<p>FC - Our school does not rank and does not provide unweighted GPAs. The disparity is primarily (I would think) between kids that are super achievers and thus allowed to take a large proportion of AP/honors classes (one needs an A in a previous class to be allowed to take honors/AP) and those kids who don’t take any. All honors and AP classes are weighted by .6. Therefore, if you have a kid on a standard track with a 2.7, it would be both weighted and unweighted…another kid taking honors everything (which is possible, though probably only for a handful of kids) but assuming the same grades, would have that 2.7 weighted into a 3.3. It’s the weightings that make for the wide disparity. In fact, our school’s profile also says that the range of weighted GPAs for last year’s graduating class (but remember, many kids would have the same GPA weighted or not if they aren’t taking honors/AP) ranges from 1.4 (yes, I was shocked at this too!) to 4.2. Also, the grade only has 150 kids in it, making the standard deviations even wider.</p>
<p>My S has a bit under a 3.3 weighted with some honors and one AP. He was accelerated in math (calc as a junior) and science (physics as a junior), but that doesn’t get weighted any differently versus a kid who takes them on time…hopefully colleges notice it. His scores were 1450/2060. I’m sure he doesn’t rank anywhere near the top 20% of the class, even though the mean (again, on the profile) is a 2.7. I thing that there is, in fact, a curve that looks less like a standard statistical normal curve given the fact that some kids are heavily weighted and some kids are not weighted at all due to their curriculum which is partly based on their acheivements. If I were to guess, I would say that my son’s unweighted GPA is around a 3.0. He has extremely strong and unique ECs, but they did take time away from his schoolwork. </p>
<p>I haven’t seen anything on the site about the box scholarship having GPA requirements, but would appreciate if you could point me to the page if possible.</p>
<p>P.S. I will also say that our guidance department is not that enthused about Tulane, so I’m not sure they will go out of their way to help with any kind of letter.</p>
<p>Hi RTR - OK, that does throw some light on the situation. Admissions officers generally get to know different high schools well since they focus on certain regions. That may help you if you decide to ask for further consideration, but it is hard to say. Certainly if a student challenges themself with lots of honors and AP courses, that is a plus. Given your school’s policy he was limited in the number of AP’s and this, unfortunately, hurt his chances at merit money, I think.</p>
<p>While the Tulane site doesn’t say anything specifically about GPA (because GPA varies so much with different schools it is not a good indicator), it did have the line about top 5% of the class. Here are the URLs where I got those quotes</p>
<p>Please note that while the first URL still says they give 100, I know for a fact they only gave 75 last year due to the economic downturn and the hit the endowment took. Maybe they will go back to 100 this year, I don’t know. However, bottom line is I feel from the tone of your various comments you are holding out hope he can get a DHS, and while nothing is stopping him from trying, I am just telling you the reality of the situation. His SAT scores and high school record do not put him in the running, no matter how creative his project might be. I think you will be better served focusing on trying to get Tulane to consider him for the $7,500/year award.</p>
<p>Finally, as far as your guidance department not being enthused about Tulane, that is just pure BS. I don’t care if it is Tuane or the University of Timbuktu, their job is to support the students in maximizing whatever reasonable outcome it is they desire. I am not suggesting they lie for him or anything like that, but simply to present Tulane with facts about the school that might put his grades in a context that helps him. If they cannot do that then they are not doing their job and I would take it up with the principal up through the head of the school board if needed. There is a lot at stake here and he should not be sabotaged by someone’s prejudices and ill conceived notions about where he “should” go.</p>
<p>This is directly from the Tulane’s website:</p>
<p>"December 15
Tulanes full tuition award, the Deans Honor Scholarship, is due in mid December.</p>
<p>Tulane offers 100 full tuition scholarships every year. Recipients generally earn a 2250 or higher on the SATs or a 33 on the ACT and possess outstanding high school records and recommendations along with breadth and depth in extracurricular activities. The DHS requires a submission of the DHS application and a teacher recommendation by December 15th. Both can be found here .`The project component is detailed on this site as well. "</p>
<p>As far as I know, when schools send out student’s transcripts, they also send along a school profile, which state their grading policies. My school ,also, does not provide unweighted GPAs and is weighted primarily the same as yours, only on a higher scale. For example an A+ in an AP class is 6.0, honors is 5.5, regular is 4.5. Many schools grade differently also, to receive an A+ in my school you have to have between a 98 and 100. I think you will find a tremendous range in grading policies amongst all schools, and admissions counselors are well aware of this fact. This is where class rank and difficulty of courses come into play.</p>
<p>I must have an awesome guidance department because they are willing to help in any way possible. They care more about my needs then their personal feelings toward a school.</p>
<p>Gabby, lol. Your insights are always first rate, and coming from a current student it gives them a different and valuable credibility. I hope things are continuing to go well for you.</p>
<p>After reading so many of these posts, I was VERY surprised my daughter received any money since her SAT is a little low according to Tulane’s 50% reports…so it’s likely they look at the whole person, essay, etc to make these decisions - which is a good thing! They also may look at other admits from your HS. There are currently 2 from her HS that are freshmen, so that may speak to how they view her HS in terms of competitiveness. Not sure. ??</p>
<p>Her stats: 1310/1600, 3.85UW/4.65W, top 8% of class, 3APs, all other classes for all 4 years were honors. Not sure that it matters but all of her volunteer, work, EC’s, leadership - and she doesn’t have a laundry list, just a deep commitment to a few - has been consistent for all 4 years. For example: Class Officer, Youth Group Executive Board, Baseball Manager, Choir and Drama (on increasing levels, inside and outside of school), and has held the same job as a camp counselor for 4 summers, and part time jobs (2) during the school year for 3 years. </p>
<p>I didn’t see any information even about the scholarship that she received online so it looks like they probably have a sliding scale and take other things into consideration, not just academics. Good luck to you and keep us posted.</p>
<p>So this starts to provide some insight to the question posed by ReadyToRoll, whose son that did not receive any merit offer had higher SAT’s than nj<em>mom’s daughter (significantly higher, I would even say: 1450 vs. 1310) but had a significantly lower GPA, both weighted and unweighted, and only one AP vs. three. Both seem to indicate strong EC’s. If I had had to guess before hearing the results, I would have thought both would have gotten the $7500, RTR because of the strong SAT scores and nj</em>mom because of the strong grades and decent AP’s. Admissions certainly sees more information though, and undoubtedly sees things somewhat differently based on long experience. It also makes me think that a conversation with admissions by RTR if her son gets good first semester grades will be very much worth a shot.</p>
<p>and just to add much confusion to this interesting discussion, I know a young man, from a NJ public who had 30 ACT, 3.5UW/3.8 weighted, top 12% of the class and who was offered the $25,000/year…go figure…</p>
<p>actually, bff, I am counseling him in the college process…so I actually saw the letter…he did not have alot of EC’s and no, he is not a URM…and he is not the only person from our NJ public who received that offer from Tulane over the last two years…</p>
<p>It sounds like Tulane puts a lot of emphasis on the GPA when considering one for merit money, and less on the SAT. I think that, for admission, it may be that the test scores were more important though. </p>
<p>Good suggestion about asking guidance to get involved after the quarter (or the half?) is over…it certainly can’t be bad to call and talk more about the student profile at our particular school…but I’m betting that the GPA was a strong factor in his not getting any money. I would also be interested in hearing the stats of others who did not get merit money to test my theory.</p>
<p>Wow, I got my letter today, and it says I got the Distinguished Scholars Award for $22,000.
My stats: GPA: Weighted- 3.85, UW-between 4.1 and 4.2, didn’t take too many AP classes at all from my freshman through junior year, but i did take a lot of honors. SAT: 2130/2400 (630 CR, 760 Math, 740 Writing). not too much EC’s, I even forgot to list my work experience on the application. I’m pretty surprised right now…</p>
<p>STV - Congrats! Those seem like fairly strong stats, and maybe your recs and personal statement/short essay were very good also.</p>
<p>So is Tulane your first choice or are you hoping for others? I looked at your posting for Illinois and you definitely sell yourself short. Either that or you are fishing for compliments, lol. Yes, I know there are a lot of students that have near perfect SAT’s, all A+'s with 10 AP’s, and pretty nearly brought peace to the Middle East, all while curing cancer and having a one person showing at the local art gallery, but trust me there are far more that are not nearly at your level of achievement. So be proud of yourself and enjoy! (BTW, I think you reversed your UW and W GPA in this post. No biggie).</p>
<p>Lol, I’m not fishing for compliments. I honestly think that I am not as strong of an applicant as many of the people who apply to schools like Tulane or Illinois. I just look at my own high school graduating class, and I’m in the top 16% of my graduating class… and although it is a competitive high school, if I’m in the top 16% of my SCHOOL, how would i stack up against others from around the nation?
and oops lol, yea i did</p>
<p>Coming in late to this conversation. TU * offers* about 100 (and this past yr 75) DHS awards, with a goal of netting about 50 DHS students in the incoming class of 1550. In my s’s year, there were 40 DHS scholars. How many in this year’s incoming class, fallenchemist??</p>
<p>Well it does sound like S shouldn’t expend the effort to apply then, especially because it does require a project and he is working on his grades (and still hugely involved in ECs). But…I also read all of the other scholarships and they all say you are notified when you receive your admission letter. This essentially means that there is no chance for my son to receive merit money later in the process, unless I’m missing something!</p>
<p>RTR-
The project doesn’t have to be a huge investment of time. My s gave out post-it note pads to his friends and asked them to write/draw or whatever, something that represented him to them. (One kid did a flip book!! It was great!!) My s selected one design that was a beautiful constellation of words, pictures,doodles, etc, put it in the “box” and wrote something about the importance of friends, and who one is to his friends and how important that is in life (I am paraphrasing-- it was a few years ago). It wasn’t long, and didn’t take a lot of work, but it was creative, and showed who he was. Thats what they are looking for. Yes, my s also had strong SATs (2290 - 1 sitting) but while he had a very good GPA (3.8 weighted) it was not stellar. He did take a very challenging courseload, was in a special accellerated math program and had a good number of APs. The rest were all honors. He did have a long (4-5 year) committment to a community service activity that he took over from my older s (they worked together for 2 of the years, then younger s took it over entirely when older s went to college). The dedication to community service is also very important to Tulane. They mentioned it specifically in his DHS award letter. I am not meaning to tout my s’s horn, and apologize if it sounds that way. What I am intending to do is encourage your s to apply. It can’t hurt. Grades and SATs are important, but not everything. If your s brings up his SATs he may be in the running. I think they are looking for the whole package, and if one isnt quite as strong as the rest, thats ok. So while yes, the stats are important, I wouldn’t dissuade your s from trying.</p>
<p>I would also encourage your s, as I and FC said before, to apply for a Community Service Scholarship if any of his EC’s are Comm. Svc related. Tulane is VERY BIG on community service. It is not only mandatory at TU, but the new accelerated undergrad/med school program requires a full year of CS after soph year. So if he has done CS, encourage him to apply. TU looks for reasons to give money, not for reasons not to (IMO). I am surprised your s wasn’t offered any. Perhaps it was an oversight and applying for the CS or DHS shows interest, committment and gives them an opportunity to look at him again. Oh, and please ask your gc to take a second look at TU. It has a lot to offer, especially for a student who doesnt want to be in the NE. My s didnt want cold weather. That ruled out a lot of schools!</p>