How to advise my junior - opinions please

Agree, not concerned or worried. He has the space and time and ability, already has the STEM load.

Questioning if it’s advantageous to clean up the grade and therefore GPA before submitting his application. What I’m understanding from what I’m reading is that class rank and standardized test scores are what are looked at, not GPA. This is what I’m after in my original question.

It’s not a vanity thing, only how to best set himself up for the best package he can submit.

OP the only thing I can speak from is my experience with this exact same situation. I received a C in a spanish class towards the beginning of my high school career. Many told me not to retake it. But I chose to retake based on a couple criteria. 1) my GPA will increase followed by my class ranking 2) more importantly, I think there is something to say about a student who retakes a course with a B or a C to increase the grade to an A. Determined and resilient are both adjectives used to describe military officers. Not settling for “average”, especially with grades, really reflects an individual’s true character.

If your DS has incredible test scores, leadership responsibilities, and many extracurriculars, I think your son should retake that Environmental Science course. If any of the above lack, your son should focus on improving the other aspects of his application. This is just my personal opinion.
 
So, he made the decision to carry up the grade to the HS transcript before the grade was earned.(?) That seems odd and completely wrong to me regarding the process. In our district, the middle school grades for high school level courses may be brought up BEFORE a certain point in the senior year. I’d be taking this up with the Administration at the high school or school district. Eighth graders do not have the ability to look into their crystal ball to see the outcome of a high school level course. This has put him in a predicament. Yes, that “C” should be removed!

Hoping it all works out!
 
So, he made the decision to carry up the grade to the HS transcript before the grade was earned.(?) That seems odd and completely wrong to me regarding the process. In our district, the middle school grades for high school level courses may be brought up BEFORE a certain point in the senior year. I’d be taking this up with the Administration at the high school or school district. Eighth graders do not have the ability to look into their crystal ball to see the outcome of a high school level course. This has put him in a predicament. Yes, that “C” should be removed!

Hoping it all works out!

YES! He is my 3rd to attend, and it always annoyed me we had to decide before we really knew how any of them would perform. The older two, it all worked out fine. Didn’t with the third child in this one class. The school has since changed their policy to exactly what you stated: the choice for credit is made later, after knowing what the grade is.

BTW, a wrench is that middle school is public, and high school private. Two different school districts.

Thanks for ideas and input. I have some good ones to follow up on!
 
So, he made the decision to carry up the grade to the HS transcript before the grade was earned.(?) That seems odd and completely wrong to me regarding the process. In our district, the middle school grades for high school level courses may be brought up BEFORE a certain point in the senior year. I’d be taking this up with the Administration at the high school or school district. Eighth graders do not have the ability to look into their crystal ball to see the outcome of a high school level course. This has put him in a predicament. Yes, that “C” should be removed!

Hoping it all works out!

YES! He is my 3rd to attend, and it always annoyed me we had to decide before we really knew how any of them would perform. The older two, it all worked out fine. Didn’t with the third child in this one class. The school has since changed their policy to exactly what you stated: the choice for credit is made later, after knowing what the grade is.

BTW, a wrench is that middle school is public, and high school private. Two different school districts.

Thanks for ideas and input. I have some good ones to follow up on!
I’d recommend then going back to the middle school and asking them to make this right, and to work with the high school about removing this grade from the transcript. Get the district office involved if necessary. The grade and very unfair process originated from the middle school so they should be involved. And, they were well aware that the previous process was unacceptable. Persevere on this!! This isn’t even a matter of a 9th grader being unhappy with a grade; it pertains to the fact that your DS should have been given the opportunity in 8th grade to wait until after course completion to choose if the grade was to be carried up.
 
Wow. this thread has been enlightening. I encountered this with one of my daughters years ago, and was appalled at the idea that a school would let someone retake a course in order to alter their GPA. It sounds like the practice is more prevalent than I expected. Now schools are letting you take a course, get a grade, and then decide whether its good enough to include on a transcript ? No wonder everyone is graduating HS with a 4.0 (or higher).

Are these practices disclosed in the High School academic profile, so colleges can evaluate how a student really performs ? I'm not really a fan of the emphasis that USNA puts on SAT/ACT , but understand why so little weight is given to GPA -- it's so easy to manipulate that it becomes meaningless.
 
Wow. this thread has been enlightening. I encountered this with one of my daughters years ago, and was appalled at the idea that a school would let someone retake a course in order to alter their GPA. It sounds like the practice is more prevalent than I expected. Now schools are letting you take a course, get a grade, and then decide whether its good enough to include on a transcript ? No wonder everyone is graduating HS with a 4.0 (or higher).

Are these practices disclosed in the High School academic profile, so colleges can evaluate how a student really performs ? I'm not really a fan of the emphasis that USNA puts on SAT/ACT , but understand why so little weight is given to GPA -- it's so easy to manipulate that it becomes meaningless.
The problem is that it was an 8th grader at the beginning of 8th grade year...not high school. The standard practice is for high school level courses taken at middle school for those grades to be carried up IF the student chooses, and after course completion.
 
Agree, not concerned or worried. He has the space and time and ability, already has the STEM load.

Questioning if it’s advantageous to clean up the grade and therefore GPA before submitting his application. What I’m understanding from what I’m reading is that class rank and standardized test scores are what are looked at, not GPA. This is what I’m after in my original question.

It’s not a vanity thing, only how to best set himself up for the best package he can submit.

Based on this, it now becomes an issue of capacity. If your DS repeats the course while doing all the other STEM courses, how will it impact his time management?
  • Will the time devoted to repeating the course impact his grades from the STEM load?
  • Will it reduce time for EC's, part time jobs,sports and leadership?
  • Should this time be used more wisely for just academic/life balance?
These answers should determine if he should repeat or not.

One more question. Will your DS enjoy retaking the course and/or learn anything new the second time around? If not, I would not suggest taking it again simply to clean up a potential blot from his 8th grade year. As other have said, move forward... IMHO
 
Also I would put this under the category of not surprising that an 8th grade would get a C in what is supposed to be a college level course.
 
how do I sign up for upcoming events in a sophomore?

Drybones, head to the USNA website and "read every link and drop-down you can."- wise words of @Capt MJ . Everything you need is on there, including dates of upcoming admissions forums and congressional academy days depending on where you live. Search all the questions you have using the search function here on SAF, and most if not all of your questions will be answered. It's up to you to do solid research. Good luck.

Sorry if I distracted from the OP by answering this!
its okay
 
Also I would put this under the category of not surprising that an 8th grade would get a C in what is supposed to be a college level course.

To be clear, it wasn’t college level. Those are AP classes, and offered at the high school, sophomore year and beyond as long as prerequisites are met. And he was among his peers...other 8th graders. So socially appropriate as well.

More good things to think about! Going to call the middle school today and begin that discussion, as suggested above. This is why this network of different backgrounds is so helpful. I had not even thought of that route, but it really makes sense!

And to answer, he would only be retaking to clean up GPA. A GPA affects what boxes he can potentially check (NHS, honor rolls, etc) on all his school applications and scholarship considerations etc. GPA is a gateway/minimum standard that weeds applicants out on many different things. He may or may not have any issue meeting those standards, remains to be seen, but he is being proactive (I am actually surprised he even thought about it, TBH). Can’t do anything about it senior year when applying to all things.

Thanks again for input!
 
The problem is that it was an 8th grader at the beginning of 8th grade year...not high school. The standard practice is for high school level courses taken at middle school for those grades to be carried up IF the student chooses, and after course completion.

> Not a standard practice, as my daughter did the same thing OP refers to -- I disagreed with it then, and disagree with it now, unless the transcript clearly reveals the course is retaken and the changed grade. Solely my opinion, but allowing someone to retake a course and substitute the new grade, without disclosure that the course was retaken create and artificially inflated GPA , and is unfair to those that didn't take a mulligan.

I don't disagree with retaking a course when its necessary to establish a solid foundation for future courses, like a math curriculum, but again in my opinion, retaking a course to remove a blot on the GPA is dishonest, and I fault the schools for permitting it. GPA and class rank become meaningless when students are allowed to game the system.

Again, this thread is enlightening. I don't know how USNA and other colleges look at this issue , but I would recommend Admissions ask High Schools to include a statement on whether they allow Students to retake a course for credit in their Academic profile.


I would put this under the category of not surprising that an 8th grade would get a C in what is supposed to be a college level course.
Agree. This whole issue is an unfortunate by product of the every one gets a 4.0 (or higher) mindset.
 
Obviously, not all schools allow re-takes of a class and substitute the new grade for the old one. In DS's public school, you can retake a class in HS but you do not drop the old grade from the transcript or from the GPA calculation. As others have mentioned, the issue with the OP is an 8th grader taking a high-school level class and then having that class applied to his/her high school record. 8th graders should be encouraged to "reach" beyond their grade level to see how they do but they should not be penalized for not making a grade that they would have likely made had they taken it in proper sequence in high school. IMHO, the real "starting line" begins the day you walk into school freshman year.

The opposite, however, is PSEO classes while in high school (i.e. taking classes at a local college for both college and high school credit). This is allowed and part of the program in our school district. The student who takes such a class does not have the option to drop it from their transcript. I think that is absolutely appropriate.

There are some school districts that begin HS in 10th grade. I wonder how that is dealt with at SAs?
 
An increase from a C to an A on one course will have extremely little impact on a GPA. I'll give an example on a college level. Let's say little Johnny just completed his junior year and has a GPA of 3.2 after completing 90 credit hours. Little Johnny got a C in a 3 credit hour course on environmental science. Repeating it and changing it to an A results in a GPA of 3.2222 if my math is correct.

In your son's case this would probably be influenced a little bit more by the fact it's some kind of honors class or something... but the impact of improving the grade is, as we engineers are fond of saying, just noise - it's not a part of the main signal. Sometimes an example helps clarify things.

Good luck to you and your son on the decision that needs to be made.
 
The problem is that it was an 8th grader at the beginning of 8th grade year...not high school. The standard practice is for high school level courses taken at middle school for those grades to be carried up IF the student chooses, and after course completion.

> Not a standard practice, as my daughter did the same thing OP refers to -- I disagreed with it then, and disagree with it now, unless the transcript clearly reveals the course is retaken and the changed grade. Solely my opinion, but allowing someone to retake a course and substitute the new grade, without disclosure that the course was retaken create and artificially inflated GPA , and is unfair to those that didn't take a mulligan.

I don't disagree with retaking a course when its necessary to establish a solid foundation for future courses, like a math curriculum, but again in my opinion, retaking a course to remove a blot on the GPA is dishonest, and I fault the schools for permitting it. GPA and class rank become meaningless when students are allowed to game the system.

Again, this thread is enlightening. I don't know how USNA and other colleges look at this issue , but I would recommend Admissions ask High Schools to include a statement on whether they allow Students to retake a course for credit in their Academic profile.


I would put this under the category of not surprising that an 8th grade would get a C in what is supposed to be a college level course.
Agree. This whole issue is an unfortunate by product of the every one gets a 4.0 (or higher) mindset.
The problem is that the system was flawed and it impacted an 8th grader. The middle school should have allowed the student(s) to elect to carry the grade up to hs after course/grade completion, which is a standard practice. That election was made at the beginning of the class. Since then, the school apparently adjusted the rules with the process. Personally, I would not retake to boost GPA as I do believe it’s a fine line with ethics, but the grade should be allowed to be removed off the hs transcript because it occurred in middle school.
 
This is a lot of discussion over a single C.
Agree that everything you can do to put your best package forward should be done, but this by itself has little to no impact on his GPA. If you can get the middle school /HS to drop the grade altogether I guess go for it.
I still feel a challenging Math course or something should be taken for the time slot to better prepare your DS, not retaking that course just to get an A.
 
Also I would put this under the category of not surprising that an 8th grade would get a C in what is supposed to be a college level course.

To be clear, it wasn’t college level. Those are AP classes, and offered at the high school, sophomore year and beyond as long as prerequisites are met. And he was among his peers...other 8th graders. So socially appropriate as well.

AP Classes are supposed to be equivalent to college courses...that is why you get college credit for them.
 
Following up with this...ended up being quite the can of worms!

Turns out that through the transfer from one school district to another, the transcript was recorded incorrectly! DS/we had indeed elected to NOT receive high school credit for this 1-semester high school level (NOT AP or College level) class in 8th grade, that he received a C in. School district #2 had incorrectly recorded it as credit. So it's gone. Moral of this story: watch transcripts closely when transferring district. Or watch them closely anyhow. Mistakes happen! Honestly, we would never have thought to check that transferring transcripts were recorded correctly.
 
Wow. this thread has been enlightening. I encountered this with one of my daughters years ago, and was appalled at the idea that a school would let someone retake a course in order to alter their GPA. It sounds like the practice is more prevalent than I expected. Now schools are letting you take a course, get a grade, and then decide whether its good enough to include on a transcript ? No wonder everyone is graduating HS with a 4.0 (or higher).

Are these practices disclosed in the High School academic profile, so colleges can evaluate how a student really performs ? I'm not really a fan of the emphasis that USNA puts on SAT/ACT , but understand why so little weight is given to GPA -- it's so easy to manipulate that it becomes meaningless.

That isn’t fair at all.

My son has a 4.0 average because he has a near photographic memory. And he earned it.

He never dropped a grade. He never had to. He got all As.

And his SATs match his GPA.
 
This is a lot of discussion over a single C.
Agree that everything you can do to put your best package forward should be done, but this by itself has little to no impact on his GPA. If you can get the middle school /HS to drop the grade altogether I guess go for it.
I still feel a challenging Math course or something should be taken for the time slot to better prepare your DS, not retaking that course just to get an A.

I did a quick calc ... a C to an A would raise an average about half a point. It wouldn’t change an overall letter grade, but could change class standing.
 
You arent understanding the original post. He was in 8th grade. At that time he could elect to receive HS credit for his classes or not. It used to be that they had to elect BEFORE they had any indication how they would perform. He elected to NOT receive credit. His transfer school mistakenly included it. So it was properly removed. The registrars office made a mistake.

He would not have been allowed to retake the class for grade, if that’s what you are getting at. He didn’t go from a C to an A. He went from an improperly recorded C, to a corrected transcript.

The lesson learned here, that can potentially help others, is to double check that transferring transcripts are properly recorded. In a round about way for us.
 
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