<p>Why on the Admissions profile for Duke at princetonreview.com Academic GPA is only "considered" while test scores are "very important" as is rigor of secondary school record, essay, recommendations, etc. </p>
<p>The ranking for these factors go: Very important, Important, Considered, Not Considered</p>
<p>So according to Princeton Review, for Duke, GPA isn't the most important? That surprises me. Does anyone agree with that?</p>
<p>Well, according to <a href=“http://ir.provost.duke.edu/facts/cds/CDS%202009-10.pdf[/url]”>http://ir.provost.duke.edu/facts/cds/CDS%202009-10.pdf</a> ,</p>
<p>What you said is true.</p>
<p>However, Standardized Test Scores are only one of the 6 aspects which are considered ‘Most Important’.</p>
<p>What does that say when your GPA is only “considered?” That is kind of sad to me that it has come to that.</p>
<p>Grades are considered within the context of the applicant’s available resources in their local high school. Grading policies vary greatly from district to district. Quality of instruction varies greatly. Comparing students from the same city region or school means different things in different schools. Adcoms will look for students who max out the more rigorous schedule available locally and who seek out mastery in other learning experiences in their lives. The ability to show discipline and focus and desire to take on complex challenges is really necessary to function well at Duke. </p>
<p>High test scores and lower grades will raise questions but the answers may vary from student to student. Perhaps one student devoted a great deal of time to a paid job or to a certain sport that compromised a year of study. Perhaps a student floundered as a freshman and maturity set in re work habits in a delayed way. Perhaps a student is first generation college or bilingual.</p>
<p>Grades are considered. That is what I read. At highly selective colleges with scores of qualified students per seat in the class, nuances can weigh in on the decisions. One thing for certain, the freshman class at Duke will be a group of students who do not necessarily resemble each other. There is a great deal of variety in every class formed at Duke. </p>
<p>I heard a speaker once on the subject of gifted education. He pointed out that on the high end of the Bell Curve for IQ, the cluster of similar students begins to break down and it is harder for a teacher to “teach to the middle”. Highly gifted people are gifted in highly different ways from each other…this is true at Duke and at many other colleges with high numbers of applicants. </p>
<p>Grades are considered as evidence of work ethic and ability and focus. a fair statement.</p>
<p>I don’t think it is fair at all for a lifetime of work to be only “considered” but something like a recommendation or essay to be “very important.” It just seems like the longer/consistent record of work is being diminished.</p>
<p>I think that the grades you make are probably considered more so than your actual GPA, becasue just about every single school in the country calculates GPAs differently with different course offerings and different resources available. For example it is possible for a student with a 4.5 GPA to be much “smarter” (by which I mean has made better grades in just as many AP calsses) as a student with a 5.5 GPA, because it depends on how the school calculates them. Like I know at some schools, an A is a 4.0, while my school does it by points, so a 93 in a regular class is a 3.3. Therefore, standardized test scores are probably weighed slightly more because it is the same exact test with the same exact score policy for everyone who takes it. It is a good way to distinguish a student whose grades may not be as high because they go to a difficult high school from a straight 100 student who goes to a really easy high school.</p>
<p>^Don’t schools calculate UW GPA from your transcript and mark down the “rigor” of your courses? I thought the only GPA that mattered at schools that are considered “decent”+ was the UW GPA in combination with the rigor of the classes. Am I mistaken?</p>
<p>Yes I think some schools do that, I’m not sure if Duke does or not. I was talking about the school issued GPA, and my school doesn’t even calculate an unweighted GPA, everyone’s GPA is weighted. And again, some schools offer 12 AP classes, and some offer 2, so I think they look at if you have taken full advantage of the resources available to you and succeeded to the best of your ability considering what was available to you.</p>
<p>^I’ve actually already looked a bit into that. Counselors send a “School Profile” with some basic information about the school. The Mission Statement, other fluff, and for my school a list of schools graduated seniors were accepted into last year. </p>
<p>Counselors also send in the academic transcript, which has the GPA as calculated by the school. These transcripts can have all grades (quarterly + semester + final) or some grades (semester + final), but all transcripts have at least the final grades. Schools can use either letter grades, percentages, or both. </p>
<p>I was under the impression that some/most colleges just plug the grades they were given into a UW GPA calculator. Then they have two things to consider: the UW GPA, calculated on a 4.0 (A=4, B=3,C=2,D=1) scale, and the rigor of the classes. This way, all that ***** about different schools using different weighting scales is avoided.</p>
<p>It sounds like they mean that the number isn’t very important, but your transcript it.</p>
<p>Each school calculates GPA differently, so the number itself doesn’t really mean much anymore.</p>
<p>I agree with redseven on this likely the actual numbers don’t mean much. Class rank is likely a better indicator</p>
<p>Yeah, I also agree that the “GPA” isn’t that good of an indicator because of the varying competitiveness of schools across the US. Class rank seems to make much more sense to me.</p>
<p>^Class rank in addition to standardized test scores. I’ve seen people say they’re valedictorians with 1800s. Some people just aren’t good at testing - but that’s what the majority of grades are, right? People under a minimum score of say 1900 probably shouldn’t have been able to reach #1 in their class. </p>
<p>Right?</p>