<p>Reading all these posts on this site have really got me worried. It seems like everyone has a 4.0 GPA. I want to go to a good school, but I am worried because I only have a 93 average (which is like a 3.7, right?).</p>
<p>Is it necessary to have a perfect GPA to go to a top school?</p>
<p>I'm just about with you. (3.68) <_<
But no, not everyone has a 4.0. I think colleges look at rank more than GPA.</p>
<p>my high school doesn't rank...</p>
<p>wow, I thought my daughter was doing great untill I checked out this place.</p>
<p>u/w gpa = 3.29
w gpa - 4.00
class rank = 33/582</p>
<p>she will never get into college!!!!</p>
<p>I have 3.92 weighted GPA... That's what shows for my cumulative GPA though!</p>
<p>I really really messed up in my 9th and 10th grade years, getting As and Bs... of course, more Bs than As! so I ended with around 3.4 GPA at the end of 10th!
But I started working harder last year, and I got like 2 Bs that whole year, bring my GPA up to 3.74.
And this year, I definitely worked hard!!! 7 AP classes, and 1 independent study course all that the same time, and getting all As! 3.92 right now! It should be more than 4.00 by the end of this semester!</p>
<p>I'm just afraid the good schools arent' going to look at how much I improved...</p>
<p>Already received a couple of rejections... 2 more decisions coming tonight.. hopefully not rejections again! Seriously praying for good news!!!</p>
<p>If grades meant so much, we would only send them in and they would pick us based on that. You can supplement a good GPA (hate when people call 3.0-3.75 UW bad) with EC's SAT/ACT and the Essay.</p>
<p>I don't think a 3.0-3.75 bad, I only know 10 kids in my grade with a 96 average or higher.</p>
<p>
[quote]
but I am worried because I only have a 93 average (which is like a 3.7, right?).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>At most schools a 93 is a 3.8.</p>
<p>I have a 3.9+ GPA and my percent average would probably be like a 93.</p>
<p>i feel a little better now</p>
<p>*** she has a 3.29 and is ranked 33!?!?!?!?!?
I have a 3.5 and I'm ranked 133/270</p>
<p>ap euro hist5/5
ap us his</p>
<p>stupid question:
how does a 3.8 translate to a 93 average? I'm assuming this is on a 4-point scale. It just doesn't make sense because compared to the minimum A average of 3.5, 3.8 is high, but it barely registers the difference...</p>
<p>5/5 4
4/5 3
4/5 3
4/5 3
4/5 3
3/4 3
4/4 4</p>
<p>28/7=4.0 23/7=3.29</p>
<p>yep. that's 3.29uw and 4.0w</p>
<p>I think the quantitative measure of your GPA is less important than the actual grades you are gettin and where you stand in your class. Remember, colleges will see your transcripts too, not just your raw GPA scores.</p>
<p>The problem is that GPAs are not comparable among students. Most high schools suffer from rampant grade inflation. There's a standard practice of giving an extra quality point for AP and IB classes, and this has even extended to honors classes. And yes, students are doing more work in these classes, but there's always the question of whether a C in a regular honors class is really qualitatively the same as a B in a general class (are the classes really that different?). Once you get to the point where nearly all the classes a student is taking are honors classes, GPAs become kind of useless -- a C student could very easily have a 3.xx GPA in that case, whereas a comparable honors student at another school who doesn't weight honors classes higher could have the same GPA and be a B student. And while AP curricula have a more or less national standard (more or less), honors classes do not. My honors classes could be ten times harder than Susie Q's honors classes, but her school gives that extra quality point and mine doesn't...see where I'm going with this?</p>
<p>Personally I think it is much more useful to look at a student's unweighted GPA and simply make a note of the fact that they are in honors classes, and I think that most admissions officers take into account not just that you have a 3.XX or a 4.XX but the actual grades that you're getting in those classes as well.</p>
<p>
[quote]
how does a 3.8 translate to a 93 average?
[/quote]
It doesn't. You can't directly convert between percent average and grade point average. It's just a guess until you look at the actual transcript.</p>
<p>Yes, of course. Anything less than a 4.0 and you're destined for failure.</p>
<p>my school has 10 valedictorians out of 500 students right now.</p>
<p>since we have so many, they have to get 4.0 this semester, which is their LAST semester of high school, in order to do the valedictorian speech for grad.</p>
<p>sad & annoying for non-4.0 people like me.</p>
<p>Juillet, What a great post, but I would like your opinion on this. Cherielia asked about my daughters ranking of 33/582. I'll start here, my daughter is attending a high school as an IB candidate along with approximately 120 other students who are participating in the same program, with the balance of the kids attending the normal high school track. </p>
<p>Liz has always been a straight A student, even in her freshmen year which consisted of mostly honors classes with the exceptions being Spanish and PE. As a single parent I need to pick what's important, with us it's never been about the letter grade, it's been more about working hard and getting her assignments in on time, doing the best she can, with the hope that the grades would follow. After seeing that she had received mostly B's this last semester, I asked her about it and her response was “Dad school is suppose to be hard”, and she is having a blast with the new challenges. Her class has nearly 600 kids in it and unless it's some sort of freak of nature, that would tell me that they must have a pretty tough grading standard that applies to everyone in that school.</p>
<p>Here is were I disagree with you, I think both weighted GPA, and unweighted GPA, combined with your class ranking gives someone a pretty good idea of the academic standards of a school. I can't tell you if a B in her Honors class is really worth 4.0, or not, all I now is that when I see my daughter and her friends from school, I see some really smart, bright, good kids, who are going to some big things in this world. When you see a student that has a 3.29 unweighted GPA, with a 4.something weighted GPA and end up being ranked #33 out of 600 students , that tells me a lot about about that school, it tells me that these kids being expected to learn, be it IB, AP or Honors, they are not going to get a free ride here.</p>