<p>Under most school profiles on collegeboard.com, there is a percentage listing of high school GPA's of the freshman class. For example, at NYU:</p>
<p>33% had h.s. GPA of 3.75 and higher
39% had h.s. GPA between 3.5 and 3.74
16% had h.s. GPA between 3.25 and 3.49
11% had h.s. GPA between 3.0 and 3.24
1% had h.s. GPA between 2.5 and 2.99</p>
<p>My first question is, how useful are these numbers (in general, not for the example above)? Are they all rescaled GPA's (to the 4.0 scale) or are they just based off what the high schools give them?</p>
<p>My second question is: How can some schools, such as NC State, have an incredible GPA spread (posted below) but only have mid-50% SAT scores that are average (also posted below)?</p>
<p>The incredible GPA spread of NC State:
93% had h.s. GPA of 3.75 and higher
5% had h.s. GPA between 3.5 and 3.74
1% had h.s. GPA between 3.25 and 3.49
1% had h.s. GPA between 3.0 and 3.24</p>
<p>And its mediocre SAT spread:
SAT Critical Reading: 530 - 620
SAT Math: 560 - 660
SAT Writing: 510 - 610</p>
<p>(I have noticed that most North Carolina schools have incredible GPA spreads and mediocre SATs...coincidence?)</p>
<p>North Carolina gets a 2pt bump for AP classes. If the reported GPA reflects a weighed GPA this would make sense. Also, being out of the northeast, test prep is not nearly as prevalent in NC.</p>
<p>I could be off base, but these are things to consider that could contribute to the disparity.</p>
<p>For my knowledge, in NC state each college/major uses different admission criteria.
For example, college of design and college of engineering, etc are more selective than other major. You can find this information in NCSU web site.</p>
<p>Because of vast differences in GPA calculation methods between HSs, I don’t place a lot of stock in these reported numbers. I think the % in the Top 10% is a more meaningful metric of grades.</p>
<p>CB SHOULD be reporting data that comes from the Common Data Set for each school. Often the data is not current just due to the delay in posting newly released info. The CDS directions specifically state the GPA should be out of a 4.0 system (UW numbers).</p>
<p>First of all, I think the reports are often about a year or so behind.</p>
<p>My first question is, how useful are these numbers (in general, not for the example above)? Are they all rescaled GPA’s (to the 4.0 scale) or are they just based off what the high schools give them?</p>
<p>I’ve wondered the same. On one hand it would seem like the rescaled to 4.0 is the deal. On the other hand, I can’t see how CB could do that without getting detailed records…which I don’t think they’re getting.</p>
<p>My second question is: How can some schools, such as NC State, have an incredible GPA spread (posted below) but only have mid-50% SAT scores that are average (also posted below)?</p>
<p>Many state schools are going to have high GPA spreads with lower mid ranges for test scores because they accept a lot of kids who attend “lesser high schools” who obviously have grade inflation. At a lesser school, the Val and Sal may have “straight A’s” but not crack 1800 on the SAT.</p>
<p>And a lot of publics are GPA-driven for acceptance…otherwise their best schools would mostly consist of upper-middle class non-URMs from the suburbs.</p>
<p>The UCs are a perfect example of being GPA-driven.</p>
<p>NC colleges almost always report the weighted GPA and especially if those are state schools (and most students are from NC) they will be skewed up (due to the bump for honors and AP’s +1, +2 respectively)</p>