I saw a video on Youtube by the admissions director, and he says that they focus more on transcript rigor.
However, the class profile says the average GPA is a 3.98.
I think it’s meant to be interpreted as an unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale. If CWRU recalculates GPAs during the admissions process (I’m not sure if they do), 3.98 if probably the average recalculated GPA. If they don’t recalculate, it’s hard to say where the number comes from. Their applicants come from high schools all over the world; they offer different classes and have different grading standards. For that reason, I wouldn’t make too much out of whether the average GPA is 3.8 or 3.9 or whatever. All you can really tell is that your GPA needs to be pretty high.
@halcyonheather A part of me thinks that while GPA is very important to Case (as per the Common Data Set), they focus more on transcript and curriculum rigor. This goes back to your point about different grading scales. Also, I’ve looked in different places (PrincetonReview, 2015 Class Profile, etc), and asides from this year’s profile, they’ve never had a real statistic for GPA, whereas there has always been one for test scores.
I just mean that your GPA needs to be high (relative to your school) because it’s determined by your grades. They won’t take the number at face value.
I’m pretty sure all of these colleges report their average GPA on a weighted basis. It’s sometimes pretty obvious. as some colleges report an average GPA > 4.0.
There’s no way that the average accepted student at Case has an UW GPA of 3.98.