<p>We have recently found that although the gps reported on report cards are 2 decimal places, the ones sent on transcript are only one, and in this process my S lost .09 on reported gpa.
We are now being told that gpa is generally sent to one decimal place only, and that there would be no "rounding up". All of which sounds odd to me.
So I am just asking how your students gpa is reported on the official transcript. One decimal place? or two?</p>
<p>I think mine is reported as 2 decimal places. I wouldn’t really worry about the .09 removed from the transcript-its an insignificant number.</p>
<p>2 places at our school</p>
<p>2 places as well here.</p>
<p>2 places in our behemoth school district.</p>
<p>2 places here. If there is but one, why would they not round up for .05 and above? Perhaps you can write it in with 2 decimal places somewhere on the application.</p>
<p>2 places here</p>
<p>2 decimals on report cards, 3 on the transcript</p>
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<p>3.8 vs 3.89 is actually a somewhat significant difference.</p>
<p>I think our district in NJ reports to 3 decimal places.</p>
<p>Our grades in courses are reported on a 100 point scale without decimal points. The GPA is reported with four (!!!) very insignificant decimals. Of course there’s a bigger difference between 3.80 and 3.89 than 89.8 and 89.89. In your shoes, I’d be irritated and arguing for rounding up instead of just dropping the last digits.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. One of the reasons I am asking is I was told by the principal "all schools only report to one decimal place, and as the example that was given above, it can make a significant difference especially when there are competative scholarships or merit money involved.</p>
<p>I am also wondering if an additional letter to the EA schools that already have the transcript would be appropriate? I just find it so frustrating. Kid works so hard and then they just drop the number? If its so insignificant dont report the gpa at all!!</p>
<p>The salient points above are:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>3.8 vs. 3.89 is insignificant. Don’t sweat it. The kinds of classes on your transcript (honors, AP, etc.) carry more weight than 0.09 worth of GPA.</p></li>
<li><p>Any time you’re asked to state your GPA, you’re free to quote it to as many decimal places as you wish. (Within reason…that is, don’t say 4.0 because you’re rounding up from 3.89. That would be misleading.)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>4 places at d’s school. The top four kids are so competitive that they are only seperated by the third decimal place. I have no idea how it is on the transcript but since the school reports position/class, ie. 10/725, they have to go as far our as it takes to create the division.</p>
<p>If it’s a question of a 3.89 being truncated to a 3.8, I do think that could make a significant difference at some schools. On the other hand, many will re-calculate the GPA themselves. For what it’s worth, my high school–a long, long time ago–had grades on a per cent basis and then kept four figures after the decimal point, giving six figures overall. Apparently, someone, somewhere, felt that 91.2398 should be distinguished from 91.2397. It did tend to eliminate ties for rank.</p>
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<p>Ah, the illusion of complete accuracy! I suspect that the student who got a 91.2397 instead of a 91.2398 had a teacher who spent half an hour trying to weigh the respective merits of two students’ records and then cried “Eureka! Student A missed a comma in a five paragraph essay. That comma is worth 0.0001.”</p>
<p>Calculating GPA to four decimal places deserves to be ridiculed, not least for the fact that it is statistically meaningless. If an A is worth 4.0 and a B is worth 3.0, then a GPA of 3.254 is not statistically significantly different than a 3.298. They are both 3.3, and to make any further distinction between them is playing fast and loose with the rules of mathematics. Which probably says a lot about the mathematical abilities of the administrators at schools who do this.</p>
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<p>The difference between these two GPAs is roughly the the difference between 5 B’s and 3 B’s on an otherwise straight-A transcript at the end of high school. Congratulations either way!</p>
<p>a .09 difference is statistically insignificant with respect to GPA. you are making more out of this than need be</p>
<p>Still, I wonder what a canvas of neighboring high schools would show?</p>
<p>“Apparently, someone, somewhere, felt that 91.2398 should be distinguished from 91.2397”</p>
<p>“Calculating GPA to four decimal places deserves to be ridiculed, not least for the fact that it is statistically meaningless. If an A is worth 4.0 and a B is worth 3.0, then a GPA of 3.254 is not statistically significantly different than a 3.298. They are both 3.3, and to make any further distinction between them is playing fast and loose with the rules of mathematics. Which probably says a lot about the mathematical abilities of the administrators at schools who do this.”</p>
<p>You guys can laugh at the 4 decimal places all you want, but the reality in Texas is that the person that graduates #1 per high school (and there can only be 1 #1) gets a full ride to the Flagship State University. So if it comes down to 6 decimal places, so be it. There can only be one. And with the top 10% rule, there has to be a distinct cut off. So if Senior A has 99.9999 and Senior B has a 99.9998, Senior A just banked about $80K. It may not be statistically significant, but it certainly is financially significant.</p>