I’m a little baffled when I see a school that admits 72% of applicants and has an average GPA of 4.04
I’ve seen a lot of profiles like that. Obviously, GPA is very important to them but that doesn’t seem like enough to explain it.
Anyone get it?
PS If I’m exaggerating, it’s not by much.
Example?
Unless you are comparing to the kids in your school on something like Naviance, looking at published GPAs is pretty useless. If you dig a little deeper into some of the common data set information you may be able to get an idea on how they scale, etc.
thanks-- but I can’t process that!
So, you are saying that the stats on google snippets or on guides like peterson’s etc. are no good?
That would be one explanation that would settled it.
Anyone disagree and have another explanatioon.?
Lots of high schools give weight to some classes. at our local public school, a 4.0 is the median gpa. Hence, for some, the importance of test scores
I believe this is true. I am so surprised sometimes to see an average gpa of a mid-level college as being 4.0. In my old-school thinking a 4.0 was only for the top of the class but now weighted classes have skewed that greatly. I remember in my time when a 3.5 was considered “great”.
Because they don’t want to hurt anybody’s feelings nowadays. 
OP: It is either a misprint or a 4th of July weekend special. = my best guess without any specific example.
If the GPA is a weighted GPA calculated with heavy or exaggerated weighting (like the South Carolina standard weighting), then it may appear to be higher than it actually is based on unweighted grades.
Even unweighted GPAs often use different scales–a school near me used 5.0 UW/6.0 W as their maxes. My school was unweighted on the 100 pt scale, but some people had to report theirs on a 4.0 scale for scholarships. In that case, some counted an A+ as a 4.3 even though we didn’t weight at all.
Can you give some actual examples of schools? I just used Niche’s search tool that let me choose the selectivity level (I chose ‘average,’ which provided schools that accept 60%-89% of applicants), but none of the schools that it showed have anything close to 4.0 average GPAs, and the school with the top SAT score range was RIT (1220-1410). Are you looking at weighted GPAs? A 4.0 average out of 5.0 would make a lot more sense and certainly explain why a school that accepts 72% of applicants could have an average 4.0 GPA. (Niche does not provide information on weighted GPAs.)
Any place you see a school’s average GPA you have to know the source and how they used transcript data. Sometimes admissions calculates an average GPA, sometimes institutional reporting does…and sometimes those two groups calculate GPA differently.
For example, on the common data sets (for schools that even choose to fill in the average GPA field) there are a myriad of ways that schools calculate that. For example, some schools just take GPA directly from transcripts (and many HSs only reported weighted GPAs on transcripts), while some schools might recalculate using core courses only on a 4.0 scale, while still others would apply their own weighting (as others have noted above).
Bottom line…average GPAs are meaningless for many schools. Do not use third party sources for average GPA data, it’s even less reliable than the schools’ own data.
Yes, many schools show > 4.0 GPA on their CDS, meaning they are obviously not using an unweighted 4.0-max scale. But IME, these are typically the more selective schools with sub 20% acceptance rate.
Who shows a 4.04 GPA and 72% accept rate?
So, you are saying that the stats on google snippets or on guides like peterson’s etc. are no good?
First, I would stick with CDS or IPEDS. The various ranges of “colleges with the highest SAT scores” articles is mind-boggling.
CDS and IPEDS are at least somewhat standardized and directionally correct, though still not ideal.
For those asking for examples, here are a few that I found with 3.8+ GPA. Stats courtesy of Princeton Review.
Elon U: HSGPA=4.04 - Admit=72%
Lewis & Clark: HSGPA=3.85 - Admit=80%
St Louis U: HSGPA=3.94 - Admit=56%
Creighton: HSGPA=3.86 - Admit=64%
Gonzaga: HSGPA=3.82 - Admit=62%
Granted, assuming the OP was making a broad generalization (hence the OP’s reference to “exaggeration”,) I was a little flexible with the GPA or Admit rate. I think the overall question comes from trying to determine what truly differentiates a 11%Admit Rate school from a 50%+Admit Rate school if the incoming GPA is similar. If that’s not the underlying point, I’ll leave it to the OP to correct.
For instance, what’s the difference between Sarah Lawrence Univ (3.7, ACT27-32, Admit59%) and Colgate (3.68, ACT30-33, Admit27%)? The GPA/ACT numbers don’t look so different as to explain the Admit% being cut in half. These are both LAC in NY state. And if we add in Union College (3.5, ACT28-33, Admit=41%) things might get a little more confusing for a family trying to decide exactly why some of these Admit Rate numbers are what they are. And wondering if Admit Rate is a proxy for academic quality, or does Admit Rate indicate something else that is not academic quality.
EDIT: Instead of “Admit Rate” I should have used “Acceptance Rate” for clarity.
It’s not that is is irrelevant, you just can’t look at it as a unique data point, it’s relative to both the school you attended and the school you are applying to. What college were you referencing?
I don’t think IPEDS shows HS GPA anywhere…definitely not in College Navigator. Do you see it elsewhere? It is supposed to be taken directly from common data sets, and IPEDs data is often a year behind the CDSs.
Regarding the CDS…many schools (across all levels of selectivity) will take weighted GPA directly from the transcript, and enter any that are greater than 4.0 as a 4.0 GPA in their average calculations. Even the common app directions state to enter weighted GPA if you have that, and for many HSs, weighted GPAs are also on a 4 point scale (assuming they they use a 4 point scale for unweighted GPA). It seems that every year fewer and fewer schools are filling out the CDS average GPA field.
I’m thinking this would be a great thread of its own 
I will add Allegheny college to the list with an admit rate of 73% and average GPA of 3.5.
These schools may have a low yield, so they have to admit a lot of students to make sure enough students will show up
Take a look at the CDS for Elon, one thing you’ll notice is they have a high admit rate and a relatively low yield.
They list an Average GPA (remember this is for enrolled not admitted students) of 4.04 and 53% have a GPA listed of 4.0, yet only 25% of students were in the top 10% of their class.
S21 some schools he applied recalculated his GPA. Honors courses a .5 was added . AP IB AICE Dual enrollment courses a 1 was added.
Also some schools only used core classes. others core plus academic electives
S21 ultimately chose Florida State FSU which has a 4.1-4.6 middle 50% GPA calculated with .5 added for Honor classes and 1 added for AP IB AICE and Dual enrollment classes. FSU uses only core classes to calculate your GPA English, Math, Science, social studies and Foreign Language.