High School Credits

[Reefgazer]

Does anyone count credits earned before high school for both the credit count and the GPA?  I was wondering what was standard and thinking that if the course was genuinely high school level why the grade shouldn't go into the GPA, but I see several of you who do not do either so I was wondering what was standard. 

[Luckymama]

I'm doing what is common in my state. The courses are on the transcript but are not counted in the GPA (private schools do not even list the courses; public and charter vary).

 

It is common here for students to have algebra 1 in 8th. I do not think of that as a high school class. (Heck, even I, my siblings, and dh took algebra 1 in 8th grade!). It is also not unusual for high-achieving students to study algebra in 7th and either geometry or algebra 2 in 8th (varies from school to school).

[EKS]

My older son took five high school courses in middle school.  On the transcript, I labeled them as "high school course taken in middle school" and on the school report said this about how they were counted "Consistent with [local district name] policy, high school courses completed during middle school are identified on the transcript and are given high school credit, and their grades are included in the GPA."  No one questioned it.

 

 

[regentrude]

I am not counting them towards number of credits  or GPA. I only list the credits because somebody might need to check a box that a certain class (algebra 1 and biology for DD) has been taken.

 

I want to demonstrate that my student has enough credits during the high school years and does not have to rely on pre-9th grade work to fulfill any requirements.

 

I do not include them in the GPA. (Moot point for DD since it would not have changed the GPA.) But I also would not want to send the impression that the student has to rely on his doing well in the lower level classes to receive a GPA boost and could not perform equally well in the upper level courses. IMO, if  the middle school grades (even for "high school level" courses) made  a big difference for the GPA, the admissions official should rightly be concerned why the student's performance dropped drastically over the course of high school.

[Sunshine State Sue]

I have no idea what is standard.  I did not include the only high school class (Algebra 1) ds had in 8th grade.  He had plenty of other credits.  If that was not the case, or if he had a lot of high school credits in 8th grade, and he was trying to graduate early, or something, I would probably have done something different.  It just wasn't worth the effort for one class.

[JoJosMom]

I am not counting them towards number of credits  or GPA. I only list the credits because somebody might need to check a box that a certain class (algebra 1 and biology for DD) has been taken.

 

I want to demonstrate that my student has enough credits during the high school years and does not have to rely on pre-9th grade work to fulfill any requirements.

 

I do not include them in the GPA. (Moot point for DD since it would not have changed the GPA.) But I also would not want to send the impression that the student has to rely on his doing well in the lower level classes to receive a GPA boost and could not perform equally well in the upper level courses. IMO, if  the middle school grades (even for "high school level" courses) made  a big difference for the GPA, the admissions official should rightly be concerned why the student's performance dropped drastically over the course of high school.

 

I certainly understand the your point (highlighted), but I think some people need to do so in order to qualify for dual enrollment.

[regentrude]

I certainly understand the your point (highlighted), but I think some people need to do so in order to qualify for dual enrollment.

 

could you please explain this to me? I do not understand what that has to do with DE.

[EKS]

could you please explain this to me? I do not understand what that has to do with DE.

 

If a kid has to be a junior (or whatever) those early credits help with that.

[regentrude]

If a kid has to be a junior (or whatever) those early credits help with that.

 

but then that's the same as starting high school a year early, isn't it?

 

[EKS]

I am not counting them towards number of credits  or GPA. I only list the credits because somebody might need to check a box that a certain class (algebra 1 and biology for DD) has been taken.

 

I want to demonstrate that my student has enough credits during the high school years and does not have to rely on pre-9th grade work to fulfill any requirements.

 

I do not include them in the GPA. (Moot point for DD since it would not have changed the GPA.) But I also would not want to send the impression that the student has to rely on his doing well in the lower level classes to receive a GPA boost and could not perform equally well in the upper level courses. IMO, if  the middle school grades (even for "high school level" courses) made  a big difference for the GPA, the admissions official should rightly be concerned why the student's performance dropped drastically over the course of high school.

 

I include them because the local school district counts them, my student earned them, and, most importantly, I want colleges to see the true scope of my student's high school education.  If colleges want to discount the grades and credits associated with the high school classes taken in middle school, they are free to do so.

[EKS]

but then that's the same as starting high school a year early, isn't it?

 

 

The point is that some people whose kids started high school early don't necessarily want their kids to *finish* early.

 

My kid skipped two grades at a b&m school.  I pulled him to homeschool after he finished 8th grade due to a lack of cognitive challenge.  So he was technically in high school at age 12.  He doesn't want (and I don't want him) to graduate from high school until he is at least 17 (which would be a year early).  So I will be putting the credits he earned as a 12yo on his transcript.  He earned them.  

[regentrude]

The point is that some people whose kids started high school early don't necessarily want their kids to *finish* early.

 

My kid skipped two grades at a b&m school.  I pulled him to homeschool after he finished 8th grade due to a lack of cognitive challenge.  So he was technically in high school at age 12.  He doesn't want (and I don't want him) to graduate from high school until he is at least 17 (which would be a year early).  So I will be putting the credits he earned as a 12yo on his transcript.  He earned them.  

 

Oh, I completely agree about not wanting to finish too early. It was the same with my DD.

But I don't think any college would have cared about the high school work she did in the middle grades; they got a pretty good picture from looking at the advanced college courses she took while in high school before graduating at 17. It must have been pretty obvious that part of the typical high school work must have been completed in the middle grades when much of high school was done at the university.

 

Anyway, I don't think it matters much. (I just could not have fit much more on a one page transcript anyway...)

 

[EKS]

Oh, I completely agree about not wanting to finish too early. It was the same with my DD.

But I don't think any college would have cared about the high school work she did in the middle grades; they got a pretty good picture from looking at the advanced college courses she took while in high school before graduating at 17. It must have been pretty obvious that part of the typical high school work must have been completed in the middle grades when much of high school was done at the university.

 

Anyway, I don't think it matters much. (I just could not have fit much more on a one page transcript anyway...)

 

I figure that if they don't care, they can disregard it.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

The district we lived in when my eldest started high school counted high school math and foreign language courses taken in middle school on the high school transcript.  The courses earned credit and were counted towards gpa.

 

I have used a similar practice in my transcript, even though we have since moved twice.  I'm not sure what this local district does.  It is hard to find the policies online and I don't consider it a model district.  

 

Taking high school math or foreign language in middle school did not relieve my kids of the need to take 4 credits of math during high school or 2-3 years of a foreign language in high school.

 

DS will graduate with 7 credits of math and 5 credits of foreign language.  The math surplus stems from the one course in middle school and then four semesters of dual enrollment.  The language surplus is because he has 3 years of one language and 2 years of another language.

 

I did my transcript by subject and have 8th grade next to the course(s) done early.

[quark]

I'm including math courses completed pre-high school because DS took several off the beaten track paths (others might have done more contests instead, for example, but he was not interested in those) before starting calculus. I feel that leaving out these courses will not reflect the amount of non-traditional high school and college level math explored prior or alongside the more traditional high school math courses. Two of these traditional math courses also contained non traditional components (e.g. tutor combined abstract algebra with algebra II) and I wanted to show that some intro to abstract algebra was completed earlier than that as a prereq to abstract alg at slightly higher level.  I have no idea if this will be successful as we are not yet ready to apply. I just think credit is due for something like this, no?

[JoJosMom]

could you please explain this to me? I do not understand what that has to do with DE.

 

By the time I noticed your question, EKS had explained the answer. :001_smile:

[Sebastian (a lady)]

FWIW, this was also one of the things I explicitly explained in my school profile.  I go over the grading scale, the way I weight grades, which grades are weighted, why a class rank isn't noted on the transcript.  I explain my process for assigning credit for DE CC classes.  I discuss which credits I required for graduation and why PE isn't on the transcript.

 

There are a lot of different school policies around the US.  Colleges understand that the transcripts of different applicants will have different quirks.  I figure that my job was to be clear about what the student did in school and how I assigned grades and credits.  I can't control if the school accepts the student, but I can do my best to give them an understandable basis for making the decision.

[Reefgazer]

I just spent today going over the policies of the local school district and had to eventually contact them for info credit policies because I couldn't find it online.  The local high schools here give credit for courses completed in middle school, and roll the grades into their high school GPA, so that's what I am leaning towards (with an eye on explaining that in the school profile.  But I am not sure I will do that because there are some good points put forth in this thread on why not to do that.  So I guess I need to think on that a bit.

FWIW, this was also one of the things I explicitly explained in my school profile.  I go over the grading scale, the way I weight grades, which grades are weighted, why a class rank isn't noted on the transcript.  I explain my process for assigning credit for DE CC classes.  I discuss which credits I required for graduation and why PE isn't on the transcript.

 

There are a lot of different school policies around the US.  Colleges understand that the transcripts of different applicants will have different quirks.  I figure that my job was to be clear about what the student did in school and how I assigned grades and credits.  I can't control if the school accepts the student, but I can do my best to give them an understandable basis for making the decision.

 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

One thing I think is important is to look consistent. Don't give credit for the algebra 1 class with an A but not the Geometry with a C. That looks like cherry picking IMHO.

 

And explain on your school profile. I also have a short blurb on the transcript and even a GPA worksheet that shows the calculations for the weighted and unweighted GPA with the reason each bumped class got a bump listed in the comments column.

[regentrude]

One thing I think is important is to look consistent. Don't give credit for the algebra 1 class with an A but not the Geometry with a C. That looks like cherry picking IMHO.

 

I would actually go so far and recommend that a student who did a high school level class early but did not perform well should repeat the course in high school. Carrying over a C in math from middle school serves no purpose; it shouts "I rushed my kid along through math so we could get done early and did not take sufficient time to achieve mastery". Not the message you want to send.

 

If courses from the middle grades end up counted for high school, they should be solid As. Anything else begs the question why they could not wait and do it thoroughly.

[SunshineMom]

I looked into the (CARDRS) College Academic Distribution Requirements from the University my dd intends to DE for what they would accept for hs credits as a middle schooler.  In our state, it specifies Algebra 1 or higher and two years (if taken continuously) of a language could be counted for high school credits beginning in eighth grade.  I agree, I wouldn't feel comfortable counting high school credits beginning in eighth grade unless those courses were at a high school level and the grades were A's.  This option of homeschooling is great for tailoring to the student and their goals.

 

FYI-we personally know a few homeschool families whose children are DE at the local CC and/or University.  The best advise I have gotten on the subject has been to make sure that the student has a clear goal in mind for what they plan to do AFTER college.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[EKS]

I would actually go so far and recommend that a student who did a high school level class early but did not perform well should repeat the course in high school. Carrying over a C in math from middle school serves no purpose; it shouts "I rushed my kid along through math so we could get done early and did not take sufficient time to achieve mastery". Not the message you want to send.

 

If courses from the middle grades end up counted for high school, they should be solid As. Anything else begs the question why they could not wait and do it thoroughly.

 

I would go even further and say that not only should the student be getting As, the work, at the very least, should be solid high school level, and where possible should be honors level.  So it's probably best to leave things like physical science and geography taken in middle school (that tend to be middle school level courses taken by weaker students in 9th grade) off of the transcript.  (Of course, that said, I did put a geography course taken in 8th grade on my older son's transcript.  But he used a college text.)