<p>HI
My daughter was rejected from one of her top schools. I called them and they indicated her gpa was 2.73. In reality it was closer to a 3.3 on a 4.0 scale. Her school is on a 5.0 and rather than them asking the school for additional information they used the letter grades on the transcript and arbitrarily brought them all down. Her honor courses of which she had eight were all given less credit than her level one courses. </p>
<p>It is a moot point for her because she needed a 3.6 to get into their program but this means to me that the school is misinterpreting all school transcripts that are based on a 5.0 scale. I explained this to the admission councillor and had the guidance councillor contact him. He was very nice but clearly missed the mark. He also said he only includes sciences, math, languages, english and history. I went back and redid all of those for all 4 years and she ended up with a 3.2 far higher than his 2.73. My concern is that he indicated this is standard in the industry. I called a couple of other schools, one of them had another approach which seemed more reasonable and I was unable to get in touch with the other two. I wonder how many kids this school has rejected because they didnt bother to figure out what the transcript meant. One would think most colleges would call the high school. I'm really irritated with the arrogance of this.</p>
<p>Colleges routinely recompute the High School GPA using THEIR OWN formulas...not the ones used by the high schools. The reason for this is exactly what you are saying...too much variation in the way high schools compute GPA. The high school SHOULD have included a high school profile in with your daughter's transcript. My guess is they did this. The college recomputed using their formula. Things that may or may not have affected the outcome...does your high school use +/- designations? Some colleges do and some do not. Some colleges "weigh" the courses...others do not. Most schools only use the end of course marks, and not any mid year or mid term marks (for courses that have not ended). Some colleges do the same...and some do only use the end of year marks.</p>
<p>My kid didn't get accepted at University of Maryland College Park with a 730 verbal SAT and a 590 math...and a HS gpa of 3.4. But he DID get accepted to Boston University with a scholarship. We never did figure that one out. But it is likely that when they computed the GPA, one was higher than the other. It certainly wasn't his SAT scores!</p>
<p>Your high school should send out a profile with every transcript. Often hs profiles contain grading, ranking, average standardized test scores, socio-economic info, APs and Honor classes offered and numbers of students who take them, scores on APs, etc.</p>
<p>Sorry, that your daughter was not accepted. Honestly, not that this is any type of litmus test, but I was unable to fully understand the grade information that you provided.</p>
<p>By the way...some colleges also only count "core" types of math, English, science and social studies courses. For example, my son took statistics and we know that one of his colleges did NOT include that course at all in their GPA computation. They only include the geometry, algebra, and the calculus series. DD took a sociology course and that also wasn't included (we heard) by one of her schools. Of course, both of those were courses my kids did VERY well in!!</p>
<p>OP - Not that it matters, but I didn't understand the computations either. Since your D was an "unlikely" for this particular school, it's probably time for her to move on. For the rest of us who are trying to keep our finger on the "pulse" of college admissions, can you help us understand how you got your 3.2 (when the college computed 2.7)? Did the college simply "round down" pluses? Take a half point off every grade? Also, what type of HS does your D attend. Competitive private? Parochial private? Magnet? Large public suburban?</p>
<p>Thumper, that's all true. We attended a couple of info sessions where the schools explained that they recalculate gpas using only the courses required for admission. This means that if one took computer programming, AP art class, or AP German, even though they are all wonderful classes, German I and II would count in recalculating the hs gpa if 2 years of a foreign language are required, and the rest would not count because they were not required for admission. In conclusion, don't assume that only the phys ed class is not included when recalculations are done.</p>
<p>A similar thing happened to my daughter. Her college required a certain weighted GPA, along with ACT score, for admission to their honors program. At first she was denied based on GPA which puzzled us. When we asked them how they had computed the GPA it turned out that her high school, a State math and science school for juniors and seniors, had listed all their classes as AP level but listed all the classes, many of which were AP level, from from her home high school as normal level. So when the college computed the GPA using their methods all those classes were not weighted. They fixed it after we sent a copy of the actual transcript from the home high school proving they were AP level so she did get into the honors. I think she might have missed out on some scholarship opportunities because of the timing of the information - but she ended up with a really good one based on her ACT so can't complain - well not too much anyway ;)</p>
<p>My daughter was on a 5.0 scale, which resulted in an overall gpa of 4.0. When it gets converted to a 4.0 scale it is 3.2. The college in question ignored the gpa on the transcript and used letter grades for the individual courses they are interested in. </p>
<p>She had 8 honor classes. An example is a B- in Honors They reduced it to a C-. Her school gives a B- in honors 4.17 quality points, a B- in a level one course gets her a 3.67. Since they did not distinguish between level 1 and honor courses and reduced both course types by a letter grade, she received no credit for taking harder courses and basically was penalized for it. </p>
<p>I recalculated her gpa on the courses they include based on a 4.0 scale and get a 3.2.</p>
<p>Hope this clears up the confusion I've created. My daughters guidance councillor did call the admission person there and unfortunately he is doing this for all 5.0 schools. </p>
<p>I did send the admissions person a follow up with the recalculation to see if he will reconsider her because I do think she would have at least been deferred to regular admission.</p>
<p>Can you explain the 5.0 scale a bit more? I think that our hs also has a 5.0 school, but this means that an A is a 4.0, B is a 3.0, C is a 2.0, D is a 1.0. An honors class gets an additional 0.5, so this means that a B becomes a 3.5 (3.0+ .5=3.5), and an AP gets an additional 1.0, so a B becomes a 4.0 (3.0+1.0=4.0). A regular college prep class with a B- is not a 3.67 at our hs. It is a 2.7. A B- in honors class is a 3.2 (not a 4.17). Is the scale at our hs a 4.0 scale, even though one can earn a 5.0 in AP courses?</p>
<p>There are colleges that will unweight all gpas. It seems like your daughter's weighted gpa was unweighted by the college. Did they believe that the high school was addding by a 1.0 for every honors class? If the school did not weight gpas for any of their applicants your D was not penalized. If they unweighted her gpa, but did not unweight gpas for other applicants, then she would have been penalized IMO. Most schools do expect applicants to challenge themselves by taking some honors or AP classes, if they are offered at their high schools.</p>
<p>3.3 / 5.0 is roughly equal to 2.7 / 4.0 Might this be where the confusion arises?
Mathematically, I still agree with undecided. Did the college not receive a copy of your D's HS Profile, showing how they add credit for grade Honors/ AP Classes?</p>
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<p>Did the college not receive a copy of your D's HS Profile, showing how they add credit for grade Honors/ AP Classes?>></p>
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<p>It might not matter whether the HS weighs Honors and AP courses. Some colleges weigh these when THEY recompute GPA and others simply do not.</p>
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<p>If you multiply the 4.0 by .80 you get 3.2gpa.>></p>
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<p>That is NOT how GPA is determined. You would need to KNOW the value the college assigns to each letter grade. You don't simply multiply by .80 to get the GPA "translated" from a 5.0 scale to a 4.0 scale.</p>
<p>It is important that your high school sends a copy of your school's profile that will explain grading at your school. From the sounds of things it seems as the college took your D's straight grades with out weighting to determine her GPA (because there was already an expectation that she would be taking the most rigerous courses offered by the school).</p>
<p>the NACAC (National Association for College Admissions Counseling) has a report: The State of College Admissions, which may help to answer a lot of pressing questions concerning the admissions process </p>
<p>According to the NACAC (national association of college admissions counselors):</p>
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<p>Do colleges recalculate GPAs?</p>
<p>Colleges and universities receive transcripts and GPA calculations from thousands of high schools, each of which may calculate GPAs differently.</p>
<p>Many high schools use a traditional 4-point scale to measure grade averages, others use weighted 4.5- or 5-point scales, while still others use grade scales that reach as high as 8 or 10.</p>
<p>To provide a standard comparison of grade point averages among applicants, some colleges recalculate grade point averages. Colleges are virtually evenly split on the practice of recalculating GPAs—49 percent do and 51 percent do not. </p>
<p>High yield institutions are more likely than low yield institutions to recalculate GPA. (Basically more selective schools where if admitted the student is more likely to enroll will recalculate your GPA to a 4 point scale)</p>
<p>In short, the more selective the school (and more likely to have a high yeild of admitted students) is the more likely they will recalculate to a standard unweighted 4.0 gpa.</p>
<p>I am using the criteria her high school uses, its the only criteria I have that I am sure of.</p>
<p>I would assume colleges would have their own criteria but it should be close shouldn't it? I fully understand some colleges may only count certain subjects and that they would value some subjects higher than others. Shouldn't this information be transparent so we knew what the expectations are before we apply to schools that we may never have a shot at?</p>
<p>Does your D's school use strictly letter grades or number grades?</p>
<p>How are couses weighted at your D's school? How much weight (points added ) are given to Honors courses? If a full point is given for honors course, the the example you gave:</p>
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She had 8 honor classes. An example is a B- in Honors They reduced it to a C-. Her school gives a B- in honors 4.17 quality points, a B- in a level one course gets her a 3.67.
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<p>The college was correct in down grading the weighting.</p>
<p>The course where she received a B- and 4.17 quality points is heavily inflated. To add 1.5 points to the grade is a lot and personally I think the school did your child and other students at the school a disservice by weighting so heavily when the standard gpa associated with a B- is 2.67 thru 2.7.</p>
<p>Even to add a full point for a honors course is heavily inflating the grade. This grading methodology is going to stick out like a sore thumb with almost any admissions committee.</p>
<p>I think the push back needs to happen at your school. To see weighted grades is usually nothing out of the ordinary however, unless the school has a really good reason for weighting their honors course so heavily, it does not help your students.</p>
<p>on a 4.0 scale she is likely to be evaluated as follows:</p>
<p>*
I am using the criteria her high school uses, its the only criteria I have that I am sure of.</p>
<p>I would assume colleges would have their own criteria but it should be close shouldn't it? I fully understand some colleges may only count certain subjects and that they would value some subjects higher than others. Shouldn't this information be transparent so we knew what the expectations are before we apply to schools that we may never have a shot at?*</p>
<p>Many high schools participate in Naviance- which tracks student applications and acceptances and show them in a scattergram, so you can see what sort of GPA & test scores students had. Naviance</a> <em>|</em> Manage. Communicate. Analyze.
Naviance also makes applying to college easier and tracks info for each senior student.
Neither of my daughters schools weighted grades- which I don't think affected their college acceptances, but I do wonder if it affected scholarships which often require a certain class ranking.</p>
<p>I know it can be full of uncertainity when looking at colleges. My kids are first gen college & while some of their friends were applying to schools like UPenn & Georgetown, that felt way over our head. We adjusted our sights a little lower & made sure to include schools that we could reasonably afford as well as reaches.</p>
<p>Most schools have available someplace their common data set- which shows what criteria they consider when evaluating applications. Along with the information from the high school as to rigor of curriculum, we found that being first gen along with work experience/volunteer commitment was highly valued.</p>
<p>They both were accepted to all teh schools they applied, including ones that were a significant stretch and given that their class rank,( & test scores) was on the low end of accepted students, I figured that their recommendations and other things like essays were what tipped the process in their favor- although I do not know exactly what did, because as you say- the process is not completely transparent & I have no idea why they were accepted and others were not.</p>