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In higher education GPA is important because lots of employers use GPAs as a screening mechanism. It is definitely not perfect, and some majors are much more difficult than others, but north of 3.0 is important to a lot of employers. I have taught tons of students over the years. The first thing I would do from an employer standpoint is to check GPA and difficulty of major. From there it is all about the interpersonal skills and competency.....
But are they amazing? Academically superior to pretty much all other kids? That is what an A is supposed to represent. however now most parents expect their special children to produce As and the teachers must provide them or face court martial.
Yes, they are. Sorry to be so blunt about it. They are top of their class. My sons both got admitted to selective academic programs at top universities. Last week, my daughter and I toured MIT and Harvard (yes, I know they’re reach schools). She has a 4.7/4.0 GPA, a 1590 SAT (she’s taking SAT a second time in March to try for a perfect 1600 - she got a perfect 800 on the Math portion). She has a perfect 800 on both the Math II and Chemistry SAT subject tests. She got a near perfect PSAT (can’t remember score) so will be a Natl. Merit Finalist.
My kids have had plenty of academic advantages (including tutoring if they want it) and are more than capable of maintaining A averages. They are happy kids and they have had excellent teachers. I would never expect a teacher to provide them with an A they did not earn.
Yes, they are. Sorry to be so blunt about it. They are top of their class. My sons both got admitted to selective academic programs at top universities. Last week, my daughter and I toured MIT and Harvard (yes, I know they’re reach schools). She has a 4.7/4.0 GPA, a 1590 SAT (she’s taking SAT a second time in March to try for a perfect 1600 - she got a perfect 800 on the Math portion). She has a perfect 800 on both the Math II and Chemistry SAT subject tests. She got a near perfect PSAT (can’t remember score) so will be a Natl. Merit Finalist.
My kids have had plenty of academic advantages (including tutoring if they want it) and are more than capable of maintaining A averages. They are happy kids and they have had excellent teachers. I would never expect a teacher to provide them with an A they did not earn.
Hopefully you haven’t imparted that idea to them because they will get to MIT or Harvard or wherever... and find out that they aren’t actually smarter than everyone else. And that might be a rude awakening.
Hopefully you haven’t imparted that idea to them because they will get to MIT or Harvard or wherever... and find out that they aren’t actually smarter that everyone else. And that might be a rude awakening.
Just saying...
No, but I’m sure plenty here (like you?) will assume that. My daughter picks her own schools to tour/apply to. She now has 15-20 reach, match, and safety schools on her list. And she is the one who wants to retake her SAT for a perfect score (I told her the score was already high enough, but she’s competitive and wants to go for it).
We are educated enough to know that her GPA, SAT testing, advanced courseload does indeed make her “smart enough” for consideration of top schools like MIT. I believe her GPA/SAT testing results put her well above the acceptance mean as we plotted it out for each school. She has some other talents on her resume too, so we’ll see what happens. She’s got plenty of safety schools to fall back on.
Totally depends on the kid/student. And the class. And the learning that is going on in the class. And a host of other things.
We never used grades in our homeschooling. The point was mastery and understanding... who cares if they can regurgitate 85% of the facts needed to pass a test? I'd rather see them understand as close to 100% as possible, even if it takes longer for them to get through the material, and I do not support busywork in an effort to pad a grade. But even if they went to school, I would be more concerned with the actual learning and not with whether they had an A or a B+ or a B- in a class.
No, but I’m sure plenty here (like you?) will assume that. My daughter picks her own schools to tour/apply to. She now has 15-20 reach, match, and safety schools on her list. And she is the one who wants to retake her SAT for a perfect score (I told her the score was already high enough, but she’s competitive and wants to go for it).
We are educated enough to know that her GPA, SAT testing, advanced courseload does indeed make her “smart enough” for consideration of top schools like MIT. I believe her GPA/SAT testing results put her well above the acceptance mean as we plotted it out for each school. She has some other talents on her resume too, so we’ll see what happens. She’s got plenty of safety schools to fall back on.
And thats all great but isnt what i was referring to.
‘The smartest’ is an impossible ideal to live up to whether its imposed on oneself or by a parent. About as impossible, (and as superficial) as ‘The prettiest.’
Too little context, here. Ability, special needs, etc. would be taken into consideration. It also needs to be considered that in some classes, an A may be easy to come by with minimal effort, while a C in another class may take tremendous effort to eke out.
And thats all great but isnt what i was referring to.
‘The smartest’ is an impossible ideal to live up to whether its imposed on oneself of by a parent. About as impossible, (and as superficial) as ‘The prettiest.’
Are you really suggesting that my daughter or I think she’s the smartest person out there? Are you kidding?
She is smart and wants to surround herself with people who are smarter than herself, which is why she is looking at challenging academic programs, rather than being the “honor” student in a less challenging program.
No, but I’m sure plenty here (like you?) will assume that. My daughter picks her own schools to tour/apply to. She now has 15-20 reach, match, and safety schools on her list. And she is the one who wants to retake her SAT for a perfect score (I told her the score was already high enough, but she’s competitive and wants to go for it).
We are educated enough to know that her GPA, SAT testing, advanced courseload does indeed make her “smart enough” for consideration of top schools like MIT. I believe her GPA/SAT testing results put her well above the acceptance mean as we plotted it out for each school. She has some other talents on her resume too, so we’ll see what happens. She’s got plenty of safety schools to fall back on.
Several issues with MIT etc.:
1). Don't recall specifically but MIT requires 20% (might be 25%) of each freshman class to come from families in which neither parent has a degree.
2). Both MIT and Harvard employ "geographical quotas" to the point that a couple of years ago both stopped publishing state by state acceptance data. The rub is assuming identical metrics if one is from New England, New York and California ones chance are VASTLY better than if one with is from Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Idaho etc. The New England part of that makes sense - the overwhelming CA bias does not.
3). The best school in the country that employs mostly on the merits admissions is Cal-Tech. Harvey Mudd is up there too.
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My kids are a little older but both are academic overachievers too. My advice would be to keep the proverbial powder dry for graduate/professional school. One of my son's friends from medical school is a Penn graduate with not quite $200K in undergraduate debt. IMO scarce is the BS degree worth $200K debt.
Several issues with MIT etc.:
1). Don't recall specifically but MIT requires 20% (might be 25%) of each freshman class to come from families in which neither parent has a degree.
2). Both MIT and Harvard employ "geographical quotas" to the point that a couple of years ago both stopped publishing state by state acceptance data. The rub is assuming identical metrics if one is from New England, New York and California ones chance are VASTLY better than if one with is from Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Idaho etc. The New England part of that makes sense - the overwhelming CA bias does not.
3). The best school in the country that employs mostly on the merits admissions is Cal-Tech. Harvey Mudd is up there too.
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My kids are a little older but both are academic overachievers too. My advice would be to keep the proverbial powder dry for graduate/professional school. One of my son's friends from medical school is a Penn graduate with not quite $200K in undergraduate debt. IMO scarce is the BS degree worth $200K debt.
My husband went to Caltech. They do look for geographic diversity. I like to joke he was the token Nebraskan, but he was well qualified to go there as well.
Interesting someone would have that much undergrad debt as the student loan debt is capped at $57,500 for undergrads. What'd he do, buy a house? Seriously, he must have a car loan and a lot of credit card debt as well. https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/types/l...d-unsubsidized
Last edited by Katarina Witt; 02-22-2019 at 08:47 PM..
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