I am a US-dual citizen educated in Germany and i plan to apply to Harvard SCEA.
I have pretty strong ECs (2 instruments, concert master in school orchestra, a sport with international, national and regional titles and app developing).
However, I am concerned about my GPA.
In Germany it is extremely difficult to get an A (the average grade is a C/D) and therefore my calculated and translated GPA wouldn’t be as excellent as other (US) Harvard applicants. I am ranked 1 in my graduating class though.
Does Harvard out more weight on the GPA or on the Clas Rank?
And do I need to calculate and translate my GPA myself or does my school counselor just send in my transcripts?
BTW, my ACT score is 33 (34,35,30,33) and I am looking forward to my SAT 2 scores (Chem and Maths 2), which should be 750+.
Student’s should NOT calculate or translate their GPA. They should write down on the Common App EXACTLY what it says on their high school transcript. Admissions Officers deal with this situation every year, as it’s their job to understand the different grading systems of other countries, including Germany. So you have to trust that they know what they are doing, and will do it correctly.
What I actually want to ask is if Harvard sees your GPA under the context of the school difficulity.
Or do they only compare “hard numbers”? (US GPA to german GPA)
Admissions Officers evaluate student’s in the context of their school. When you apply to college, your guidance counselor completes a Secondary School Report (SSR) in which they rate your course rigor and GPA to all other college could student’s AT YOUR SCHOOL. That’s how Harvard will look at your GPA, in the context of your school. See page 2 of SSR: http://www.du.edu/apply/media/documents/2012CASSR.pdf
One item your school will report is the top GPA. If it’s 3.8 and yours is 3.79 – then it’s clear that you’re among the top scholars at your school. Good luck.
My school generally only uses the grades from junior and senior years in their calculation. Wil this top GPA be reported or the one that uses grades from 9th to 12th year?
