As eighth grade boys from every facet of the Greater Cleveland area discern where they will be next year, many face an easy decision on where they will attend high school. If students have family that have attended the school before them, an extracurricular program that compels them, or a strong affinity for our athletics, Saint Ignatius High School presents a sort of default choice for many adolescent young men. However, for one hopeful Ignatius student, troubling news arose when he learned that a recent academic slump in his final year of grade school might prevent him from admission. It’s become clear that as part of the school’s Vision ‘30 program, the Admissions team has been ordered to scan for drops in applicants’ GPAs or extracurricular involvement in their eighth-grade year as it is the closest indication of the person that student will be on campus. This change has negatively impacted one prospective Wildcat: Jimmy Churtle, brother of sophomore Max Churtle.
Jimmy laments a 2.2 GPA for his eighth-grade year compared to a perfect GPA for his previous eight years of grade school. In a personal interview with Churtle, he declared, “[The slump] wasn’t my fault! I’ve just got a lot of things on my mind… you can’t help eighth grade-itis! I thought I was already in!” He reported that his low GPA was largely due to poor grades on spelling tests and four-sentence essays. Still, it’s clear that Ignatius may be getting significantly more selective as more applicants might be subject to “Eighth Gradeitis.”
