<p>
[quote]
The letter grades are what matters on applications.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I would amend that to say that the toughness of the courses is what matters on applications.</p>
<p>As has been stated in the thread, each college will take your child's transcript and re-calculate it using their OWN method. They presumably use the SAME method for every student applying to their college. Therefore it doesn't matter if the college did it <em>right</em> or not. As long as they apply the same standard to all their applicants, then chose from within those applicants, your daughter did not suffer. Other students would have their GPA calculated by the same method. It doesn't matter if she ended up with a 2.7 or a 3.7 - in COMPARISON to the other applicants to this school, she came out lower. So they denied her.</p>
<p>lafaalum you win for clearest explanation.</p>
<p>I must be totally out of it. How would one even know what kept one's kid out of her top choice? S has not yet been rejected. But when/if he is, do they actually tell you why? I just assumed a thanks but no thanks letter would come. His acceptances do not say WHY he was accepted. Does everyone call the admissions offices to find out what it was that kept their kid out?
I have read on certain sites that the college recomputes the GPAs according to their own formula. But they never actually say what that GOA should then be, so we are pretty much just shooting crap. I agree, so long as it is done the same way for each applicant at any particular school, it is what it is, and is at least "fair"</p>
<p>Op stated in her post that she did contact the school & her GC because she felt her D should have been at minimum deferred to the RD.</p>
<p>Colleges will disclose to GCs what they felt was lacking in the application (low gpa/low test scores).</p>
<p>Just to add data to your varied GPA calculations. At D's school, each student is provided both their unweighted and weighted GPA. D has roughly a 97/100, 4.0/4.0 unweighted and a 6.26/8.0 weighted (rank of 1). The college receiving a 6.26/8.0, certainly needs to assess the meaning of it. It is no wonder GPAs are recalculated. </p>
<p>I recall 4 years ago when we visited UPenn w/ S, they flat out told us that they recalculate the GPA using ONLY the courses of interest to them. It was the first time I heard of it, but I have always remembered it.</p>
<p>Ss' school told us they do not weight grades "because colleges recalculate them." In one year, S2's grades were for classes that ranged from CP (there were no Honors classes offered for a couple of years) to APs to advanced college classes. All were given the same weight on his transcript. But I am sure that the adcoms noticed the different levels despite the fact that he did not have all As.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The letter grades are what matters on applications.
[/quote]
I would further amend that to say:</p>
<p>The letter grades in the toughest courses are what matters on the applications. You've got to show both.</p>
<p>Ranking may have helped the OP. As would an explanation prepared by the school of their grading scale. My D's high school had a "unique" way of calculating an all A's Valedictorian's GPA. 98.9 UW yielded a 3.89. Huh? Seems that even though a 90-100 was an A, 98.9 wasn't a 4.0. Cuckoo for cocoa puffs. We just xeroxed the relevant policy handbook page and sent it with our own re-calculated UW GPA of 4.0. Not a big deal with an all A's singular val but it might have killed the chances of a 3.75 number 30, or even worse, an un-ranked kid. BTW , the GC said when asked for the UW GPA that it was the first time any student had ever asked for it. Yes, we live in Hooterville.</p>
<p>Schools need to realize what is going on in admissions and how their grading is perceived.</p>
<p>I think at our school one of the main reasons for weighting the GPA has been to sort out class rank. If there were no weighting, then there would be a very high incidence of "ties".</p>
<p>I dunno. Our school only has 1 val and 1 sal each year, and has managed to rank without recourse to weighting.</p>
<p>Marite - How many students are in each year's graduating class? Does you HS factor in A+s? For our school, this year's class has 179 and A+s are not used for GPA calculation. If we did not have weighting, anyone in the senior class that got no grade lower than an A would all share #1 rank.</p>
<p>When Ss attended the school, there were about 2,000 students, so each class would have nearly 500 students. I do not believe the school gave A+s. But the teachers were quite stingy with As.</p>
<p>Wow, that is amazing that it worked out that there were no duplicates in such a large graduation class. But that does show that your school's un-weighted grades truly fit the bell curve that should represent a school's student body.</p>