school rant
 

I think the first post I ever made on BE was asking if anyone else had had problems getting credit at High School for work done elsewhere....

We went through the whole appeals process but failed to get my daughter any GPA points and only a couple of her previous courses were credited. The rest, she had to take exams and still no GPA.

In May last year, a mere 7 months after arriving at the school she took Spanish AP. We've just found out that she got a perfect score, 1 of 93 kids in the world - the principal sent us an email congratulating my daughter, it's the talk of the staffroom and we've been told that no other kid at her school has ever got a perfect score in an AP exam. The useless spanish teacher she had last year is preening himself and taking the credit as a brilliant teacher of course.

Now, she's been interviewed by her school district asking how did she do it and about the other stuff she's doing and she'll be on the front page of website.

So, I feel pleased for my daughter but I am so mightily pissed off that they still aren't giving her ANYTHING at all for her work prior to this school.

Bastards.

rant over.

Re: school rant
 

Utter bastards, but kudos to your daughter on her amazing result!

Not much more to say.

Re: school rant
 

In her interview she's going to talk a lot about how she's only been in the US for a year and most of the credit has to go to her UK high school....?

Re: school rant
 

Well done to your daughter - exceptional result!

If it were me, I would drop an email to the principal outlining most of what you put in your post. Have you looked into transferring to another school that will give credit?
Perhaps that might poke them into taking your daughters accomplishments and ability a little more seriously.

Re: school rant
 

She's a senior so she'll be graduating this year, so no change of school. To be fair, it was the school district and the school counsellor (now sacked - er sorry retired) that wouldn't give my daughter those credits, not the principal.
My daughter is fairly laid back about it all but she had to explain why her GPA and class rank don't match her exam results here. We're waiting anxiously to see how it plays out with the college admissions people, she's applied to v strong colleges.

Re: school rant
 

It is much better to have a good SAT / ACT than a good GPA. The GPA is very dependent on the school and teacher, it may be more easy to get an A at one school than another.
This is our experience here in Virginia. Our last one of four is waiting to hear from colleges right now.

Re: school rant
 

Agree with this. SAT/ACT are the important numbers, especially since your daughter's record will show she obviously came from a foreign education system late in her high school career. That stellar Spanish AP score won't hurt either.

Her US high school may be too parochial to fully understand how well she did in her French (?) school, but the college (uni) admissions officers will try harder if they are interested in her, and those at the "big" US colleges have far more experience deciphering foreign educational qualifications.....

Re: school rant
 

She can put it in her essay for uni applications. They like to see some hardship.

Re: school rant
 

Oh Sally, I love you!!

She did v well in the SATs. She did write it in the personal essay and her gpa is more than most kids will achieve. Peed off at the school milking this success for their own purposes though.

Re: school rant
 

;)

Good luck to her, it's an exciting time.

Re: school rant
 

Our three are all in Virginia colleges and from what I have gleaned is they have a cut off for SAT / ACT and GPA scores below which the essay is not read.

If your daughter has a good SAT / GPA score her essay will be read and the fact she has lived overseas will be a plus for her.

On the subject of grades mine have studied overseas both in high school and college and they only have been given the credit never the grade.
The only exception may be the Virginia Tech School of Architecture for Switzerland.
The positive thing with the overseas study is for example one of my sons is planning to do intensive Arabic in Morocco and this will equal one year of study at University.

Re: school rant
 

Pretty stressful as well ours just got his first acceptance the other day which takes some of the pressure off

Re: school rant
 

Stress is my middle name at the moment :lol:

The study abroad sounds interesting.

Good to get an acceptance :thumbup:

Re: school rant
 

Schools and their bloody rules and procedures drive me up the f'ing wall.

Well done to your daughter, that's an amazing achievement :thumbsup:

Re: school rant
 

My son won a place at a competitive summer school program for 8th graders last year. He had to be 97th percentile or higher on a national test with an excellent GPA to even apply, but they said that what swung it was his essay on the subject of 'a time I got excited about learning', in which he outlined going to a Swiss school from ages 8-11, and how thrilling it was when he finally got good enough to not only understand the lessons, but actually do a presentation in French. USers LOVE this sort of stuff, apparently ;)

Very well done on her (nothing to do with the school) success!