Does Harvard demote your GPA if you have A minuses?

Ok, I’m an incoming junior in high school, and have been quite nervous as to my GPA, literally everyone I’ve asked has told me unreliable BS, and I just need a straight answer. If you have an A minus on your high school transcript, is it listed as achieving lower GPA points in Harvard’s eyes?

Harvard does in fact take into account of “-s” on your transcript. Not just Harvard either, many other schools do this as well (except Brown lol), I’m pretty certain some schools calculates an A+ as a 4.2 (unweighted) as well. It’s very mind boggling. But anyways, I believe the grading scale for Harvard is as follows:



A+/A: 4

A-: 3.65 (Can’t recall exactly)

B+: 3.33

B: 3



So on and so forth.

An A- is considered to be a notch below an A virtually everywhere.

No A+'s at Harvard

3.67

Anyway, back to the OP. Yes, an A- is considered a lesser grade than an A. But grades are but one part of the application package, and even grades are evaluated within the context of the HS.

^ Oh, right… You’re correct, that was my mistake.

what colleges don’t look at the sign? I know the UC and Umich do not, but do any others not look at the sign?

Brown doesn’t do - or + grades for its undergrads, but that may not mean they look at high school grades that way. I’d bet they do consider an A- differently than an A on the high school transcripts they review.

UC/Cal Poly/Cal State calculate GPA of applicants as 4, 3, 2, or 1 for A, B, C, D. No decimals.

As noted above, we are strictly talking about applicants, not about how they calculate GPA for their student body

My high school states that they give us an unweighted GPA that goes on my transcript, so do I go by that, or does Harvard recalculate it?

My high school considers an A- as a 4.0

@JOOJOONOGHLI at any college they will take your grades and recalculate your gpa. Your high school one won’t count. This way it’s somewhat standardized

Unless a Harvard admissions officer comments on this thread and gives you the truth, then don’t listen to these posts. No insult to everyone else, but if they didn’t have a seat at the admissions table, then they probably won’t have reliable information.

This will vary by college. Some do; some don’t. Few will tell you what they do. Whether a college recalculates a GPA or not, an AO can certainly eyeball a transcript and count A-'s vs. A’s.

Anyway, at this point, it is what it is.

Don’t stress about this too much. Admissions often wants students to meet a benchmark with grades and scores and after that it is about other things. I am not an admissions officer but from what I know, a GPA .1 higher or lower isn’t going to be a deal breaker.