Doesn't competitive =less rigorous??

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

My high school is one of the most rigorous in fl. The valedictorian’s (class size :500) unweighted GPA is Like 3.88… Yet ppl on cc complain abt 3.97s being barely top 5% … It seems like competitive schools to me have more grade inflation… Idk anyone with me?

2

Not necessarily. Some competitive schools have no grade inflation at all, while some uncompetitive schools have tons. This is why class rank matters.

3

But if you look at competitive schools their are lots more kids with 3 .9 GPAs … It seems like competitive schools are less focused on how many aps u take and limit them so u score better on the ones u do take

4

So basically u have easier courseloads than a kid at a plainly rigorous school

5

i’ve never heard of competitive schools discouraging APs. Competitive schools just end up with a large number of very very bright kids who can get all As, even in APs.

6

Competitive schools don’t limit APs by far. They generally have a large number of students at the top end of the spectrum. For example, I go to an extremely competitive school; I’m pretty sure that the top 5% has a GPA cutoff of somewhere between 3.98 and 4.0. However, that doesn’t mean our school practices grade inflation. In that 5% (~25 students), we have people who have made it to the top 20 for the USAPhO, USNCO, and USABO; people who have won national awards in DECA, HOSA, Science Bowl, Science Olympiad, etc.; people who run their own businesses; and more. There are people who earn Cs and Ds in AP classes, but there are also people who earn A+s in them because they are extremely intelligent. People at competitive schools are generally exposed to a certain level of competition from such a young age that they become attuned to it. Teachers for some classes at my school only give out 5 As per class, but the people who get them are usually the same people over and over again. I know people who were in honors programs at other high schools in our district, but dropped down to college prep classes at my school because the coursework is so difficult. Generally, people in the top 30-ish% of our school make it into Ivies and Ivy-equivalents.