How are GPAs calculated, as in school we are ranked against our peers in the subjects we do rather than across the whole cohort? Could we submit our ATAR (indicates position relative to other students in your state eg. 99.95 means that you’re better than 99.95% of all graduating students) as an alternative to the GPA?
I am not very familiar with the Australian education system, but just to address some of your questions in general.
GPAs do not generally reflect how difficult the course load was, since - as you observed - students are typically only graded against other students in the same class. Please be assured that US universities are paying very close attention to the rigor of your course load when they review applications. (In particular, the math courses chosen are often used as a proxy for the academic potential of an applicant.)
Some American schools try to make GPAs reflective of the course load by adding bonus points to grades in difficult classes. E.g. a B in honors math and an A in regular math might both get awarded 4 GPA points. Those constructs are called “weighted GPAs” and are impossible to compare across schools (since every school concocts their own weighting scheme). Standard GPAs, that just take an average over all of the grades as they were given, are called “unweighted GPA.”
I believe the Common App gives you a choice whether to report a weighted or an unweighted GPA.
You should definitely state your ATAR somewhere, but to me it seems like a closer analog to the American concept of a “class rank” than to that of a GPA.
You should definitely submit your ATAR and the subjects you took. Your Sat/act will also help normalize your results.
Your GC should classify your classes.
“Honors” classes are those mostly preparing you to college. “advanced” would be specialty subjects (look at the IB or AP curriculum).
So, calculus would automatically be honors or advanced.
A student who will not take ATAR would likely be in ‘regular’ classes in the US.
Awarding of As, Bs, Cs… inthe US is very different from the rest of the English seeking world. There’s no E or G for instance, and C is not sufficient for colleges.
To give you an idea of the numbers’ meaning , GPA, unweighted, should be in the 3.75-4.0 range for top 50 universities and LACs, in the 3.5-3.8 range for top 100 colleges. Look at the “parents of 3.4 students” to see college options depending on test scores. Look at the results threads for the colleges you’re interested in. This will introduce you to lots of wonderful colleges, some of which are wonderful reaches or matches.
Buy a Princeton Review’s best colleges book, sift through it. Check out the Colleges that change lives website. Then refine your search with the Fiske guide.
When you see acceptance rates, divide these in two because you’re international.
Do not neglect LACs, even if you don’t know about them right now. They’re highly selective colleges with lots of money and very well connected alumni that focus on undergrads. They’re unique to the US.
Actually, most US colleges should be familiar with the ATAR, which is the coin of the realm in Australia. Do not try to calculate a GPA.