High schoolers intent on applying to a highly selective college face a ton of pressure to perform. They know that admissions officers at their dream school will scrutinize everything about them, from the strength of their singular hook to the consistency of their grades. But does this scrutiny extend back into middle school? Put another way, do middle school grades matter for college admissions?

Ivy Coach has an answer that will bring a wave of relief to many of our readers, especially parents: no! Middle school grades don’t matter for college admission, with few exceptions. But notice that we italicized grades. While your grades don’t (usually!) matter, the courses you took in middle school sure do! Let’s back up and explain.

Middle School Grades Don’t Matter; Middle School Coursework Does!

No college, not even Harvard or Yale, will ask for your middle school transcripts when you apply. You could have gotten straight Fs during grades 6 and 7 for all they care. Grade 8 is where things get a little dicey, as this is usually when certain advanced courses become available to ambitious students.

The courses you take in grade 8 are critical for your college admissions prospects. By the time you enroll in grade 9, you should already have at least one year of foreign language study under your belt and at least one year of advanced mathematics. Taking these courses in middle school ensures that you will be on the right track to fulfill the academic requirements expected of elite college applicants, including at least five years of foreign language study and Pre-Calculus taken during your Junior year (at the latest since many top applicants take math coursework beyond BC Calculus!). If you don’t set yourself up on this path in eighth grade, meeting these standards on your own time is quite tricky, requiring supplemental learning courses or even summer school.

And while your middle school advanced math grade won’t be seen by college admissions officers, your eighth grade foreign language grade will be! That grade does count, as admissions officers will be able to see it. Are they liable to spend tons of time scrutinizing how well you did in an eighth grade class? Probably not, but that doesn’t mean a poor grade won’t count against you. It’s better to be safe than sorry when it comes to grades.

How Ivy Coach Helps Students Make the Most out of Middle School

For this very reason, we at Ivy Coach advise potential clients to approach us as soon as their child enters grade 6. Not only will our team of former elite college admissions officers help your child select the most rigorous and competitive courses available to them, but we will also help you make the right decisions to set your child up on a path toward an elite college. Those years seem far ahead, but we assure you, they tend to sneak up!

The sooner you approach us, the sooner we can offer you critical feedback on selecting the best high school for your child and laying out a four-year roadmap that ensures your child is taking the most rigorous coursework available (and at the right high school!). We’ll also help you map out which tests (including AP, IB, SAT, and ACT exams) your child should take during their high school career and work with you and your child to lay the groundwork for a highly competitive singular hook that will optimize their odds of admission to a highly selective school in the future by helping them tailor their extracurricular pursuits according to what fares best in elite college admissions offices.

And for parents concerned that it’s too late to get their eighth graders into the right courses, we want to reassure you that there is still time to make adjustments. You only need to fill out our complimentary consultation form, and we’ll be in touch with an outline of our services. It’s never too late to start planning for your child’s future!