<p>Rescently i realized that the whole GPA , let it be UW or Weighted, varies
from every bloody high school.</p>
<p>Some of my friends, attending Prep schools in NY, tell me that an A- is a 3.8
for them. Some American education system high schools in asia have an A as a 90% average.</p>
<p>My school, cause of policy, will not even round up a 89.5 into a A-.
An A- is a 3.67 (not even a 3.7).</p>
<p>Will colleges know this and take it into account?</p>
<p>yea colleges have this system where they standardize gpa's, i dont exactly know how they do it but in the end ieveryones basically evaluated the same</p>
<p>my school attaches a nice demographic bar graph of GPAs to the transcript.</p>
<p>a 5.0/6.0 might seem really low but in my school that pretty much ranks you in the top 15% so adcomps can tell that my school is hard</p>
<p>college07 - SMU's standardization goes like this:</p>
<p>A (whether it be A+ or A-, it's still an A) - 4
B - 3
C - 2
D - 1
F - 0</p>
<p>Other schools may be different, but that is what SMU told me so that is at least one method.</p>
<p>tahts reassuring...
i was really ****ed off cause </p>
<p>our school is SOO NOT GENEROUS when it comes to GPA's and percentes etc.</p>
<p>Ive had friends boast 3.9s when their school's expectations are SOOO low.</p>
<p>...am i right in beleiveing that the colleges pay more attention to the transcript itself and not as much to the "GPA"?</p>
<p>Phillibuster - colleges unweight and recalculate GPA's based on their own formula. In the GPA itself, they do not give any credit for taking harder classes. Typically, when they calculate it, however, they only include academic classes (no underwater basket weaving). Then, they look at the transcript. A 3.6 GPA taking the hardest classes your school offers, including APs or IBs if available, is going to look a lot better to colleges than a 3.9 or a 4.0 in non-Honors classes or classes that are blowoffs.</p>
<p>what if your school counts a B+ as 90-93.5? Is it a B or an A-? I've gotten 4 B+'s so far all of them 92 or higher how do i calculate my gpa then? If i count it as a B (3) my gpa is 3.4, but if i count it as an A-, or A its a 4.0. Which is right?</p>
<p>Ozzy - Colleges get a report from each school outlining their grading policy. If it comes on your transcript simply as "B+" then colleges will be able to look at your school profile and see that it was between 90 and 93.5. Some colleges may look at this as a B still, some may look at it as an A. You may want to contact the colleges you are interested in and find out how they count it.</p>
<p>If it comes on your transcript as a number grade, colleges still know where it falls in your school's grading scale. Again, it will be their preference on how much credit to give you on GPA.</p>
<p>Let me get the email that came from SMU detailing how they figure out GPA's.</p>
<p>From SMU Admissions office:</p>
<p>If the GPA is recalculated on an unweighted 4.0 scale, how is the mid-50% range for admitted students 3.3-3.9? </p>
<p>Answer: As I mentioned, we recalculate the GPA based on all of your core academic units on an unweighted 4.0 scale A= 4.0, B=3.0 etc. We recalculate freshman, sophomore, and junior year separately, and then calculate the cumulative GPA. Therefore, if a student has the following grades on their transcript </p>
<p>8 As ( 8 × 4 = 32)</p>
<p>9 Bs ( 9 × 3 = 27)</p>
<p>2 Cs ( 2 × 2 = 4)</p>
<p>To get the GPA we add the points and divide by number of courses: 63 points divided by 19 courses=3.3157 </p>
<hr>
<p>So, they see that you have a B+ according to your school and give you credit for a B. However, they will see that your school has higher standards in the school profile and that will give you a boost in admissions.</p>
<p>A personal anecdote - at my school, GPA is on a weird 5.0 scale, where Honors classes give the possibility of a 6.0 and AP the possibility of a 6.5. The caveat: for each point less than 100, you lose one-tenth of a grade point. The point of this is that no one is supposed to make higher than a 90 in Honors or higher than an 85 in AP. Of course, people do make higher, but it is very hard (especially in my English class - I'm excellent in English but I finished with an 89). The thing is, even though it's supposed to be impossible to make higher than an 85 in AP, if you do it's still only a B. Colleges will see that B on my transcript and figure it in as a B, but they will know from my school profile that in that class, the standards are very high so they will give me a boost in admissions for taking a tough curriculum (or at least that is what they say!).</p>
<p>interesting....
intersting...</p>
<p>so an A- will be weihted as a A?</p>
<p>seeing that a B+ is a B!</p>
<p>Yes (10 char)</p>
<p>WOW that cool... thanks buddy...</p>
<p>sorry but what is 10 char again?</p>
<p>(10 char) means that I have less than 10 characters in the post and CC requires at least 10 characters to post something. So I write in (10 char) and it gives me enough characters to post</p>
<p>I see you signed up this month...you'll catch on to some of the quirks of this community :)</p>
<p>haha thanks.</p>
<p>so i guess there is not harm in getting A-'s
FINALLY someone knows.</p>
<p>does this apply to all colleges?(most?)</p>
<p>Honestly, no clue. I know of at least one (U of Colorado) that doesn't recalculate GPAs. I would think it would hurt there.</p>
<p>To find out about a specific college's method, email them.</p>
<p>alright thanks...
o and nathan TX07 thanks for helping me clear up some foggy topics.
one last thing,
would u mind giving me your opinion on my chances of acceptance in the ivy world? (preferably the dirrty cruel reality lol)</p>
<p>..... I attend Hong Kong International School.
I am an american citizen.
I am also Korean (grudges?)</p>
<p>ACADEMIC...</p>
<p>GPA- 3.67 (unweighted)
Graduating- 2007 (senior to be)
Sophomore- AP BIO Hon alg2
Junior- AP chem, AP french(french 5), AP US, hon precal
Senior AP English, AP Econ, AP stat, AP Calc BC, AP French ('french 6')</p>
<p>overal- 9 courses, 11 exams (litt lang micro mac) </p>
<p>the MOST APs in my year: i know it don't matter much</p>
<p>3.67 is a A- average in my school (Hong Kong International School).</p>
<p>ranked 8th in class of 200
(1 person with GPA over 3.9)
(3 people with GPA over 3.8)
(3 people with GPA 3.7)
(2 of the above will graduate with less than 4 aps)</p>
<p>SAT- took in june... 2100
SAT II- (not impressive) Bio- 710 Chem- 700 US-640</p>
<p>The ONly AP score i know at the moment is the Bio which was a 5.</p>
<p>ECA............................................... .............</p>
<p>Amensty letter writer for 6 years</p>
<p>NHS member since sophomore year</p>
<p>Elected Hong Kong International Senator of Discipline (with only 4 others)</p>
<p>Varsity Swimming (3 years) and Captain (2 years)
Competing in the Age Group Championships etc...10 hours per week</p>
<p>JV Basketball (3 years) Capt. (2 years)</p>
<p>Science Center Director and Founder - A science 'help center' that is part of the science department.</p>
<p>HKIS Science Society Director and Founder- Group consisting of not the MOST talented but the most enthusiastic young scientists. We compete in local science fair competition etc. It is also the senior memebers job to teach 8 promising Honors student Advanced material. (preparation for the USABO)</p>
<p>Proctor of the USABO and the Chemistry Olympiad. (also took it this year after studying indivudally over the summer. Made the top 10 %)</p>
<p>High School Mathematics Modelling Competition (HiMCm) National Outstanding away winner (top 2 %). [International competion with over 200 teams competing]</p>
<p>First cellist in the HKIS Strings in my freshmen year- but currently only playing for a hobby.</p>
<p>Took a intense semester credit course in Biotechnology in the Penn Engineering School. (A-)</p>
<p>i'm also a Teacher Assitant during the school year and a Administration Assistant in the summer.</p>
<hr>
<p>According to my 3 college councilors i am 1 of the 5 most impressive kids in my year however... i got alot of of discouraging comments when i
talked about Wharton.</p>
<p>(OUr school sends around 5 to 8 kids to IV league school every year.)</p>
<p>Your GPA is a little low, but HK International School is well known and should help justify that. SAT is low for Ivies but your EC's look good.</p>
<p>Harvard, Yale, Princeton are reaches for everyone. As is Wharton.
You'll get into UPenn (not Wharton) and Cornell , I think, but again they are Ivies so no one knows exactly what they are looking for.
Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia - I have no idea (Sorry!)</p>
<p>so what exactly is the point of us posting our weighted grades? and also, do schools recalculate everything, so if a 90% is an A in one school, but a B+ in another, would they change it so everyone's percentage equals the same letter grade?</p>
<p>It depends on the policy of the school.</p>
<p>so wait - youre telling me that universities take every student's application and recalculate? like they dont have anything better to do?</p>