<p>1) Only grade points in academic courses are counted and others are removed during recalculation. The five academic areas are English, Math, Science, Social Studies, and Foreign Languages. True or false?</p>
<p>2) Poor freshman year grades are semi-negligible under the evaluation of the overall application, assuming that the student performed at a much higher level after 9th grade. True or false?</p>
<p>3) The fact that Canadian secondary schools grade on a different scale (80%, 85%, or 86% being an A in most provinces) is taken into account at U.S. admissions offices and there is a general belief and understanding that Canadian grades are less inflated than American ones. True or false?</p>
<p>These questions are in the context of admissions to elite colleges (Duke, Northwestern, Penn, Cornell, etc.)</p>
<ol>
<li><p>At some schools, and some others (princeton and stanford for example) don’t even look at 9th grade.</p></li>
<li><p>I <em>think</em> so, but then again, it’s gonna be a lot harder for int’ls to get in those schools, so you’d better not have a less inflated A</p></li>
</ol>
<p>hmom when you say top 30, do you mean Private Schools or Public and Private. At top 30 private schools I would somewhat believe that. However if you are talking good public scools, I’ll say UNC, UVA and UofM, it definitely does not kill you to have bad grades freshmen year and then have good grades later on. I know for a fact that people who did bad freshmen year still got into UNC. I have also heard that UNC greatly considers trend and that a bad freshmen year will not hurt you too bad. And that was strait from the mouth of an admissions officer there.</p>
<p>Although out of state wise it will make it a bit tougher. Of course top 30 could be a rough estimate from you. If you were to change it, to like top 10-15 then I would agree with you for the most part.</p>
<p>Which two? I know schools that don’t use freshmen grades when recalculating GPA, both Stanford and Princeton do that, yet they hardly ignore them. I can’t think of a single top school where overall rank is not among the most critical factors.</p>
<p>Even the UCs, which have a formula that does not include freshmen or senior grades, take a hard look at both.</p>
<p>The system I’m in happens to rank starting from 10th grade. Only about the top 5% even bother to apply to American schools so they (we, haha) need not worry about rank too much.</p>
<p>Not only that, the valedictorian is chosen by the student body and is usually not the top academic student.</p>
<p>In fact, I don’t think the concept of a cumulative GPA exists here.</p>
<p>Well, I’m willing to work my ass off for sub-par chances (like most international applicants) so I’ll be fine. Thanks everyone.</p>
If a HS calculates a 10-12th grade rank (or doesn’t rank at all), and P and S both ignore 9th grade grades when calculating GPA, why would what shows up on that transcript hold any weight? Clearly if they are willing to overlook it for recalculating GPA they are willing to overlook it when more closely evaluating an applicant. I understand that the circumstances are different if a HS calculates rank using all 4 years of HS.</p>
<p>What the high schools calculates is unimportant to the colleges. Different high schools do things differently–they count different things and weigh differently for example. Colleges use their own methodology to recalculate to put everyone on an even playing field. Colleges figure out a rank for kids from schools that are unranked.</p>
<p>Because a school doesn’t use freshmen year grades in a calculation doesn’t mean they ignore them. At both Princeton and Stanford, the vast majority of unhooked students are very top of their high school classes. This is true even at mid tier ivies–at Dartmouth 40% are val or sal. When ypou back out the 40% of the class that’s hooked, that’s most.</p>
<p>While senior grades are also not “counted” in the calculations, what you take and your grades senior year matter too. And while colleges say the super score and only count highest scores, if you took the SAT three times and have a range of scores they look. This is not at all black and white.</p>
<p>With sub 13% admit rates, these schools need to use something to separate out the thousands of kids who all look similar on paper.</p>
<p>Does it really KILL your chances if you have a poor freshman year meaning like a B average…</p>
<p>I have to also question…if you do average (B) freshman year with a less rigorous cirriculum and then in 10th 11th and 12th see an upward trend WITH an increasingly rigorous courseload doesnt that say something about your true academic ability??</p>
<p>Yes, and that will really make a difference at 98.5% of colleges. But at the top colleges there are tens of thousands of good applicants they don’t have room for. They need to make the cut somewhere.</p>
<p>Again can you please clarify what top schools mean? Either a list of them or something concrete. Top schools is very general when some people consider the Ivy’s the only top schools and others consider anything from about top 40 down.</p>