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does too. I don’t know how they do it but there’s no way the median kid with a 4.25 GPA has a 31 ACT. A 31 is a decent score but it’s not an outstanding score. A 4.25 is an outstanding GPA. So I don’t believe that those numbers are accurate, at least in terms of real world academics.

specifically about your son we have the same issue compounded by the move to a new school. mini’s freshman grades were similar to your kid’s. The light only went on for him when we talked to a college counselor who gave us the facts about his desired schools, including the number of AP classes kids were taking. Since then, his grades have improved substantially but are weighed down by the low early grades. The good news is that colleges weigh increasing trends and know that boys take more time to mature. There are rumors that some colleges will throw out freshman grades for boys.

For us, mini’s Pennsylvania school is highly rated but known for not pushing kids. They do not, for example, allow freshmen to take APs. So lots of kids in the Atlanta school have two more APs (the FR class and a Sophomore follow on) than him, helping with academic rigor scores and weighting. Also, the way the new school transferred his Pennsylvania grades, they reduce his GPA because of math reasons. Our college counselor helped craft an explanation of these issues.

On the good side, he’s at an inner city public high school and has some extra curricular activities that are not traditional for nerds like him. So I hope that’s going to help at some of these more selective schools.