshmen through seniors every single quarter on a public bulletin board. Everyone in the whole school saw it. It did create a sense of competition among the boys and made a lot of them work harder.

DD goes to a public high school. I have been trying to get her rank for the past several months. Turns out they only calculate it during senior year. Now I just need to figure out when they will give us those results - beginning, middle or end of the year. I'd like to know NOW!

Didn't say I hated his school. It's been a good experience overall. I just greatly dislike the the importance our state schools place on rank, as opposed to the accomplishments of the student as a whole.

 

[AustinTink]

Nah. I'm sure he's better prepared for college by going to that high school . Not all students that are auto-admitted go to the University of Texas, do they? There should still be a spot for him with that GPA .

Thanks, Robin.

 

[mamacatnv]

I know. I get it. And I definitely praise him for his accomplishments. I'm just venting at this point. How can a kid with his gpa not make the cut for auto-admit (top 7%) at the University of Texas? This system they use is all wrong IMO.

Austin Tink - could you explain how the class ranking and college placement works here in TX? I get different stories and am unclear. It is my understanding that top 8% of every high school class in the state is guaranteed admission to a Texas University - not necessarily UT but to a state school. Some say 10% and you mention the 7% threshold (is this exclusive to UT?). DD is adamant that she is not staying in Texas for college but I'm still curious and one never knows what will actually happen. She was in the top 10% but a C in English and a couple of B's last semester dropped her to 12%

 

[AustinTink]

Austin Tink - could you explain how the class ranking and college placement works here in TX? I get different stories and am unclear. It is my understanding that top 8% of every high school class in the state is guaranteed admission to a Texas University - not necessarily UT but to a state school. Some say 10% and you mention the 7% threshold (is this exclusive to UT?). DD is adamant that she is not staying in Texas for college but I'm still curious and one never knows what will actually happen. She was in the top 10% but a C in English and a couple of B's last semester dropped her to 12%

Here's a link to the initial law that started it all "The Top Ten Percent Law" https://www.cga.ct.gov/2008/rpt/2008-R-0116.htm It was passed in 1997 and has been changed slightly over the years. Texas schools now have the right to adjust their numbers to fit the proportion of freshman they intend to admit under the law. That's why UT's official percentage changes every year. I believe they fill 75% of their freshman slots with auto-admit students, which brought their magic number to top 7% this year.

It does differ for each Texas school. For example, A&M adheres to the Top 10% Law, plus has other equations they use for auto-admit. Under their plan, my son would be an automatic academic admit. http://admissions.tamu.edu/freshman/admitted Sadly UT doesn't have the same auto academic admit system that A&M has.

So, yes, it is guaranteed that a student who graduates in the top ten percent of their class will have a spot at a Texas school.

On a side note, I totally get how a couple of grades can skew their entire high school run. It happened to my son with a 79 in one semester of AP Physics. Now he will be scrambling to get a spot at UT, when a kid who might never have taken a single AP class gets in under the Top Ten rule. It's a bummer.

 

[mamacatnv]

Thank you so much, this is very helpful. Heck, even the school counselors cannot seem to provide consistent information. So, so to be clear, if i understand you correctly: (I'll go read the link) If the student is in this years top 7% they are guaranteed admission to UT or 10% for A&M under the Auto Admit system?

I realize your situation is unique because so many of his fellow students are high achieving but aren't his AP classes weighted which should improve overall rank over a non AP student?

I know when we first moved here the whole "ranking" was foreign to us, it is super competitive amongst the students! They stalk the release of the rankings

 

[AustinTink]

Thank you so much, this is very helpful. Heck, even the school counselors cannot seem to provide consistent information. So, so to be clear, if i understand you correctly: (I'll go read the link) If the student is in this years top 7% they are guaranteed admission to UT or 10% for A&M under the Auto Admit system?

I realize your situation is unique because so many of his fellow students are high achieving but aren't his AP classes weighted which should improve overall rank over a non AP student?

I know when we first moved here the whole "ranking" was foreign to us, it is super competitive amongst the students! They stalk the release of the rankings

Yes, it's 7% for UT and 10% for A&M.

His situation is so unique. Most of the students in his class of 100 take AP classes. In his school they are all ranked next to each other within less than a fraction of a percent. His school offers the max amount of APs a school could offer and he and his classmates take full advantage. But, I'm sure there are kids with all A's in on-level courses that have a 4.0 like him. So the question is was it really necessary for him to take so many AP courses and risk getting a couple of B's and a C? That might have been a bad idea, in hindsight.

The universities are well aware that this happens in Texas, so they do look at the vigor of the student's schedule. Hopefully, that will help my son's case.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

After 1 week in school, DD wants to drop AP Calc AB and replace it with AP Stats. She already took a 1 semester dual enrollment stats class junior year. I don't know if I am happy about this change in her schedule. Part of me thinks she needs the AP Calc to be competitive for our higher ranked state universities. (UVA specifically - her reach school). On the other hand, she is planning on a BSN (nursing degree), and I have heard that Stats is a much more useful class for that degree. This whole thing is stressing me out...

I really wish I had a crystal ball right about now!

 

[Anesthesia Fine]

At last, at last, mine is back in school, and is so far really enjoying her classes. Next up: SATs!

Is it heresy to say she decided against any honors or AP courses this year and I'm glad of it?

 

[laughinplace199]

After 1 week in school, DD wants to drop AP Calc AB and replace it with AP Stats. She already took a 1 semester dual enrollment stats class junior year. I don't know if I am happy about this change in her schedule. Part of me thinks she needs the AP Calc to be competitive for our higher ranked state universities. (UVA specifically - her reach school). On the other hand, she is planning on a BSN (nursing degree), and I have heard that Stats is a much more useful class for that degree. This whole thing is stressing me out...

I really wish I had a crystal ball right about now!

Does her high school have a college counselor that she can talk to about which class would be a better choice?

 

[bjscheel]

At last, at last, mine is back in school, and is so far really enjoying her classes. Next up: SATs!

Is it heresy to say she decided against any honors or AP courses this year and I'm glad of it?

I say no! I don't think our school officially does "AP" but some classes are called advanced and some are for college credit and she's been in some of those. DD17 took a semester of College Stats last year but dropped it at semester because it was too much to have College Algebra and College Stats at the same time, particularly during track season. She considered taking the second semester this year but I won't feel bad if she doesn't. It was pretty horrible, and IMO not worth the stress. She doesn't have anything super difficult this year and honestly it's so nice. She'll be fine. We're not shooting for any super select colleges and she may even go to community college, so I will be happy to let her have an enjoyable senior year.

 

[aprilgail]

My daughter started school on Tuesday and by Thursday she already switched out of her English class. First day of class she walks in, there is air conditioning (only special classes get air conditioning), two teachers and she doesn't know any of the kids in there- turns out its an inclusion class with kids that go to tech the first half of the day. The teacher gives a speech saying how the goal of the class is for everyone to get a 65 and pass the class so they can graduate. My daughter raises her hand and asks if they are going to work on their common app essays in class (the other English classes all do that) because she is applying early decision and needs to get it done- teacher looked at her like she was nuts LOL- went down to guidance the next day saying she doesn't feel like she belongs in that class and to please switch her to Miss so-and so's class. So its all switched and she loves the other teacher and they are all working on their common app essays!

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

This whole ranking thing makes me angry. We are a non-ranking school, but we were still told our son's rank. We wont send it to colleges, but it would be easy for them to figure it out. He has just over 4.0 GPA which puts him in the top 22% of his class. I remember when a 4.0 used to be an amazing GPA. Apparently, there are at least 25 kids out of the 100 in his class that have 4.0 or better.

We thought a small, competitive school would be best for him four years ago. Now it has bitten him in the butt.

I wouldn't fret over it. I'm going to assume you're in Texas. Note that if you're not in your top 7% for UTAustin, or top 10% for other state schools, this doesn't mean you're shut out. Far from it. Selective colleges that use a GPA compute their own. They don't use whatever the high school's is. And they look at the entire transcript, not just GPA or whatever class rank they had. What they are really looking for is what opportunities your child had and did he or she take advantage of those opportunities. And they know the difference between someone that gamed the system vs took advantage of their opportunities. They're looking at the whole application, Essay if any, test scores, transcript, activities, work, if any, letters and the like and making a judgment call. And they'll know how good your school is as well. I know some states have rules that their state colleges have to take someone in the top X percent or they get a scholarship if they're in the top Y percent and people fret fret fret over that too. But you're not shut out for either if you don't meet those percentages. And don't neglect smaller private schools. You don't have to be Ivy League material to get a scholarship. And if you don't get a ship in the priority round somewhere, you might get one later. They offer ships and the person doesn't accept. Poof. That's available.

 

[punkin]

My daughter started school on Tuesday and by Thursday she already switched out of her English class. First day of class she walks in, there is air conditioning (only special classes get air conditioning), two teachers and she doesn't know any of the kids in there- turns out its an inclusion class with kids that go to tech the first half of the day. The teacher gives a speech saying how the goal of the class is for everyone to get a 65 and pass the class so they can graduate. My daughter raises her hand and asks if they are going to work on their common app essays in class (the other English classes all do that) because she is applying early decision and needs to get it done- teacher looked at her like she was nuts LOL- went down to guidance the next day saying she doesn't feel like she belongs in that class and to please switch her to Miss so-and so's class. So its all switched and she loves the other teacher and they are all working on their common app essays!

My niece wound up in a science class like that this year. It was the only science that fit her schedule. She transferred out in the first week to honors ancient history. She's not taking a science this year. Oh well.

 

[AustinTink]

I wouldn't fret over it. I'm going to assume you're in Texas. Note that if you're not in your top 7% for UTAustin, or top 10% for other state schools, this doesn't mean you're shut out. Far from it. Selective colleges that use a GPA compute their own. They don't use whatever the high school's is. And they look at the entire transcript, not just GPA or whatever class rank they had. What they are really looking for is what opportunities your child had and did he or she take advantage of those opportunities. And they know the difference between someone that gamed the system vs took advantage of their opportunities. They're looking at the whole application, Essay if any, test scores, transcript, activities, work, if any, letters and the like and making a judgment call. And they'll know how good your school is as well. I know some states have rules that their state colleges have to take someone in the top X percent or they get a scholarship if they're in the top Y percent and people fret fret fret over that too. But you're not shut out for either if you don't meet those percentages. And don't neglect smaller private schools. You don't have to be Ivy League material to get a scholarship. And if you don't get a ship in the priority round somewhere, you might get one later. They offer ships and the person doesn't accept. Poof. That's available.

Thanks for that. I am worrying myself into a tizzy these days. I need to breathe and just let it happen, whatever it may be.

 

[robinb]

After 1 week in school, DD wants to drop AP Calc AB and replace it with AP Stats. She already took a 1 semester dual enrollment stats class junior year. I don't know if I am happy about this change in her schedule. Part of me thinks she needs the AP Calc to be competitive for our higher ranked state universities. (UVA specifically - her reach school). On the other hand, she is planning on a BSN (nursing degree), and I have heard that Stats is a much more useful class for that degree. This whole thing is stressing me out...

I really wish I had a crystal ball right about now!

I would also have her talk to her counselor, but I would think that it would be better for her to go with AP Stats. I just peeked at the UVA BSN coursework and she will use Stats so much more in her college career over Calculus.

At last, at last, mine is back in school, and is so far really enjoying her classes. Next up: SATs!

Is it heresy to say she decided against any honors or AP courses this year and I'm glad of it?

Nope. Every kid is different. My DD is taking 3 AP classes and I personally wish she had taken fewer since our HS doesn't weight Honors/AP classes.

So its all switched and she loves the other teacher and they are all working on their common app essays!

That's great! I don't think my DD's English department works on common app essays. I just looked at the course offerings and they have a class called "Pre-College Composition". I wonder if that would be better for her than "English 4".

Thanks for that. I am worrying myself into a tizzy these days. I need to breathe and just let it happen, whatever it may be.

{{hugs}}

 

[robinb]

So ... as I was typing my last post I got a panicked call from my DD. She was at the high school 17 minutes away (not her home HS, another one) to take the ACT again and she forgot her calculator. *sigh* I asked her if she had her calculator and watch while she was eating breakfast. It was 7:45 and they allowed kids to enter at 8:00. So, I grab the calculator, jump in the car and drive to the HS. I'll be there by 8:02. Except ... there is construction on the only road to the HS and I am delayed by 8 more minutes. I got the calculator to her in time but I hope this didn't throw her for a loop and she was able to settle down and do well on the test.

 

[Southernmiss]

So ... as I was typing my last post I got a panicked call from my DD. She was at the high school 17 minutes away (not her home HS, another one) to take the ACT again and she forgot her calculator. *sigh* I asked her if she had her calculator and watch while she was eating breakfast. It was 7:45 and they allowed kids to enter at 8:00. So, I grab the calculator, jump in the car and drive to the HS. I'll be there by 8:02. Except ... there is construction on the only road to the HS and I am delayed by 8 more minutes. I got the calculator to her in time but I hope this didn't throw her for a loop and she was able to settle down and do well on the test.

Good luck to your dd. Ds is taking it now, too. Fingers crossed for fabulous scores.