<p>I have some confusion about how GPA may be calculated differently. Does a college typically recalculate every applicant's GPA based on their own policies and criteria?</p>
<p>Since I started reading CC, I've learned that:
* When calculating a student's GPA, some colleges only count sophomore and junior grades
* Some colleges don't count electives.
* And presumably, some colleges do both, counting only sophomore and junior non-elective courses.</p>
<p>Additionally, at my son's high school:
* Last year they added +/- into the mix. For example, now 90-92 is an A- and generates 3.75 quality points. Two years ago, a student getting, say, straight unweighted 91s across the board would have been a 4.0. Now they're a 3.75. However, I think this scale is not uncommon.
* What is more unusual (I think) is that his school only uses year-end grades to calculate GPA, not semester or quarter grades. This can create situations like this: Quarter grades of 96/94/82/88 averages to a final grade of 90. On a year-end GPA calculation, this is a 3.75. Taken by semesters (1st: 95=A=4.0, 2nd: 85=B=3.0), this averages out to a 3.5.</p>
<p>Given all these different factors, how do schools sort out the true GPA? More to the point, if he reports a certain gpa on his application, are the college admissions people going to recalculate it from the transcript based on their own policies and come up with a different number?</p>
<p>Some recalculate it, but the vast number don’t. Most schools give a histogram and a table explaining how GPA is calculated at the school on the transcript, and the schools (ideally) look at GPA in that context.</p>
<p>That’s why fussing and worrying about GPAs is pretty pointless. I just don’t think colleges parse things out this closely. If your school provides some sort of context for the grades (rank, histograms etc.) the colleges will absolutely look at that, but I think for the most part the elite colleges probably look at the grades in the core courses, they look to see how rigorous the curriculum seems to be and then they assign you some sort of ranking based on that. Top schools will expect mostly A’s in mostly rigorous courses.</p>
<p>I do think my younger son was hugely helped by the way our school calculated grades and ranking. He ended up in the top 5% despite many B’s because he had so many A’s in orchestra courses. OTOH our school doesn’t weight APs more than honors courses so he was at a slight disadvantage there. It all seems to even out, though there are always a handful of top ranked students who didn’t take many AP courses as long as they got mostly A’s in the courses they did take.</p>
<p>We were told by several schools 4 years ago that colleges recalculate HS GPA by stripping down to UW and looking at rigor of curriculum. Also, from D’s experience applying to very selective programs at state schools, colleges just know some HS’s, they know what kind of graduates they produce (may not be applicable to all HS’s). If applicant has straight A’s and most rigorous curriculum available at his HS, nobody can take it away, so however college recalculate GPA becomes basically irrelevant for #1 ranked graduate.</p>
<p>Bottom line is that Colleges calculate and re-weigh the GPA however they want to and most colleges do indeed count freshman year, but an upward trend is the goal. I’ve only heard of some California public’s that discount freshman year. Is that more common then I think? Every school that my three kids applied to counted all three years, and many wanted first semester grades, senior year, as well. Large public colleges may choose not to re-weight at all and just take whatever GPA as given.</p>
<p>It is pretty much all of the public post-secondary schools in California. UC and CSU count only 10th and 11th grade high school grades. Community colleges are open admission, so they (trivially) do not count any high school grades for admission.</p>
<p>No way in hell do colleges take 30,000 applications, sort through to identify courses, adjust for local requirements (this state requires PE, that one doesn’t, history is called social studies or world connections in that school, etc.). It just has zero face validity. Do you know what the manpower behind doing that would take? 30,000 report cards with no commonality. THINK about this.</p>
<p>State universities get the majority of applications from their own state, and likely have specific arrangements with high schools detailing which courses fulfill which admissions requirements. For example, the University of California has prearrangements with California high schools listing which courses are accepted for each admission requirement, and which courses are designated as “honors” for +1 GPA point: [University</a> of California Doorways Home](<a href=“http://www.ucop.edu/doorways/]University”>http://www.ucop.edu/doorways/) .</p>
<p>So many threads on CC always devolve down into “this is what they do at the UC’s.” Which is, of course, irrelevant to most people. </p>
<p>OP, can you clarify – do you particularly care about UC’s, or were you asking the question in general? Nothing in your original post specified UC’s.</p>
<p>The most entertaining GPA calculation comment I’ve heard in an information session was from a U Alabama admissions office rep: “We will look at both your weighted and unweighted GPA and we’ll use whichever is higher.” :D</p>
<p>It may be irrelevant to quite a few students on the East Coast; however, it’s highly relevant to a great many college applicants on the West Coast.</p>
<p>And it very well may be relevant in this case since the OP mentioned she’s heard about counting only sophomore and junior grades in the calculation. See the link I provided earlier.</p>
<p>I have to smile at that, Deborah. There is actually more to this country than the coasts, I’ve heard!!</p>
<p>Anyway, sure, it makes sense that a “contained” state system could easily set up procedures to obtain report cards electronically, identify courses with certain qualifications and plug and chug. It certainly doesn’t seem feasible for schools receiving 30k apps from 50 states (not to mention internationals) and none of the “peeks behind the curtain” description of top schools ever mention it.</p>
<p>@Pizzagirl. For the record, I don’t care about the UCs. I didn’t know the freshman exclusion thing was primarily that system. I just remember reading it in one of the threads here. I didn’t think it was feasible either, but you never know what menial task an intern might be asked to do. It’s conceivable that a college might do it in decisions that are borderline or for applicants that have a GPA inconsistent with the rest of their profile.</p>
<p>I don’t think it’s terribly difficult to look at a transcripts and visually see the percentage of A and Bs or even to spot a C or 2. AP classes are generally marked AP on a transcript by most schools and rigorous classes that aren’t AP branded are generally indicated. I’m guessing the vast majority of the big schools look and visually give it a 3.0 of a 3.5…all As is 4.0 so that’s not difficult to see. There’s no way to parse all the various weighting calibrations…much easier to look and translate to 4.0 scale. An A is an A is an A is 4.0 so to speak. Small schools that don’t have a ton of applications might very well have a student or admin recalibrating GPA or a school that is making decision based on fractions of GPA but in the long run kids either have all As, mostly As, some Bs or many Bs and so on, the transcript and the school profile are all that is needed by most colleges…and I’m guessing most schools are looking for a threshold. The more kids are clustered around a certain GPA the more other factors come into play anyway, hence “holistic” admissions.</p>
<p>And finally I’m dead certain almost every college will use the “higher GPA” for their own institutional purposes…it makes them look better. Colleges probably love kids that report GPAs on a 5.0 scale or some other variant that is weighted.</p>
<p>My kids’ GPAs are reported unweighted, so for the reach eastern schools on their list we simply asked in the information session how the unweighted and weighted GPAs were handled. Generally the answer was it didn’t make a difference which got reported which in turn told me they are either eyeballing the transcripts or someone is recalculating so everyone is on an even playing field. The more I thought about this over the years the more I realized it really doesn’t matter. If you have a student with say a 3…85 unweighted…that kid has almost all As and a B here and there. They can “see” how many AP or rigorous classes are on that transcript and what those rigorous classes are either by simply looking or looking at the school profile. If the GPA said 4.25 or something like that they will still “see” a couple Bs…and how many rigorous classes, etc. I’ve come to the conclusion that the GPA reported is not an end all/be all type of thing.</p>
<p>That said, do ASK if there are scholarships with thresholds and how the colleges handle those with unweighted GPAs and weighed GPAs. You’d hate to see a 3.5 unweighted kid get cut from a possible merit scholarship tuition discount with a 3.75 threshold IF the college is not doing an apples to apples assessment for scholarships.</p>
<p>This discussion has led me to ponder a bit… I think it’s too bad that some try to downplay that public universities <em>matter</em> to a huge number of college applicants. Sometimes, too, the original post on a thread doesn’t provide specifics (eg public, private, LAC, tech, art, Hawaii only). Questions are likely to be responded to by people from a variety of different backgrounds, and answers will be read by more than just the original poster. One of these other readers may find the information that gets posted helpful. So, my thought is, discard what’s inapplicable, keeps what works, say thanks, and move forward equipped, hopefully, with a tidbit or two new that you didn’t have at the beginning of the process.</p>
<p>Sorry, Deborah, I didn’t mean to come across as curt. (The dangers of posting from iPhone!) It’s not that I think that public universities as a whole don’t or shouldn’t matter to students. My frustration is with the constant hijacking of threads to discuss UC’s specifically.</p>
<p>Most of the public high schools in Michigan reported grades how our flagship wanted them which up until recently was unweighted. My guess in places like Texas and California high schools report in a way that those universities prefer. Also in some districts 9th grade is still considered middle school which is probably why some colleges look at 10,11 and first semester or trimester of senior year. Some schools have a transcript that reflects every semester or trimester…other’s only reflect the end grades. Bottom line is they all handle things differently and if a parent feels like it’s a huge concern they can ask or ask the GC to make sure it is addressed in the notes they will send with the transcript. Other than the uber uber selectives where everyone has a 4.0 most colleges except kids with a range of GPAs and even the uber selectives have kids no doubt with a B or 2 on the transcript. After sending 2 off to college I’ve decided personally not to loose sleep over the eternal GPA question.</p>
He, yes sir.</p>