A high school sophomore requesting enlightenment.

Applying to College Common and Coalition Application
1

<p>Hello CC Forum members, I am currently a sophomore attending a high school in California.</p>

<p>I had a specific question about college transcripts and how admission offices see your grades on there.</p>

<p>Some background info: my school consistently ranks as the 18 - 20th best public high school in California. It is VERY competitive, filled with ambitious students that try to cram as much AP and Honor courses possible and participate in as many extracurricular as time allows, just for college. We are all passionate to go to excellent colleges (Ivy's, Stanford, Berkeley, etc.).</p>

<p>Now, having said that, our counselors recently addressed a question - does the school rank students? They said no, because since there are so many smart kids with over 4.5 GPAs, rankings would actually be detrimental.</p>

<p>So the questions:</p>

<p>I. Is it TRUE that some schools (like mine) don't do rankings? Because I'm pretty certain colleges want to find out the rankings. Even if my high school doesn't rank, can the universities have access to student rankings? I feel as if the counselors might be hiding something...</p>

<p>II. DO PERCENTAGES IN INDIVIDUAL COURSES MATTER? I'm trying to balance my academic schedule with my extracurricular. An A- here is 89.5%, so I'm right now okay with 90%. But my college graduate friend recently told me that GPA actually matters on your percentages, so a 90% might not be a 4.0, but something like 3.7. He said that I need to maintain 97% or higher on all of my classes... but I thought transcripts to colleges ONLY display your letter grade & GPA, not exact percentages?</p>

<p>Thank you for enlightening this naive, ignorant sophomore, CC!</p>

2

<p>1) Yes, it’s true that some schools, like yours, do not rank. </p>

<p>2) It depends on what is reported on your transcript - it would be a good idea to request a transcript so you can see how your data is reported. For example, does it show for a class the grade of A, or a grade of 90.0? Is your GPA listed as 3.85 (unweighted) out of 4.0, or 92 out of 100? You will also want to check to see if quarter/semester grades are displayed, or just one final grade for a year.</p>

<p>Since you attend a top school, then your guidance counselors are familiar with college admissions at elite universities.</p>