<p>I am helping my son fill out his application for CalPoly and we have come across a rather unexpected GPA problem that I I fear might make my son unreachable. </p>
<p>My son attends a middle college high school program where he takes up to 11 units of college coursework each semester in addition to his high school courses. He will be graduating high school in June about one semester short of junior status. As a result, he has numerous college general ed courses completed that fall in Category G of the application. Here lies the problem. College course work gets double counted, but only eight of them receive honors credit. He is a straight A student, but because he has some many classes it brings his GPA down to 4.12. If we are able to omit from listing all but the required Category G classes, his GPA goes up to 4.25. Even though he excels in college with straight A’s, his GPA is less superior than a typical high honor high schooler that does not have as many courses. </p>
<p>He does have a lot of advance math coursework, extra English, and extra performing arts coursework that should help him. Unfortunately the emotional qualities that make him a straight A student also cause him to bomb out on college placement tests. He took the ACT twice, but his score is in the low 20’s so he is going to need every GPA point he can get to be reachable for mechanical engineering. Is it possible to leave out extra G coursework to bring up his GPA? </p>