We recently received a question from a parent asking about a policy change at her child’s school, the esteemed Boston Latin School. With rampant student competition, the school has recently changed its policy to remove Honors classes from its Freshman curriculum. With no GPA weighting for ninth grade BLS students, this curious parent wondered whether her daughter’s chance at admission to a top college would be limited.
In short, the answer is no. Colleges are acutely aware of context when evaluating every applicant. They know the policies and expectations of every applicant’s school of origin. Even top colleges with exceptional applicant pools will not penalize a student with no AP courses if her school does not offer that curriculum. As such, administrations are taking justifiable steps to throttle back over-achieving students. Rather than creating a crucible of competition and stress, students ought to be encouraged to pursue activities and passions for long term interest and fulfillment.
Admissions offices certainly understand the virtue of academic passion but also recognize the life-shaping value of extracurricular interests. The ability to learn and perform for the external motivation of grades is one indicator of diligence; however, the passion to pursue interests – such as music, sports, art, or volunteer work – for internal reward will get a student into college but more importantly into herself.
Therefore, every member of the Veritas Tutors staff is not only a expert teacher but an inspiring mentor. It is our mission to improve student outcomes within and without the classroom by fostering sustainable curiosity, passion, and success for the school setting and beyond. We help students discover their passions, whatever they may be, and guide them to excellence in that field. When was the last time you asked yourself, “What am I passionate about?”
We recently received a question from a parent asking about a policy change at her child’s school, the esteemed Boston Latin School. With rampant student competition, the school has recently changed its policy to remove Honors classes from its Freshman curriculum. With no GPA weighting for ninth grade BLS students, this curious parent wondered whether her daughter’s chance at admission to a top college would be limited.
