<p>Need some clarification on whether son will or will not qualify for certain scholarships, honors programs.</p>
<p>Son was admitted to another state flagship, and he is not getting automatic admission to honors programs, engineering scholarships, many of the things Bama is promising us, as they recalculated his core GPA from a 4.13 to a 3.4, taking out his non core courses, like religion and PE, which he has As in, and taking away his extra point for honors credit and AP courses. As our school does not use class rank, which would exempt him from the GPA criteria, he is either being turned down for extra scholarships or having to submit letters of recommendation, essays, and waiting at the end of the line for available funds.</p>
<p>Son is currently a NMSF. As we will have to wait until the spring to find out if he is a finalist, am worried that we will be disappointed to find that Bama will not be able to offer him the scholarships and honors programs and housing he is hoping for.</p>
<p>Is there anyone out there who has had this experience, where they did not get what they had hoped for because their child did not have the required GPA, either through recalculation or even, God forbid, a bad senior year?</p>
<p>As far as I know, and I’ve definitely read this and also heard this during a Q&A at University Days, UA uses the GPA reported by your school - weighted, unweighted - whatever.</p>
<p>DS is in a similar position, actually considering your previous posts, maybe even talking the same school(s). When recalculated by taking away his AP and Honors extra points he is not eligible for the automatic scholarships at some of these places. We just said “screw it(!)” if he’s not going to get credit for the rigor of his coursework at this point, then why fight it? This goes under the whole concept of picking schools that are “showing the love,” giving credit where credit is due. Their loss (of course this is a Mom speaking!)</p>
<p>I think some of these colleges are going to miss out on some really brilliant and well-rounded students. Perhaps the high ACT, reasonable GPA student would end up getting merit money anyways, but with that all unwritten, who knows? It does torque me a bit when I see DSs ACT far above the minimum for the auto scholarships but his GPA or rank missed by a point.</p>
<p>The top 2% rank scholarships? I have to laugh. Top 10% at DSs school is 4.1 - give me a break. I think that’s such a random qualification to ask for - their perogative, but still - what is that?!</p>
<p>My husband’s words almost exactly when I forwarded an email about son not qualifying for the extra 1K from the engineering department of a state flagship because he “only” has a 3.4. No matter his high ACT and SAT, national merit semifinalist, and lengthy ECs and community involvement. </p>
<p>Son is also at a highly competitive high school who does not rank, and to their credit, they feel that ranking often hurts their top students. Like your son’s school, the top 10 percent have over a 4.1 because of all the AP and Honors that are almost required in their academic track. Those that opt out of the AP and Honors still have “low” GPAs because of the academic rigor of the school in general. In other words, not taking AP and Honors does not “guarantee” you a good core GPA.</p>
<p>And on the other hand, if you opt for the “easier” curriculum, you will not gain admittance to many good schools, because they base their admissions on strength of curriculum.</p>
<p>So, you’re darned if you do and darned if you don’t.</p>
<p>Where is the happy medium?</p>
<p>You can apply and maybe get accepted at very good private colleges, but can in no way afford them because the merit scholarships go to the geniuses and your average middle class family is judged as having no financial need.</p>
<p>So, we’re back to the drawing board, looking for those schools that will “show the love” and hoping son will gain acceptance and get the right financial package that will make the school a good fit for both him and our pocketbook.</p>
<p>I’m confused. Are you worried that UA is going to recalculate his GPA? No it won’t. UA will take the highest GPA that is on his transcript - including religion. They use grades 9-11. </p>
<p>I’m going to PM with my phone number in case you want to talk about this.</p>
<p>I just talked to an admissions counselor and she reaffirmed that UA does NOT recalculate GPA. It takes the highest GPA on the transcript for grades 9-11. UA does not take out PE, religion classes, or electives. The same for scholarships. </p>
<p>If you’re still not sure, you can go to the admissions page and click on the link to “speak” with an admissions counselor and put forth your concern. Then, after you’ve gotten your answers, click “suspend”, and you’ll be given the option to have the entire chat emailed to you for your records. :)</p>
<p>Assuming your son gets NMF, the 3.5 GPA requirement is waived (same for National Achievement, but not National Hispanic). As soon as your son receives notification of getting the Presidential Scholarship, he has met the GPA requirement. Alabama has gained many students because it doesn’t do things like recalculating a GPA based on types of classes and whatnot. Unless the 4.13 was on a 6.0 unweighted scale or something, he should be fine.</p>
<p>As for class rank, hasn’t the top 10% rule in Texas shown us that rank varies a lot between schools where top 5% at one school is top 20% at another? My hs did not weight GPA’s (I applied with a 3.93). There was no A+, so the top GPA was 4.0. We had weighted and unweighted ranks, but they didn’t affect much ranking because the top students all took difficult classes. A 3.9 was barely in the top 10%, so I laughed when I saw a 3.8 and top 5% of class required for scholarships at certain colleges (not UA). UA awards scholarships based on grades 9-11. AFAIK, a scholarship will not be rescinded unless a student does really bad senior year, probably to the point that colleges would be rescinding admission.</p>
<p>Mike…forgot about that weird issue. LOL At least they didnt’ take classes out.</p>
<p>Did Dr. Sharpe get that straightened out? Did he submit that your D’s GPA is really 4.15?</p>
<p>How can you check to see if your D’s converted GPA is now accurately on record.</p>
<p>You’d think that they’d have some conversion chart for those few schools that have 6.0 scale.</p>
<p>Wonder what they do with kids with GPAs like 94.25?</p>
<p>So, I guess it’s better to say…if you’re on a 4.0 scale, UA just leaves it alone. But, if your school uses some kind of unusual scale, you better make sure it gets converted accurately. LOL</p>
<p>“We had weighted and unweighted ranks, but they didn’t affect much ranking because the top students all took difficult classes. A 3.9 was barely in the top 10%, so I laughed when I saw a 3.8 and top 5% of class required for scholarships at certain colleges (not UA).”</p>
<p>A 4.0 isn’t even in the top QUARTER at DS’s school. We have 79 students in the top 10%…73 have a perfect 4.5 (our max GPA). Our top quarter for Class of 2010 cuts off at a 4.04, so not even every student in NHS makes that top 25%. This is why the Top 10% law in Texas is hurting so many students from competitive schools. At a lower performing school a 3.0 could be in the top 10% and you are guaranteed admission to the university of your choice WITHOUT an ACT or SAT score!</p>
<p>i think i saw the other day where it was posted in mybama. under the academic tab in scholarships i think.</p>
<p>if you have a weird gpa (not on a 4.0 scale) then you need to send a transcript with a recalculated GPA noted on the transcript, initialed by the GC. then you have to send a cover letter with the transcript explaining the recalculated GPA.</p>
<p>as for a 92.5 GPA. i am guessing you would just do it like we did ours.</p>
<p>92.5/100 = .92.5 (duh!)
92.5*4 = 3.7 (not awesome but still above the scholarship threshold)</p>
<p>For a GPA listed in numerical format (92.5) UA will take the individual numerical grades on the transcript and calculate the GPA on a 4.0 scale. Our high school states GPA in this format and that is what UA admissions did. If your individual class grades listed on the transcript are not weighted the only weighting UA added is .5 for AP courses. No weighting is given for honors courses, only AP.</p>
<p>Good suggestion! If my kid had a numerical format with weighted honors classes, then I certainly would have the GC do this. I wouldn’t want to risk that UA’s way of doing it might result in too low of a GPA.</p>
<p>BTW…
does anyone know a faster way to do the quote box? I’ve been highlighting the sections, then doing “control B”, and then changing the B’s to the word quote.</p>
<p>And, I can’t figure out how to use that “check box” that is under the reply box that says, Quote message in reply? I can’t seem to figure out how to use that.</p>
If my kid had a numerical format with weighted honors classes, then I certainly would have the GC do this. I wouldn’t want to risk that UA’s way of doing it might result in too low of a GPA.</p>