<p>well thepapercrane I don't necessarily agree. Yes it is true that some schools take an 85-100 as an A (my school is one) and others take 93 or higher but in general universities will know how good each school is. Remember they have been admitting students for centuries (some of them) and so they know about most schools and how tough/strict they are and how much an A is worth from that school. I actually dislike the idea of class ranking but it sometimes does not reflect people properly. For example in my class there is a girl who was the first in her class in her old school but when she moved to my school her class rank dropped. She's been in my school for 3 years now so its not due to the fact that she's adjusting to the new school. She's still good but now she doesn't even rank in the top 10%.</p>
<p>Oh. So if my school happens to be (well, its true) one of the top public schools (b/c Long Island is uggh... competitive and snobbish and in some areas, ridiculously affluent...) ... in the U.S., they'd take that into account...?</p>
<p>there are 600 people in my class and I am in the top 1-3%... they would take that into account as well?
this is quite daunting.</p>
<p>Actually, I believe the new dean of admissions at Stanford is trying to revamp the system so that it's similar to Yale's. Basically, how it works is that they have regional admissions counselors who are VERY familiar with the schools in their assigned area (they know the rigor of the academics, the variety & availability of APs/ecs, even the personalities of the teachers & counselors who write the recs). Hence, everything that can be taken into account WILL be taken into account. If you know how difficult/easy it is to get an A at your school, the admissions counselor knows too (scary, isn't it?).</p>
<p>oh... ugh... that really does suck, then.
I mean it's also good, depending on.. your situation... but... generally, that sucks. Ew. Ew. Ew. Isn't the new dean FROM Yale?
Oh, man. I mean, okay, yes, it's difficult to get an A+ in my school (as in.. in a given class, approximately 4 out of the 23-26 people get A+...) I feel so screwed</p>
<p>I think it will make a fairer admission process and I applaud this effort.</p>
<p>so do they look at each year's GPA (freshman, sophomore, junior...) or do they just look at your overall? In my school, your grades look really bad if you don't get an A+...</p>
<p>We just got back from the Stanford info session, and they clearly said that they recalculate your gpa based on a 4.0 scale, ignoring + and - and freshman grades. They have people who concentrate on different regions of the country and are familiar with schools. They look to see how challenging the level of classes you have taken and how your school ranks you (or your weighted gpa relative to the school's gpa's that your counselor sends in)</p>
<p>A+ or A is still equal to a 4.0, right?
If my school only sends weighted scores, then what happens?</p>
<p>They said that they recalculate it on their 4.0 system that doesn't take weighting into account. And they only look at core academic subjects, like math, english, science, language and social studies/history. The gpa topic was the only thing that got people worked up at the admissions talk.</p>
<p>just curious-- where do they hold these admissions talks? :-P</p>
<p>Well, they're holding some next year as a part of the program that tours the country with Harvard, Georgetown, and UPenn, but the ones that I went to were all held at Stanford. I've never heard of any alumni/admissions rep talks, but I'm sure that that's only because I live an hour away. You could probably call the Undergrad Admissions Office to find out when the next one in your area will be held.</p>
<p>I wish I knew for sure what their 4.0 system was. If 3.5 was equal to an A (4.0 being equal to an A+), I would never get in.</p>