<p>My school’s GPA system is super deflated. After 9th grade the district stopped giving out A+'s. They then finally weighted AP classes but only .5 and did not weigh honors classes. So if you took all AP classes all 4 years you would have a 4.5. However, this is impossible at my school because no AP’s are offered 9th grade (we have the junior high system so we are not in the high school building in 9th grade.) Only 1 AP is offered 10th grade. 5 are offered 11th grade but is impossible to take more than 4 (and that would mean not taking any science classes.) And then it is possible to take 6 AP’s your senior year. Anyways to make a long story short I am valedictorian and my weighted GPA is only 4.079 but my unweighted is 4.0. I took pretty all the AP’s I could while still taking Science because I want to major in science. I want to know if Brown will think my school is not competitive because my GPA is so low. I emailed my guidance counselor (because my counselor is the head one and its really hard to get an appointment with her b/c she is always so busy) and told her I wanted to include that on my recommendation but she never emailed me back so I’m not sure if she included it. I do know for sure though that she put I had the most rigorous schedule. Do think this will hurt my chances compared to valedictorians with a 4.5 GPA?</p>
<p>My school doesn’t weight grades at all, and you can only really take one AP before senior year. I think they’ll see that you took the most rigorous schedule your school offers and did extremely well. Every school weights grades differently, so GPA isn’t a concrete means of classifying people; that’s what standardized tests are for.</p>
<p>Most, if not all schools, look at you in the context of your school, including brown. A kid with a 4.0 W at your school sounds like the equivalent of a kid with a 4.3 W at my school. So i think you’re fine</p>
<p>I got a 33 on my ACT will that show them?</p>
<p>As Seeme said, your GPA is considered in context to your school, not other schools. Your GPA is not compared to someone else’s GPA at a different school. Honestly, an unweighted GPA of 4.0 is very impressive, and if you took the most rigorous curriculum, what else could Brown or any other college ask for?</p>
<p>Every school has something called a school profile, which has information like number of AP classes, average SAT scores, and lots of other data. You should ask your GC for a copy of your school profile.</p>
<p>ok thanks!</p>
<p>Stressed…Yes, a 33 ACT will “show them”. </p>
<p>They KNOW a GPA compares apples to oranges, that is why RANK is important. A weighted GPA can ONLY be used within the confines of your student body.</p>
<p>I have a friend whose school gives weight to AP classes only (not honors) but it’s a full point!! My D’s first school weighted both, but at different levels (I think .1 and .2). Her knew school adds weight to both at the same level…which I think is .2. </p>
<p>There are schools where you only get percentile grades, others with no plusses or minuses. Some translate a 93 into an A- and another into a B+. Some have 4.0 scales, others 12.0 scales. Some schools the MAX a person could get is 4.0 (and some of those have 10-20-30!!! valedictorians! Crazy), others on a 4.0 scale where you could conceivably get well over 5.0. The colleges know all this. They break it down, take your academic grades, strip them of weight, use their own score, add their own weight…and even it all out.</p>
<p>NO worries.</p>
<p>Thank you for the great explanation. I have been really worried Brown would think my school was a pushover when in fact it is one of the top public schools in southeast Michigan.</p>
<p>Thanks again!</p>
<p>P.S. Do you know how exactly Brown recalculates GPA?</p>
<p>When they see that your GPA is 4.0 unweighted, I think they will understand, given your rigorous schedule, that the school has a tough system in terms of getting a high GPA.</p>
<p>an unweighted GPA of 4.0 is the highest possible because colleges don’t consider weighted GPAs. so why are you worried?</p>
<p>As far as I know, Brown does not recalculate your GPA. It looks at your transcript and all your grades.</p>
<p>@littlepixie: I didn’t know that colleges didn’t look at weighted GPA. Thanks everyone! I feel a lot better now.</p>
<p>Since every college has its own policy on GPA, I am sure there are colleges that look at weighted GPA. Some high schools only report weighted GPA, for example.</p>