He has a lot of AP and IB classes.
It does show the grades are for each quarter, so itâs pretty obvious. He has four grades per year for a class that goes all year.
This highlights why weighted gpaâs are basically meaningless. Thereâs too much variation school-to-school on weighting schema. Focus on UNweighted GPA since thatâs more uniform. Rigor is a separate measure, and thatâs where honors/AP/IB/dual come into play.
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And why, with very few (though in some cases meaningful, e.g. the University of Alabama) exceptions, colleges recalculate weighted GPAs according to their own standards.
But yeah, comparing WGPAs is only meaningful within districts (or across states that harmonize weighting across their districts), and not across them. My kidsâ school district weights AP and IB classes but not honors or (bizarrely) DE classes. Other districts weight all of the above. Some weight everything by an additional point, others a half point, others weigh different types of classes different amounts. Some districts put a limit on the number of courses they provide weighting for. Et cetera. And who knows what each college is doing out there? (Because theyâre not telling.)
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I routinely see parents post their studentâs weighted GPA and often itâs a number thatâs not mathematically possible at our high school.
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Some schools offer a lot of APs early on and weigh those. I think in GA itâs not uncommon for someone to take 15+ APs.
At our school, APs usually start 11th grade and students are usually limited to 3 per year. Not that it matters, since the school doesnât report GPA (many of the country top schools donât, they donât rank either)
So National Merit looks at grades not just the test scores? Is there anything else? Is there an essay or anything?
Also, there is nothing else to do right now except get an SAT score to submit later, correct? Like no application until September, correct?
There is an essay, though I think most people submit their common app essay. Thanks to that deadline S finally managed to finish his!!
And a recommendation letter from the school.
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The application deadline was Oct 11th but if you donât send it in they mail you a reminder that you have until the end of the month.
You have to submit an official SAT score report, but the SAT SI only has to add up to the commended cutoff and you have until January to do that.
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At our school, APâs start in 10th grade (to take one in 9th grade would require special departmental supervisor permission.) Mine took 2 in 10th, now 4 in 11th, and ? in 12th and theyâre taking one of the most rigorous schedules possible at our school. These are counting classes, not tests (ie not counting Calc BC as 2 to include the AB subscore, not counting economics as 2 even though thereâs 2 AP exams for the one course, etc.)
Our high school does not rank. While it stinks for the tippy top (and I think my eldest wouldâve l likely been #1 that year) I appreciate the lack of ranking. It lets kids take classes they want to take, instead of chasing the honors/AP bump. Go ahead and take a music or art or cooking class!
I donât see how weighted or unweighted makes any difference to National Merit- they are getting the transcripts so they will know exactly what grade was in what class. So my kidâs unweighted 3.49 is okay but admittedly not spectacular, and also could be gotten by a student who didnât have a single C. But I see people saying one C could disqualify you from finalist, and that is the thing that matters. Which seems weird. I guess Will just have to hope that kiddo makes the 95%!
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I wish our school didnât rank (although the ranking is motivating D25). D wants to take some required classes at the community college this summer so they donât bring down her GPA since they are just âregularâ classes. It would be nice if she would just take them next year, plus it would give her a little break from the rigor.
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Itâs exactly these type of mind-games that Iâm happy to avoid. It really stinks the system puts this kind of pressure on our kids.
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Can you give me details about the Tulsa scholarship. I have a son in 9th grade he got a perfect 1520 psat score I know it doesnât count. Hope he can make it count 2 yrs from now
How do you find the list of those universities