I’ve been hearing that some colleges adjust GPAs for private high school students. I attend a private high school that is consistently ranked the best high school in the state. It’s a very selective school and there are only 70-75 kids in my grade. I’m a junior and I have a 3.6 overall. I really want to go to UCLA or USC, but I’m worried that my GPA will automatically cancel me out. A person who graduated from my school last year with a 2.8 overall got into a college with an average admission GPA of 3.49. I would really appreciate if anyone has information to share on this or can help me in regards to where I stand in being able to attend UCLA or USC.
You’ve been hearing wrong.
A college will view your transcript within the context of your HS. Your GC will send a school profile which usually lists, among other things, GPA range by decile/quartile, past college matriculations, highest level classes per department, etc.
A college knows that the grading is harder at a high school where the GPA range for the top 10% is 3.85-4.0 vs one where the range is 3.95-4.0. But no college will recalculate GPA to give a bump solely because it is not a public school.
@2019iiy It will completely depend on how “known” your private school is for rigor (if you attend a notoriously high achieving school that sends many students over the years to USC (or, less so, UCLA) the adcoms will know the context to look at your grades.) Even more importantly, if your school’s GC have good realationships with the adcoms (again, more USC than UCLA, the UCs, as publics, have less staff, time and interest in “understanding” private school kids’ grades/rigor.) USC, on the other hand, if they have relationship with your school, know you’re full-pay, and if your GC is willing to go to bat for you, may (again MAY) be willing to take into account that your school is notoriously hard to get good grades, (if that’s true) or known to be especially good at prepping kids for college, etc. And if you are open to Spring admit, starting abroad etc. and if your GC is willing/able to communicate that to USC, that can also improve your chances. (Many schools, and USC seems to be among them, try to keep lower-stat students out of the incoming fall class so as not to effect ranking metrics.)
So the short answer is - you should in no way count on a school, esp a competitive UC to give you any sort of a break on your GPA. Too much competiton and not their mission. Privates, if they have a good relationship with your HS might - but if you will really need to advocate for yourself at your own school and at USC (or any competitive private) and even then, you need to be prepared it is very likely not going to succeed.
UC’s have their own specific GPA calculation which details which HS courses are considered (a-g courses), which courses are UC approved for Honors bonus points (weighted) and which HS years are included in the GPA calculation (10-11th) that helps level the playing field so to speak.
https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/
https://hs-articulation.ucop.edu/agcourselist/#/list/search/institution