<p>Since some schools use the plus and minus system and others don't, how do the top schools view the minus? Say a kid has all As but several are A-, does this detract?</p>
<p>Lol the vast majority of my grades have been “A-”…I hope not. :P</p>
<p>I’ve been wondering this myself(my kid has 2 A+). I think Adcoms read the transcript and make mental notes because there is a huge difference between A+ and A-.</p>
<p>It’s all relative.</p>
<p>Depends on your school, and your intended college. An A- is NOT an A. One is a 4.0 and the other is a 3.667 (at most/many schools, anyway). My D’s first high school even gave a 4.33 for an A+ (only 100%). </p>
<p>So, of COURSE they’re different. And the difference between a 3.667 and a 4.00 will leave you high and dry as far as a top 10 school. FYI, some high schools don’t even award + or -. Everything is A, B, C.</p>
<p>I find it unlikely that A- = 3.667 is as widespread as you claim. Before I came here, I’d never HEARD of a high school doing it that way.</p>
<p>^ really?..don’t most colleges score an A- as 3.667?</p>
<p>My high school does A+, A, A- as all 4.0.
Thus, my GPA is 4.02 because of weighting and because I got two B’s in high school.
What do you think adcomms will think of this?</p>
<p>In COLLEGE, yes, an A- is a 3.667. That doesn’t mean they also look at your high school GPA that way.</p>
<p>most colleges recalculate GPAs so everyone is compared apples to apples</p>
<p>This is true. It’s not really an apples to apples comparison if you have to deal with different high schools (and often, different CLASSES in different high schools) having different policies for awarding +/-.</p>
<p>Some high schools don’t even have pluses and minuses (i.e. they just consider everything 90 and above an A). Wouldn’t that be to the disadvantage of those attending schools that do use pluses and minuses, then? :/</p>
<p>Some college recaculate + and -, like USC for example, for high school grades. I wonder how many colleges that do that.</p>
<p>My school just does straight up A, B, C, D, E. And I’m so glad, because all of my A’s are so borderline (90-92%). But it does kind of such when you get an 88.5% and the kid with the 80.1% gets the same grade as you. Except how many kids really get A+'s? Like, how common is it for someone to get 100% in a real class, like chemistry or history? I don’t know anyone at my school who has above a 95 in a real class. Although I guess we don’t worry about it as much because a 89.5 and an 100 are the same thing.</p>
<p>My school only lists letter grades on transcript without the individual numbers, and we have 89.5-100 as an A, so it is literally impossible for colleges to recalculate from our school unless they specifically request the info.</p>
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<p>I don’t think we’re talking about what a particular high school does but rather what colleges view the difference in A+ and A-. D’s high school converts A+ to A- to 4.0 uw but the grades still there in the transcript. An A+ is 98% and above. While an A- is %90-93%.</p>
<p>My school not only doesn’t have A+, but also, a 92 is the highest B+…</p>
<p>My HIGH SCHOOL, and most of the high schools around me, use A- as 3.667. We use the +/- system, not always just straight up letters.</p>
<p>It would be good to hear from those that applied to ivys and other top schools. The assumption here is that their transcripts reflect predominantly As.</p>
<p>If your school did the plus and minus and these were reported on your transcript, how did you fare? Do you think having A minuses vs a straight A hurt you?</p>
<p>I was admitted to Stanford early. I don’t know the answer for sure, but my school has A+, A, and A-'s and the difference between an A+ and an A is insanely large. The amount of work that goes into getting an A+ is incomparably more than the amount needed to get an A, so I do hope adcoms take note of it.</p>
<p>Barring freshman year (since Stanford doesn’t look at freshman year grades), between my sophomore and junior year (that’s 4 semesters, 7 classes per semester), I’ve made 2 A’s and 26 A+'s.</p>
<p>Thanks and congrats on getting into Stanford. Were most of your HS grade A+?</p>