<p>I'm asking this because the reason my GPA (which is a 4.01) isn't as high as it could of been, is because I've challenged myself. I want to go pre-med and have taken all these classes kind of relating to the field (I'm a HS senior)</p>
<p>Although schools do look at the rigor of your courseload and take that into account, to emphasize this, you can ask your counselor to note that in your recommendations that your course selections have been especially rigorous compared to many of your classmates.</p>
<p>At one of the info sessions at an elite school, the admissions rep said that the school calculated its own gpa for the students on a 4.0 scale considering academic core courses only; and that it also assigned a score for the rigor of the curriculum the applicant had taken. I’m guessing that a number of schools do this, or something similar.</p>
<p>I agree with all of the responses so far with respect to elite schools. Some less elite schools use simple numeric cut-offs. I assume the OP is aiming higher than these type schools, but a weighted 4.01 would probably be fine at the schools that don’t look at rigor, anyway.</p>
<p>^As stated above, there are many not high ranked schools that won’t even get to the particular courses before making a decision to admit and will only go there if you are borderline and, for those schools, I am unaware of any where a 4.01 weighted GPA would be borderline. Higher ranked schools generally do consider rigor of high school courses.</p>
<p>Just note that stating you are “pre-med” won’t affect the decision to admit. Pre-med is an advisory program for those intending to apply to med school and selecting pre-med on an application has no impact one way or the other on whether you will be admitted. In other words, simply because you select pre-med won’t mean that the courses you have taken will be evaluated for admission different from someone who does not select pre-med.</p>
<p>Luckily I’ve performed great in all my tough classes, besides one semester in one class because I got so behind after getting seriously sick. Anyways it’s been the less rigorous classes that tend to nip at my heels, mainly English for being so boring and easy, and some dumb electives that I have gotten a couple B’s in. Those are the reason why my GPA isn’t exceptional. </p>
<p>I wish somebody told me how important freshman year is, every year carries the same amount of weight to your GPA and as an innocent freshman college is so far away and out of your mind it’s almost funny.</p>