<p>i hate being an annoying sophomore poster who's not even going through the college process yet, but i stumbled upon rice and absolutely fell in love with it. i know that it's an extremely selective school, so i'm a little worried about my future chances. i go to a very small, girls' college prep private school. freshman year, i took one honors class (i think it's all that was available), but it wasn't right for me, and i didn't do that well. i think coming into the school was a tad overwhelming, especially coming from an easy grade school. anyway, my freshman weighted gpa is 3.5. this year, though, i'm doing much better and currently have a gpa in the 4.2 range out of 4.33 with no honors classes (my school's gpa scale is different than most, i assume). next year, i'll definitely be taking 4 or 5 honors classes. still...my weighted gpa will, at nearly the highest, end up in the 4.1-4.2 range :/ is that too low for rice? and will the fact i haven't taken any honors classes soph year hurt me? will my upward trend somewhat make up for that? </p>
<p>also, my school has only 2 or 3, and i think they're only offered senior year. </p>
<p>i know that admissions don't rely solely on gpa and that there are many other factors, but i was hoping that my gpa hasn't already broken me. i'm not a slacker by any means; it's just that freshman year was extremely difficult for me.</p>
<p>What is your unweighted GPA?</p>
<p>If you continue an upward trend then a 3.5 won’t look so bad.</p>
<p>Regarding honors classes, don’t worry about how many honors/AP/weighted grade classes you are taking; worry about how rigorous your schedule is given what you have to work with. Admissions won’t expect you to have x many AP classes if your school doesn’t even offer any. They just want to know that you took as demanding a schedule as the school allowed and did well with it.</p>
<p>You’re fine. I didn’t take any APs until Junior year (way my school works) and I got in. Just continue on an upwards trend.</p>
<p>Schools tend to put less weight on freshman year. Also, if you exhibit an upward trend, as Fallen Angel mentions, you will be fine. </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Exactly. Your GC can mention this in their letter.</p>
<p>unweighted, after this year, will be in the 3.7-3.85 range. my school kind of has a different grading scale…for example, even without honors, an A+ is equivalent to 4.33. so, if i got straight A+s, would my unweighted gpa be 4.0 or 4.33? i haven’t really figured that out yet.
if it’s 4.0, my unweighted would end up as 3.7 something. if it’s 4.2, my gpa would be 3.8 something.</p>
<p>Do you know your class rank?</p>
<p>no; i’m not even sure if my school ranks students.</p>
<p>The GPA in itself is not a good determining factor for admission. If the whole school gets a 4.0, having all A’s is not as good as having a 3.5 when most got a 3.0. I got into Rice with a 82% average for example, although I was second in my class. </p>
<p>If you can find out whether you are top 10%, top 5% etc. that would help more.</p>
<p>oh yeah, definitely. that makes sense. and i’m totally sure not the whole class gets 4.0s. it’s definitely not easy.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I’d define A+ = 4.33 as still being unweighted because weighted usually refers to some classes being on a different scale than others; all of your classes give more points for an A+ than an A.</p>
<p>Your upward trend will definitely help. From reading your post, as long as you maintain an upward trend, your GPA doesn’t look like it should be a problem with an otherwise strong application. Your class rank, however, is a much more important factor (whether it’s a specific rank or just your GPA compared to the top X% GPA, which is usually what happens with schools that don’t rank).</p>
<p>Long story short, as long as you continue doing well/improving, you should still have a shot at Rice.</p>
<p>Thanks so much. I already feel a lot better. And if the 4.33 scale really is unweighted, I’d be really, really happy.</p>
<p>I hate to put a damper on your spirits, but I’m pretty sure most colleges dont recognize an A+ as anything more than just a high A. In regards to GPA, I think it would still count as a 4 =( hopefully I’m wrong though</p>
<p>tart: yeah, i figured. i did research after i posted that, and it seems like As all just equal 4 (or something like that). i don’t know…it’s not like i can predict anything, so all i can do is my best.</p>
<p>I agree that most colleges don’t. However, it’s worth noting that Rice’s own GPA system gives a 4.33 for an A+. Not sure how admissions feels about it, but that’s how our registrar does it.</p>
<p>Edit: I also have no idea whether Rice recalculates your GPA. Some schools don’t bother recalculating. I’ll have to find out about that.</p>
<p>Thanks. I have another question…my school only has 2 APs, neither of which I can get into, so would it look bad if I didn’t go out of my way to self-study for and take AP tests? Is that something I should do? Basically everyone on CC has taken and aced a few…</p>
<p>If you’re not able to get into either of the APs at your school, I wouldn’t worry too much about it. As far as self-studying goes, I would strongly suggest that it’s not going to hurt you if you didn’t do so. Lots of people (including myself) didn’t self study for APs and still got in. I remember freaking out one of the first few times I came to CC and saw that lots of people had 8+ AP tests going into their senior year, whereas I only had 3, yet things still worked out. As previous posters have said, just make sure your courseload is rigorous, and that you do well with your classes. The rigor of your class schedule is really one of the more important factors, and that doesn’t necessarily have to mean AP classes, if that’s not an option for you.</p>
<p>Yeah, but at least you had three. Still not sure about APs…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>CC is an awful sample population. I think you’ll be fine without self-studying. Self-studying is usually excessive and unnecessary.</p>
<p>You’re evaluated in the context of your high school, so you won’t be expected to have a bazillion APs because you didn’t have that opportunity.</p>