* What is the password for "Family Connection?"
* How important is a Grade Point Average (GPA)?
* Shouldn't Nido provide class ranks?
* What does it mean to send "official scores?"
* What is the Nido high school code?
* When should students begin taking the SAT?



What is the password for "Family Connection?"

Juniors are given individual registration codes for Family Connection each October. Using this code, a junior is able to enter an email address and a password of his or her choosing. By logging on they can see personal information such as their test scores and GPA. If a password is selected and later forgotten, students must use the "I forgot my password" option on Family Connection to get a new one.
Freshmen, sophomores, and their parents can log in to Family Connection via the guest option. They are able to see much of the same information as the juniors and seniors. If you don't know the guest password or have a problem logging on, contact the counseling office.



How important is a GPA?

People are often surprised to learn that the Nido calculated GPA is often not used to make college admission decisions. Since each high school calculates GPA's differently, nearly all colleges recalculate a student's GPA based upon what they think is important. They may give more weight IB courses. They might eliminate fine arts, PE, and other courses, or drop a plus or minus. In California, for example, universities calculate a new GPA based upon sophomore and junior academic courses only. All colleges put more emphasis on the course titles and grades than they do on a GPA.



Shouldn't Nido provide class ranks?

No. Hardly any private college preparatory high school provides rank-in-class since to do so would put students at a disadvantage. Think of it this way - the full range of students often found in US public schools (including students who are not college bound) are not present at Nido. A Nido student could have a respectable B- average and still not be in the top half of his or her class. With our talented student body, earning just a few B's in high school could also remove a student from the top 10 percent of the class. All of our students are better served by not reporting class ranks.
Since there are such a large number of schools like Nido that do not report class ranks, even those colleges that appear to "require" class ranks are able to proceed just fine without them.



What does it mean to "send official scores?"

Colleges require students to send their "official" SAT, ACT and/or TOEFL scores. A score is official if it is sent from the testing agency directly to the college. This can be done through the ACT or SAT websites or by completing the bottom section of the TOEFL score report. Nido does not have and cannot send official scores for students.



What is the Nido high school code?

High schools around the world are assigned a six digit code by the College Entrance Examination Board (CEEB). This code is used by the ACT, SAT, and colleges to identify high schools. The Nido school code is 920450.



When should students begin taking the SAT?

The short answer is, "Generally not until the second half of the junior year." The longer answer goes something like this: All sophomores take the Preliminary SAT (PSAT) in October and the results are available in mid-December. The PSAT is just like the SAT. Unlike the SAT, however, the PSAT results are never sent to colleges. This gives students a chance to have an early indication of how they might do on the SAT-I without having it "count." Each time a student takes the SAT-I, the scores become a part of the student's computer record at the SAT/ETS headquarters in the US. When it's time to send SAT's to college, ETS will send all previous high school SAT's. While it's true that most colleges "use" the best scores, colleges see all of the scores - and a low score never helps. Students who take the test as a freshmen, sophomores or even early in the junior year are not as well prepared as they will be later - and generally the scores will be lower. Most students take the SAT-I at the end of their junior year (May or June) and again in the beginning of their senior year if they think they can improve their scores (October, November, or December).