GPA Calculation

<p>How does Georgia Tech recalculate the GPA?</p>

<p>I know that they only consider five different core classes, when calculating, and that they give 0.5 extra point to those IB and AP classes. Do they add all the semester grades and divide by number of semesters? For example, if I have taken 10 different core classes, would they add up 20 different grades based on each semester and divide that by 20?</p>

<p>By the way, not giving 0.5 extra point to Honors classes is really going to hurt me, as my school doesn't have any IB course and not that many AP courses either (we don't even have any AP science course) :(</p>

<p>I don’t know any more about the grading thing than you do, but I agree it’s too bad they don’t give extra credit for honors. We only have 7 AP classes here (which I took, and got A’s in) but still that’s nothing compared to lots of schools.</p>

<p>They don’t give credit for “honors” because “honors” means something different from school to school. At some schools, the honors courses are a step below AP. At other schools, it’s below “gifted”. Without a uniform system (like the AP or IB programs), it doesn’t make sense to weight the classes.</p>

<p>Thanks for the reply, MStocksl and BanjoHitter!</p>

<p>I kind of understand the reason why they don’t give credit for honors, but it is very unfortunate for students attending those schools without many IB or AP programs, or maybe even not at all, just like my school which doesn’t offer ANY IB Programs and only has few AP programs that don’t even include any science or the language that I am taking (Japanese). That’s why my school weight the honors classes, and they are at the college level and are often much harder than regular classes in our school. Well, there is nothing I can do about it, so too bad for me. But I do think it is a little bit unfair for students like me…</p>

<p>Anyway, back to the question, does anybody know how GT calculates the GPA?</p>

<p>List your classes with grade and I’ll weight your GPA for you.</p>

<p>As far as AP/IB - I get that you don’t feel it’s fair to only weight these, but remember that admissions isn’t about being fair, it’s about finding the most qualified students to attend a university. Someone with an A in AP Calc BC is more qualified than someone with an A in Honors Pre-Calc. It’s unfortunate if the second student is limited by his school, but that’s not Tech’s fault.</p>

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<p>Admissions wants to see that you performed well in the most rigorous curriculum available to you. You are not going to be penalized because you went to a school that offers fewer AP courses.</p>

<p>Thanks for the input, BanjoHitter and InPursuit!</p>

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<p>I was never trying to blame Georgia Tech. I was just commenting for myself at the end of the post. As you would know, my original question wasn’t about that. </p>

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<p>I’m sure they will…as there will be plenty of other schools that don’t offer many of those courses.</p>

<p>I’ve never understood the argument for weighting AP scores but not honors. I know in Georgia there are schools where there students earn As in the class and get 2s on the exam and other schools where the students may get Cs in the class while getting 5s on the exam. Since Tech doesn’t get the majority of AP scores until July, they’re not considered for admission. Tech needs to do a better job at looking at the difficulty of the high school.</p>

<p>How many high schools are there? Would GT rather have a great student from an OK high school or an OK student from a great high school? What’s the lag between a high school’s actual quality (degree of difficulty…based on …?) and its rating, 1-3 years? </p>

<p>Would you penalize a high school for some student coming from there and then slacking at GT? Would you boost a high school for some student coming from there and then doing well?</p>

<p>Pretty complicated, perhaps. How much would such a system cost, and how different would the outcomes be from what’s already happening? </p>

<p>Or, you can simply take high school grades at face value…</p>

<p>Well we all know that GT would rather have a great student from an OK school over the OK student from a great high school. Honestly, that is without a doubt the biggest fault of the GT admissions. There are no excuses for why they don’t use class rank. A 3.0 at some schools is good enough for Top 10% while a 3.75 at other schools is Top 30%. We all know the kid with the 3.75 would get in and the 3.0 would be rejected EA.</p>

<p>@ falcon13, “Tech needs to do a better job at looking at the difficulty of the high school.” When a high school has a student to apply to Tech or any other school, most colleges ask for a overview of the applicant’s high school if there is not one on file, and Tech admission staff also contact the high school for any updates. So, Tech like other colleges can look at the applicant and compare him/her to the school’s overview.</p>

<p>You raise a very interesting point. My daughter applied to GeorgiaTech EA. I am almost certain that she is the first person from her high school ever to do so (new school and very few leave the state). Since she did not send a transcript, recommendations, or anything from her high school, Tech does not have a “High School Profile”. I wonder if they will ask for one?</p>

<p>This is a sample high school profile. It’s requested by GT from the school itself. You would not be involved and wouldn’t even know they requested it. </p>

<p>[Sample</a> High School Profile](<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/guidance/counseling/profile/sample]Sample”>Sample High School Profile – Counselors | College Board)</p>