<p>How is it that, reading through some "chance-me's," a student with a weighted GPA of say 4.5 is number one at their school. I personally have something cumulative weighted of 5.1 and I am only number 5/646. (not that I am unhappy at all with my ranking) At my school, at least the top 30 kids are taking 5-6 AP's (or the dual enrollment equivalent) for senior year. Last year, maybe the top 5-10 took that many.</p>
<p>I know that class of 2008 at my school is very competitive, but do you think that some schools have a generally lower set of GPA's compared to mine because it is much easier to keep an A at my school? If so, do colleges recognize that fact or are our chances significantly improved at getting accepted to competitive colleges? What else could account for the gap?</p>
<p>Class of 2007 students who got accepted to Ivies and the likes were generally perfect-on-a-sheet-of-paper students or minorities so it is hard to tell. Class of 2006 was a bunch of unmotivated kids and only one applied Ivy and got in.</p>
<p>FYI I come from an average public school in Florida.</p>
<p>For one, there's a discontinuity in the way GPA is calculated there. You say 4.5, which is probably on a 5-point scale. Then you cite your GPA as a 5.1; you can't go over a 5 when it comes to weighted GPA. Your school obviously does it differently, which would skew your view of it relative to others'.</p>
<p>Further, that person may have been #1 out of 235, which makes competition easier. His or her school may be less competitive; mine isn't, so it's easy to get a high rank. And his or her school may have more grade inflation than yours. Colleges take all of this into account, because they get a rundown of everything from your counselor.</p>
<p>Possible to get higher than a 5.0 if your school uses a 6-pt scale (6 = AP). My school does this. Yet the highest GPA is probably only around 5.2.</p>
<p>I never knew about the 5 pt system, thanks. How does it work? On a 5 pt system do honors count the same as regs or as APs or are they out of 4.5?Here, Reg courses are weighted out of 4pts, honors out of 5pts, and APs out of 6pts. </p>
<p>Thanks for the reply.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I never knew about the 5 pt system, thanks. How does it work? On a 5 pt system do honors count the same as regs or as APs or are they out of 4.5?Here, Reg courses are weighted out of 4pts, honors out of 5pts, and APs out of 6pts.</p>
<p>Thanks for the reply.
[/quote]
In my school, we do a 5 point system as such:</p>
<p>A+ in AP = 5.3
A+ in Honors = 4.9
A+ in regular = 4.3</p>
<p>A in AP = 5.0
A in Honors = 4.6
A in regular = 4.0</p>
<p>etc.</p>
<p>What amazes me is how people manage to have 4.8 GPAs over all of high school with a system like this.</p>
<p>Colleges really don't care how the school does GPA; they will recalculate your GPA using their own method. Generally weighted is: A=5, B=4, C=2, D/F=0 -- honors, AP, IB, pre-AP. Unweighted: A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0. Only the five core areas (English, math, history, science, language) are included. +s and -s don't matter.</p>
<p>Virgil: if the system goes over 5 points, then it isn't a 5-point system. Yours is a 5.3-system.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Virgil: if the system goes over 5 points, then it isn't a 5-point system. Yours is a 5.3-system.
[/quote]
Ahh, technicalities...</p>
<p>My school has a 6 point grading system..and yet somehow the valedictorian's GPA this year was a 6.855 or something..</p>
<p>Our highest GPA is 5.0 but I think the highest anybody ever gets is about a 4.3 at the absolute highest. There are only so many APs you can take. But colleges rework your GPA to their scale.</p>
<p>honors electives don't count when colleges calculate it?</p>
<p>how much does class rank matter...</p>
<p>my school doesn't do class rank :S</p>