Importance of Academic Rigor

As the school year is nearing a close, I wanted to gear this Thursday Thoughts post to parents of freshmen and sophomores (and any juniors who might need a little push). The SSAR and SRAR are tools that many public universities throughout the US utilize to have students self-report their academic record. When students are applying to college, they list all the high school classes they’ve taken (including those in middle school for HS credit) as well the grade earned in each class. As you’ll see in this sample, there are no minuses or pluses on any grade. (It also happens to be a sample from a straight A student…)

I definitely suggest that you strongly encourage your child to do whatever it takes to raise a high B to an A or a high C to a B. They will be very grateful when they’re applying to colleges that they pushed as hard as they could at the end of the year to get the highest grades possible in their classes. Don’t settle for a B+ if you can get an A-. A 90% counts just as much as a 99% on the SSAR (and SRAR). Florida students applying to Florida public universities will have to complete this. (Same goes for students applying to public schools in other states.)

One more thing that is very important and ties into this concept is rigor. You might have noticed that there is a color coding system to these grades on the sample SSAR. Not all A’s are created equal. Colleges (especially the more selective ones) want to see that students have “appropriately challenged” themselves and “not left high level courses on the table.” This is not to say that students need to take the highest level course offered in every subject area (although, if your child is looking at the most highly selective aka “highly rejective” schools, that’s what the applicant pool will be doing). It IS to say that your child should be trying to take as many AP/AICE (in FL) level classes as they can handle in subject areas that interest them while still maintaining their mental health. That last piece is critical, and schools with higher acceptance rates won’t be as concerned with the rigor. (You will see on my post next month about the University of Alabama that they’re more concerned with GPA over rigor of courses.) Overall, rigor and grades are the two most important criteria for admissions for most schools, especially in today’s test optional world.