<p>Disagreement, you indicate:</p>
<p>Where did you get that statistic? What high school do you go to? I know for a fact that MY high school, a public school, in the State of Washington, DOES weight when calculating class rank.</p>
<p>--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Better check with your counseling office or your principal, because if they are using weight with honors or AP classes in the State of Washington, they are violating State Law which was put in place to not discriminate against the many students from school districts solely located within Native American nations venued within the geographic boundaries of the State of Washington. This, as it was determined by the WA Legislature that weighting GPAs would allow for discrimination; preventing some from potentially attending the flagship university [UW]. Offering honors and AP classes is a priviledge. Not every high school has the resources to afford them. There simply aren’t enough teachers expendible to teach such a wide array of classes to a gifted handful of students. Along these lines, as such honors/AP offerings primarily didn’t exist in these smaller and much more remote school districts and, until two years ago, UW admissions decisions were performed totally on a grid basis [between SAT/ACT scores/overall GPA], fairness was not being extended to all candidates throughout the state in the manner in which students were selected to attend the flagship university. </p>
<p>While UW now looks holistically at the entire application, some other public universities in the state still do not. The circumstance can also arise for students who take time off after graduation and are subsequently applying to the flagship university; hence the dilemna continues.</p>
<p>If you are a student from WA State [many others in the West may have similar issues], its a good thing that the entire transcript is looked at and rigor of coursework remains a “very important” factor amongst Penn Admissions. I personally believe it still ought to be the most important [see my earlier comments for why]. </p>
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<p>Off subject but Another thought: I’ve read far too many books in my years of launching many kids off to highly selective schools. I guess I’m sort of a junkie with the subject. I love to read books about what goes on within the admissions departments. Its real life situations with real people and more times than not, something good happens for those that really give it their all [OK, call me a softy]. Anyway, there most always are discussions in these books of a time within the collective Admissions Department review called “committee”. That’s where the obvious “admits” and the obvious “deny’s” have usually been determined and the remaining 80-90% of the students are still being reviewed for consideration. In reading likely 10+ books on this final week or two of the process, I’ve never heard of the Admissions folks describing a student as “Mr 2360” or Miss “4.8”. Instead, they are talking about something unique to the individual applicant’s story. Its “Mr Astronomer who also juggles” or “Miss grammar nazi”. </p>
<p>Isn’t it a good thing that the 3+ year “body of work” influences the greatest determinent of this process and that those who write recommendations and perform the comprehensive school report have a scale of 1-10 on just about every dimension they are questioned? It truly helps those, who take much time and care writing such important documents, the ability to distinguish. </p>
<p>I like that at least one form I saw recently even asks how long they author has been teaching or in education. Makes a difference when the recommendation comes from a 25 year teacher vs having 3 years experience and write “one of the best five I’ve ever had in any of my classes…”</p>