Does anyone know how to covert a 6.0 scale GPA to an unweighted 4.0 scale? In my high school, 6 is 93+ and 5 is 87-93, so it seems I will be penalized when a college only asks for an unweighted 4 scale GPA. A simple formula conversion is really not fair.
@Frydaddy , I believe that these are form emails. These smaller LACS face many of the issues BS do in “creating a class”, but on a somewhat larger scale, so it’s helpful to them to know who will say yes for sure.
I think they want kids to know that if they have a first choice, it could be helpful to them to switch the application from RD to ED2. Many people don’t know that’s possible. And at this point, there are kids who have heard definitive "no"s from their first choice school (s) and have new first choices.
At the same time, kids have spent so much time on apps that they want to see what may happen with all of them.
If there is a strong frontrunner and you don’t need to compare FA offers, it makes sense. Otherwise, wait it out…
You don’t.You report your GPA on a 6.0 scale to match your transcript.
You won;t be penalized; AOs are familiar with different grading scales.
@skieurope Thanks for your reply. DD is applying for a college’s summer program. Its application system only asked for an unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale and it’s a mandatory field which she cannot just type in “NA”. What do you suggest her to do? Although they ask for a pdf file of her official transcript, I am not sure if the selection committee of this west coast college is familiar with her school’s grading scale. BTW, there is no other place for her to do a further explanation. Thanks.
Ask her counselor.
Thanks for the responses regarding the ED2 emails. There were a couple of schools on SmallFry’s list that were sort of afterthoughts that suddenly rose to the top of the list at the end of January (mostly due to a shift of opinion on desired geography). We considered doing ED2 to one of those schools but then decided it was too rash so we did RD. I hope we won’t regret not taking advantage of the boost of ED2.
I can’t stand the waiting. It seems like everyone else here is done already. Is anyone still waiting on schools?
@Frydaddy we are waiting as well. Only acceptance to date is state flagship. Wouldn’t be the end of the world if this is where she ends up, but certainly not in her top 10 schools she hoped to attend. Still waiting to hear from 11 schools.
Thank goodness we have all been super busy this year- us with work travel and her with yearbook, mock trial )they made it to states this coming week). …, So we have had little time to stress over results. Honestly our hope is she will have a handful of acceptances and be able to choose the school that feels right after revisiting. Fingers crossed!
^^@vegas1 – I feel it in my bones – she’ll have options she likes. It’s still early in the decision cycle…
Sending good vibes to you and @Frydaddy .
First 2 decisions are in 1WL and 1 acceptance. The WL came first and was a little disappointing. It was a good solid school, but not in her top 5. It shook her confidence and that made the acceptance yesterday especially sweet. She loves the LAC that accepted her and would be happy to attend. It is a small school and she loved how in their acceptance letter they called out out one of the reasons they selected her. It wasn’t my favorite when we visited, but ultimately it will be her decision. She is still waiting on 9 schools, so time willl tell. But the world looks a lot brighter when your kid has a solid acceptance at one of their top choice schools.
Congratulations to @vegas1’s dd! Always good to know you are going to college for sure!
4 more decisions in: 2 WL from schools that her college counselors encouraged her to apply to. as she needed some higher acceptance rate schools on her list. She had zero interest in attending and I am pretty sure that must have come through in her apps. She also got 2 surprising Acceptances to higher ranked LAC’s. Both came with pretty solid FA packages. She is still waiting on 5 more decisions. As of now, she is undecided between the 3 LAC’s and hopes to attend admitted student days to help her make up her mind. We are thrilled she has such solid choices and although none of our west coast family would recognize the names of the schools- we know she is super lucky to have the chance to attend any of the 3.
Daughter was crushed today as she got WL to her parents alma mater. She has some other great acceptances but this one hurt.
@MakMacdonald hugs to your daughter and family. Hopefully over time the sting will lessen and she will find her place at the college that will become her alma matter and a new chapter will begin.
Congratulations @vegas1! @MakMacdonald sorry about the sting to but glad to hear she has great acceptances. Here is our tally so far:
4 rejections - 2 super reaches and 2 reaches, one of which was our ED option (we were deferred), so that stung a bit.
3 wait-lists - 2 reaches (no surprise for either, but disappointed on 1 of them) and 1 match (a bit of a surprise – thought we’d get in)
5 acceptances - 3 safeties and 2 reaches (1 in-state). Both reaches were a big surprise.
We are still waiting for 3 schools - not Ivies, but all reaches of varying degrees, and all of which we still care about. (Yes, we applied to 15 schools – although 2 were last minute “check the boxes” which ended up as waitlist and rejection).
Our big problem is SmallFry’s sport, which SmallFry needs like most people need air. Either of the 2 reaches would be a slam-dunk but for the fact that there are very limited opportunities for SmallFry’s sport --so attending either basically means leaving behind the sport that SmallFry loves.
The remaining 3 ones have better possibilities w/respect to SmallFry’s sport. They are all great schools, but I’m not sure they would be first choice if not for the sports issue.
How many schools do BS college counselors and indep consultants recommend one apply to these days?
@CaliMex , the answer depends on the types of schools. Our CC recommended that students looking at LACs do 12-15. The rationale was that a class of 500 would want only we 250 of one gender. At a school of that size, many of the 250 will be recruited athletes, some will be development cases, and roughly 10% will be through programs such as posse and questbridge, making the actual # closer to 100-125, and at that point, it’s really a question of how well an applicant fills the open spots – much like the BS process. Kids who are applying to a different profile of schools, particularly larger ones, may do fine with about 8, especially if there are EA or rolling admissions schools that can provide decisions early enough to prevent the need to include schools of less interest.
But again, like BS, kids who need merit or want to compare FA offers may benefit from having more irons in the fire.
@CaliMex ours recommended 8-10 schools total. 4 to 5 category 1/2 and 4 to 5 category 3/4/5. Categories include
1: Safety
2: Likely
3: Possible
4. Reach
5. Far reach
Our daughter applied to 12 total.
Thank you, @vegas1 …
Our school had 4 categories, similar to the ones above, but with 1 and 2 combined in one category. For us, “Far reach” meant no one with the same GPA/test scores from SmallFry’s school had gotten accepted w/in the last 5 years.
They didn’t give us a recommended number, but when SmallFry originally had 18 schools they said the list should be shorter. We ended up with 2 far reaches, 3 safeties, and the rest were a range of possible and low-to-mid reaches. We just made sure we had safeties that we would be perfectly happy with. SmallFry was mostly targeting LAC’s so we applied to more schools.
Here are the (almost) final results by category:
1: Safety: none applied
2: Likely: 1 applied, 1 accepted
3: Possible: 4 applied 2 accepted 2 WL
4. Reach: 4 applied 2 accepted 1 WL 1?
5. Far reach: 3 applied 2 accepted 1 Denied
Total 12 applied: 7 accepted, 3 WL, 1D, 1?
She is thrilled to have so many choices. As an unhooked applicant who has worked really hard, it is great that she has so many solid choices. Ivy day was good to her as she was accepted to 2 of the 3 that she applied to. Now comes the next step: deciding where she will spend the next 4 years.