<p>My S has a 87 unweighted avg as a Jr. The highest avg at his private school is 93 unweighted. I've worked that out and his average is like 3.2? That isn't very good. He's not even eligible to apply to UC's as we are out of state. He's got one AP this year, but that's not going to get his waited gpa up. How do colleges look at grades when the highest is so low?</p>
<p>The highest avg at his private school is 93 unweighted.</p>
<p>Are you saying that the student with the #1 rank has a 93 unweighted avg?</p>
<p>In this case his average would be looked at in the context of his school. That’s why colleges assign admissions counselors to certain regions of the country, so that they can get to know the schools there (especially the ones that regularly send applicants to their college) and understand what the caliber is. If he’s got an 87 and the highest is a 93 then he seems to be doing pretty well, I think better than a 3.2 in context of the school. If you’re using 100 as the max grade to calulate his GPA, you may be doing it incorrectly if no one in the school actually gets 100s. How many kids are ahead of him? In this instance his rank will be important. If he’s got an 87, but out of his class of 100 there are only 4 or 5 above him, that’s great. If there’s 20 or 30 with better grades than him, that’s less great but still not bad. Does the whole school fall in the 87-93 range or would you say he’s higher than average? </p>
<p>For the UCs, remember that they calculate GPAs in their own way, they don’t just take what the schools give them. So they will weigh various qualifying factors of his transcript and decide what UC GPA he has (vs. what GPA his transcript says). You should ask his guidance counselor, they should have a better idea about how grades at your school are evaluated by colleges and where your son falls in the spectrum.</p>
<p>The top#1 student has an 93, but 87 puts him right in the middle; although they don’t rank. He hasn’t taken SATs yet, but got a 195 on PSAT. I hope he can improve that. We really need him to get some merit $ as he is the youngest of 5, and we are all borrowed out. The other 4 are out of school though, so he doesn’t get that benefit. With a high EFC and zero ability to borrow, he needs some merit. UC’s were more affordable with some borrowing on his part, but based upon their formula I don’t think he could get in. He wants warm weather. CA preferably. But warm weather and merit $ with his stats isn’t easy.</p>