<p>Out of 400 students in my 12th grade class, under 30 of them have a GPA in the 3.76-4.0 range, aka roughly 6-7% of my class. Also, keep in mind my school does not weight GPAs so these are all unweighted figures and do not take into account the kids taking easy courses, resulting in inflated GPAs; There are very few kids at my school who actually take the hardest courses and are in that range. Pretty much no one has ever graduated with a 4.0, the highest GPAs I've ever seen on naviance are 3.9something. So I ask you, is this considered grade deflation or is this normal? Hoping this helps my chances and colleges see not just any joe shmo can get a 4.0 at my school. (Keep in mind this range also does not indicate how many out of the 30 have 3.76s and how many have 4.0s). Thanks for the insight.</p>
<p>Maybe.</p>
<p>How do the students do on the following, in relation to the grades they get in courses at your high school?</p>
<ul>
<li>College courses after they go to college.</li>
<li>College or dual-enrollment courses taken while in high school.</li>
<li>English and math placement tests at the colleges they go to.</li>
<li>AP tests.</li>
<li>SAT subject tests.</li>
</ul>
<p>For example, if A students in AP courses tend to get 5 scores on AP tests, that is a better sign than if A students in AP courses tend to get 1 scores on AP tests. Similarly, if A students in English and math courses are placed in remedial English and math courses in college due to poor performance on placement tests, that is a bad sign.</p>
<p>I go to a top high school in the state; the average act score is a 26.8 (21 is national average), and 95% of all AP scores were 3+; ~200 5s and ~150 4s out of 400+ AP scores total. Subject test means are all in the 600-720 range. So would colleges look at this as grade deflation? (If it’s a “maybe” then I would go with no, or did you just need more context of my high school?).</p>
<p>Given that you are a top high school and not some obscure podunk, colleges are undoubtedly aware of your school and how it grades, whether or not it is grade deflation. (Based on your description, it certainly sounds like it is.) They undoubtly take the situation into account.</p>
<p>Your college advisor or Naviance if you have it can tell you how to take this into account when searching for colleges. Or just use test scores on your initial filter.</p>
<p>But just based on the fact that only 6-7% of my class is in that 3.8+ range, does this seem like something that would alarm colleges, or is that a normal percentage?</p>
<p>No, it just indicates how stingy your school is in handing out As. (It is low in this day and age and probably reflects a grading standard last seen in the 1950s.) Trust me, colleges know this and compensate for it. It’s why they compare your GPA to the school standard, not some absolute standard. There is no way every high school in the country has the same grading standards.</p>
<p>That’s just normal. If your GPAs are not weighted, then nobody can get over a 4.0 and a 4.0 would be very uncommon. It’s not necessarily grade deflation. It makes SENSE that only 6-7% of the class got a 3.8 or higher - because getting a 3.8 means that you got only the very occasional B, which is difficult to do. At my high school (which is not a top high school and does actually weight classes) I was in the top 10% and graduated with a 3.6 GPA, so I think this is common and completely normal.</p>
<p>I’m in a similar situation and I completely understand your concern. </p>
<p>I’m ranked 8/320 with a GPA of 3.6, with 15 IB and AP classes and 10 honors. </p>
<p>I really hoping that schools consider me (and you as we both seem to be in the same dilemma) more holistically than simply tossing our applications because of a sub-par GPA.</p>
<p>I went to a high school like this as well. I had around a 3.6 and was in the top 5% of my class (although we ranked due to weighted GPA). It was also very common to have kids who had very high test scores who were not ranked very highly. When I got to Penn freshman year, I met students who barely studied in high school an had never gotten anothying lower than an A, and couldn’t comprehend doing so.
When I initially applied to Penn, I thought they would take one look at my UW GPA and laugh. However, now I realize that it is actually more compelling to accept students from competitive public schools who may have slightly lower GPAs because these students have developed work ethics that will serve them well in college. Now that I am a senior, the students I know who have been the most successful in college are disproportionately from public schools where they had to work hard for their grades.</p>
<p>My daughter goes to a gigantic test-in public high school in NYC. She is interested in my alma mater, a university center of the State U. of NY. As an alumna, I have volunteered at college fairs and when she was a sophomore, I mentioned to the admissions officer supervising the volunteers that my daughter’s GPA wasn’t within the middle 50 percent of their students. The officer said, “She goes to ___ High School, does’t she? We <em>know</em> about ___ High School!”</p>