<p>I currently have a high school GPA of a 3.7
For relevant purposes, I won't be listing my SAT score and achievements on this thread.
I have had 2 B's in every semester of my high school career since freshman year to the first semester of junior year. If I were to go to summer school this summer and raise two of those B's to A's, my cumulative GPA would go up from a 3.7 to 3.78.</p>
<p>If we were to strictly talk about GPA, would a 3.78 increase my chances of being admitted into UW than a 3.7?</p>
<p>@johnt21 - Thank you for you feedback! The main reason as to why I’m asking this, and I apologize for not mentoning this prior, is that summer school is pricey. It’s $450 per semester and if I were to take two semesters, I’m looking at a $900 bill coming out of my parent’s pocket. We don’t exactly have that kind of money to spend if it’s not going to help me. Again, thank you!</p>
<p>Depends on how your other stats are. Are your chances good right now? Would it really be worth it to throw away half of your summer?</p>
<p>I also assume you’d be taking the same classes, remember that retaking the class and getting an A versus getting an A the first time around is not the same thing.</p>
<p>@SoDoMojo - I’m not sure.
I have a 1900 SAT score.
Only 4 AP classes so far. Did reasonably well in all of them in terms of grades so far. I completely failed to prepare myself for the one AP exam I’ve taken so far which is AP world history. I got a 3 on that.
I’m on one varsity sport which I made my freshman year and lettered all the years.
I’m on National Honor Society and my school’s competitive newspaper which requires a selective admission process.
I’m a co-president of two clubs and a member of another.
I volunteer at a huge hospital in my city (which required a selective admission process, however, they do not refer to it as interning. I guess it could be unpaid internship since it had an admission process) and at a Korean language school regularly on schedule.
The only SAT II I’ve taken so far is Korean which I got an 800 on. I was born and have lived in America all my life as an American citizen so hopefully this will help me a little. I hear that being bilingual is a little bit of a plus. Although, I am aware that UW is extremely diverse meaning that there are many bilingual students there. </p>
<p>Honestly you should be fine. Since you’re only a junior, it might be better to instead prepare/improve for your SAT and get a head start on essays.</p>
<p>I would also check out how UW calculates GPA regarding repeated courses.</p>
<p>@SoDoMojo - Thank you for your feedback. I guess I will keep my 3.7 and use my summer to study strictly for the SAT. If I do that and take the SAT in October, I feel that I should be good.</p>
<p>First issue (and this is crucially important): do you know for sure that if you retake those classes and earn A’s, your high school will actually replace those B’s with A’s, and so will the University? I don’t know anything about your high school or this university, but not all schools will.</p>
<p>Second issue: ordinarily, I would say that a difference less than wouldn’t matter much, but there’s a chance that this particular difference would. Here’s why. In Common Data Sets, colleges and universities report the HS GPAs of their enrolled freshmen in bands: 3.75+, 3.5-3.74, 3.25-3.49, etc. These bands of GPAs then get copied into the information on the College Board’s web site, and College Confidential’s Super Match, and other college-search sites, and they figure into the rankings in US News and other publications. So raising your GPA above 3.75 does put you into the top band, and may make you more attractive to colleges because if you enrolled, it would be a positive in their statistics. For this reason, the effective difference between 3.7 and 3.78 may be much greater than the difference between 3.6 and 3.68 or 3.8 and 3.88 would be.</p>
<p>Only in the narrow context of Common Data Set reporting. Obviously, there’s a difference between them. All I said was that the impact of a modest incresase in GPA *may *be somewhat magnified when it bumps you from one range of CDS reporting into the next.</p>
<p>@Sikorsky - I know that my high school does. I have not yet done the research on how UW will see it. I feel as if your information now changes everything. Admissions officers will still see my grade as a 3.78 but in the highest tier for GPA’s because it is 3.75+? If the decision had to be made between another student and I and, HYPOTHETICALLY, we had very similar apps, my 3.78 would push me into being admitted because it falls under the 3.75+ catergory? Wow… That may change things significantly?</p>
<p>It’s just a theory of mine. I’ve never seen any college of university state it explicitly, and I can’t imagine any college ever would.</p>
<p>All I said was that these few hundredths may be more important than others. If I were in your position, I might retake those classes in the summer if I didn’t have something constructive that I wanted to do more. But if I had other, better plans (travel, learning Italian, Interlochen, paid employment), I’d sure as heck stick with those plans.</p>
<p>Don’t forget that all credible schools will recalculate your GPA. The GPA you provide in your app or the one on your transcript typically means nothing unless the school follows the exact same formula.</p>
<p>I’m fairly sure UW requires you to include both times you took the class/the grade you got in your SRAR. How that will affect you, you may want to ask admissions.</p>
<p>@UDUBHUSKIES - I’ve heard that too. However, I think it’s really a myth that’s got out of hand. I could name so many people off the top of my head that was accepted to UW last year from in state with GPA’s below a 3.75 which is their supposedly “average” high school GPA for all incoming freshman.</p>