<p>I hear how everybody says GPA is much more important than rank, but...</p>
<p>shouldn't rank be more important? Considering a student could have varying GPAs from school to school, teacher to teacher, grading system to grading system, but rank compares you better with your individual school?</p>
<p>I hear a lot of students on here saying how they have 91's in all their classes so they have straight A's.</p>
<p>In my school an A is a 93. Flat. 92.9 is a B, trust me this happened to me in trig honors freshman year and I was quite upset.</p>
<p>Now I'm #1 in my class... But technically I have a 3.85 unweighted GPA. I've never been under a 90, which would've been an A in most other schools, but my grading system is ridiculous. Likewise, #1 in the class with a 4.49 weighted (+1 for AP/H) compared to #2 in the class being a straight 4.0 (Took basic level classes, never an honors or AP)....</p>
<p>So what do you people think, GPA or rank in school is more important? (Of course the combination of both too, sillyz.).</p>
<p>It just seems ridiculous to compare GPAs as some schools have different grading systems and easier teachers (take this for example. My APUSH history has not given out an A in his last 23 years of teaching... yet I got a 5... The dude is just ridiculous.)</p>
<p>And yeah the high school transcript shows the grading system</p>
<p>I am pretty sure that Admissions will recalculate the HS GPA. And rank could be deceiving; it depends on the rigor of the HS, the standards of the students, etc. Adcoms look at this when your guidance counselor sends a school profile. :)</p>
<p>I would say that it's the RECALCULATED GPA that means the most. (I would also assert that weighted GPA means nothing at all.)</p>
<p>It's silly for you to think that your different grading scale is a disadvantage. If a teacher is grading a paper and says, "This is an A paper," he/she is not going to give you a 91 because he/she forgot that an A starts at 93. Argue all you want; the way teachers grade in a system where A starts at 93 reflects the fact that the A starts at 93 instead of 90.</p>
<p>Yeah, this has been a topic of interest for me as well. I am currently ranked #1 by virtue of my weighted GPA and have an UW of about a 3.96. However, my school hands out AP weghting like candy to anyone who does mah competition training (NOTTTTTTTT me, lol) and so one of my classmates may overtake me by the end of 7th semester senior year. However, he is currently taking only 6 classes, two of which are band and newspaper while i have 5 APs and 1 honors (worse than all of the APs put together). I am hoping for a fair evaluation of the difficulty of my couseload but who knows......</p>
<p>Wishy Washy... Think about what you just said please.</p>
<p>Look what class I said I got a B in.</p>
<p>You think my teacher was grading an essay in trig? Obviously not. I can get 92% of questions right on a math test and get a B.</p>
<p>You think my history teacher grades fairly, when not a single person out of about the last ~2000 has gotten an A in his class? And we take more tests in his class as opposed to essays.</p>
<p>Obviously it makes a difference. That was silly to infer otherwise.</p>
<p>I think the adcoms will know that your gpa is not as meaningful as your number one ranking. i am in the same boat as you and if they see that you have performed better than your peers, then how can it matter what gpa you have (yes, given that your school is competitive, etc)</p>
<p>Your history teacher not giving anyone an A has nothing to do with the grading scale. And while you can get 92% of questions right on the math test, if the standard for the A is SIMPLY DIFFERENT, then so are the tests you are taking.</p>
<p>It would be one thing if, say, the SAT were curved differently for just your school, but the work you are doing is different from the work that other kids are doing at other schools. Someone getting a 92%B in Trig at your school is not producing the same quality of work as a person getting a 92%A in Trig at a school with a different grading scale but that is equally rigorous.</p>
<p>Wishy Washy... Dude... Just think please.... You really think a 3 point grading scale difference... Is going to make the teacher make tests differently? No.... Obviously not.... The tests are on the same subjects on the same questions with the same difficulty. A 92% B in trig at my school IS PRODUCING THE SAME QUALITY OF WORK (I can talk caps too) as a 92% at another. IN FACT, the tests my school uses for trig and the tests High Point High School uses are the same... and high point has a 90 point A.</p>
<p>And you said " but that is equally rigorous. ". Exactly. It's just as rigorous. And BTW I had a 91.5 in History. He gives us regular tests rarely essays, and I had A's on all essays. 90% A would've given me an A.</p>
<p>I don't see how you're arguing this.</p>
<p>I don't see how people can make such large assumptions and say how if our grading scale is different then the school is easier. In fact you're simply improving my point, the fact that GPA being compared between two schools is retarded.</p>
<p>You misunderstood me. By saying "that is equally rigorous," I was trying to avoid any talk of how "hard" some schools are compared to others, ignoring the grading scale.</p>
<p>I am NOT saying that your school is easy, nor have I ever suggested that. I'm saying that, although teachers may not consciously say, "Yes, let me make this test easier because a 93% is an A," if a school has a CULTURE and simply different standards than other schools, then kids doing A-level work will be getting A's, whether they start at 89.5 or at 94, like those schools that were in the Post recently.</p>
<p>What I meant in my last post I think can be summed up by saying that a student receiving a 92%B in trig at your school would be receiving a 88%B in trig at my school. Look, I am not trying to pick a fight with you, (it just so happens that I disagree with two posts you have recently made) but I will not be told that kids receiving A's on 10-point scales don't deserve them as much as kids whose A's start at 93.</p>
<p>See, once again you're simply making assumptions.</p>
<p>Nowhere did I say that kids don't deserve it as much, I'm not saying that.</p>
<p>Show me evidence stating that a 92% in my school is an 88% in your school.</p>
<p>There's a reason nobody's ever gone through my high school without at least 2 B's in over 80 years. I bet your high school has multiple 4.0s.</p>
<p>I'm sure the multiple students who have 4.0s in this single year, let alone prior years, are all academically better than every student to ever go to my school.</p>
<p>I think everybody agrees comparing GPAs is worthless.</p>
<p>My situation: I'm valedictorian with a 3.98 UW, which just so happens to be the highest GPA in my school's 16 year history. Yeah, no one's ever made a 4.0. It doesn't happen. I think I have 2 A-s that are holding me back.</p>
<p>ANYway, obviously, in this case, those 2 details (vallie and highest in school history) are more important than the fact it's < 4.0</p>
<p>hookem, and it's quite likely that your GC will mention that you have the highest GPA in the school's history. It's all about context. In our school the number grades appear on the transcript and the GPA is calculated via those number grades - so getting an 89 or a 90 is a piddling difference in the overall GPA. But ultimately most colleges look at the GPA's and calculate them under their own systems which take into account the difficulty of the courses and the local context. (A student at a school with no APs does not get penalized.) </p>
<p>If you are a top student at your school and are the sort of student who regularly shows the ability and drive to go beyond the curriculum you will be the sort of student Harvard is looking for. That doesn't always correspond to having the highest GPA in your class. My son went way way beyond the high school curriculum in the areas that interested him, but he also had a few B's.</p>