<p>I attend a large public school in South Carolina. </p>
<p>Our ranking scale is based on weighted GPA (which most schools don't consider). My 4.55 WGPA will mean nothing outside of South Carolina. </p>
<p>My UW GPA isn't exactly perfect, 3.60, and that doesn't quite match up with my 9/300, top 3% rank. </p>
<p>How will top, or second tier schools, look at this?</p>
<p>either your school is really bad or really rigorous.</p>
<p>They’ll “look at this” by looking at your school profile–a document that secondary schools send along with transcripts and Secondary School Report forms–to see how your school grades and ranks students.</p>
<p>So do you think colleges will somewhat overlook my numerically low GPA because my class rank is quite high?</p>
<p>(Also, my school boosts GPA .5 for H and 1 for AP and IB classes.) I’ll have taken 9 honors and 15 AP/IB by graduation.</p>
<p>Yes, they will look at the rank in conjunction with your GPA. Do you think this is the first time colleges have seen that?</p>
<p>Thanks guys. </p>
<p>And I know colleges have seen similar circumstances, but I just think our ranking system is a bit strange. Our Val has a 3.86 UW GPA, for comparison. </p>
<p>I just think the polarity at our school is a bit odd. Freshman year we had 450+ students, 1/3 have dropped out so far, but the top students at our school take 8+ AP exams and score mostly 4s an 5s. </p>
<p>I just hope our school’s profile will show that.</p>
<p>You can ask to see your school’s profile.
Don’t overthink this. Colleges know how to analyze your transcript in light of the school profile. Your grades and course rigor are what matter the most.</p>
<p>In state schools will be very familiar with our grading policy, but when I’m being compared to other applicants on upper tier schools, I thought they would have used a more generic, simplistic cross-analysis system based on the 4.0 scale. </p>
<p>From what I’ve noticed, top schools (not Ivies, but the schools that I’m aiming for, a level or two below the Ivies) tend me look at unweighted GPA versus the rigor of the course load. </p>
<p>While they will take both of those factors into account, I’m fairly sure they won’t use the oddly specific grading scale our school/county uses. </p>
<p>+1 points for AP and IB, +.5 for honors, combined with minute differences in GPA based on the exact numerical grade, not the A, B, C, etc. grade.</p>