<p>Well, it may not be a big of a deal
But here goes.</p>
<p>Every state's standard for A is different. Some state may only require 89 to get an A, some may require 93 (like TN, damn!)
Also, in some schools it's a lot, lot, lot easier to get better grades and ranks. This may not be correctly used example, but I know a High School where are you have to do is watch some movies and you get an A (well, it's in a poor part of the country, or poorest, and none of the students care... but still!)</p>
<p>I just personally think there should be some kind of a national standard other than stupid SAT and ACT.</p>
<p>yes. especially at my school, where teachers have diff. ideas of what an A should be. And some students cry to teachers who then give them As when they don't deserve it. And then those students brag about their GPA.</p>
<p>but colleges don't necessarily compare grades against kids from different schools. they look at your grades within the context of your own school. I know that my school, for example, they send out grade distributions so colleges know how easy or not easy it is to obtain high grades</p>
<p>Grades are nothing. Its ability that will get u somewhere in long run. say there are two kids. ones from alaska where a 45 is an A. others from penn where 95 is an A. an alaskan kid might get to harvard and the penn kid mite end up goin to state school but unless the alaskan has ability enough to sustain in harvard, he'll fail msrably. on other hand, penn kid might breeze through college and end up with better life. So as long as you have the ability, you'll outshine someone with higher grades than you but lower ability in the long run.</p>
<p>but you see, the thing is that ones with the same ability might have different grades, GPA, scores, etc.
One might get straight A's and go to H because he only needed 80 to get an A, but another didn't get straight A's because he needed 90 to get an A, and couldn't go to H.</p>
<p>I understand that colleges take those factors into consideration and stuff. However, I just don't think that they can do it well enough. Straight A's do look a lot better than 3.5 GPA, even though they might have same scores.</p>
<p>colleges definetely take the rigor of the high school into account.</p>
<p>if you go to an elite high school with an average sat of 2090+, you can be barely in the top quarter of the class and get into mit, even though mit says that almost everyone is in the top 10 percent of his high school calss, for rigorous high schools, they take that into account</p>
<p>Yes, it is "unfair" that some students go to high-quality high schools in affluent areas with excellent teachers while others struggle to achieve in poor-quality economically disadvantaged high schools. You need some perspective.</p>