<p>Hi! I'm a junior, and I'm wondering about how colleges view your GPA in comparison to what high school you attended. I go to the top public school in my state, and one of the top 20 in the country. I've spoken with a few admissions officers and I know that almost all colleges know of it and its grading, but I'd like to get opinions on my GPA. Here's part of the profile my school sends with transcripts:</p>
<p>The GPA is based on academic grades on a 4.0 scale in subjects taken in the 10th and 11th grades and in summer sessions after 9th, 10th, and 11th grades. The Weighted GPA, which uses the same grades as the Un-weighted GPA, is computed by adding one point to each Honors and Advanced Placement course grade of A, B, or C.
Average Un-weighted GPA earned was 3.32, 3.58 Weighted (2012).
Top Un-weighted GPA earned was 4.0, 4.64 Weighted.
28% of the seniors in the class of 2012 had a Weighted GPA above 4.0.</p>
<p>Going by my high school's GPA system (10th and 11th grade) I have a 3.7 unweighted and a 4.1 weighted. How do you think that is in comparison to my school? (It doesn't rank, so I don't really know where I stand compared to my class). What GPA do you think this would be equivalent to at a less competitive high school? Should I account for a bit of grade deflation when using a tool like Supermatch, and if so, how far should I bump up my GPA? I'm having a bit of difficulty telling exactly where I stand and what safeties/matches/reaches I should be aiming for, especially because my test scores are in a higher range than my GPA.</p>
<p>Looks like you are ~top 20-25% in a competitive HS. I don’t think you have grade deflation. What are your test scores and we might be able to help with some recommendations.</p>
<p>Really? My school is known for being one of the hardest; will colleges really not take that into account? I think that it’s a case of everyone working harder for an average grade distribution, maybe? I’ve been told most colleges have heard of my high school and will take it into account, but maybe I’m wrong
I’ve gotten 2050-2100 sat scores on diagnostic tests, and I think that if I study for a spring test I can get a 2200.
I’m looking for politically/socially liberal schools, preferably in the Northeast (I’m in CA, so I’d be out of state). I’m interested in natural resource conservation, environmental science, etc. I’m also looking for an urban school…if anyone has any recommendations, I’d love to hear them :)</p>
<p>I’m in love with Reed and its atmosphere, but it’s pretty small and it doesn’t offer any majors I’m looking for. I know Reed is pretty unique, but are there any similar schools? I know of Oberlin, but it’s also small and I’d rather not be in the Midwest. :/</p>
<p>Brown is my dream school, but is it even worth applying and getting my hopes up? I think I can raise my SAT scores, write great essays, and I have good extracurriculars related to my interests, but my school doesn’t count freshman GPA, and I think that would drag my GPA down even more…does Brown ever admit students who have decent, but not great GPAs?</p>
<p>Colleges will know you come from a competitive school but grade deflation is a different issue. An example of grade deflation is the #1/500 student having a 3.2 UWGPA. </p>
<p>Do your guidance counselors know college admisisons officers at the top schools? If so, you do not have that much to worry about beingin the top 20-25% of a very top school so long as you have solid test scores etc. For exmaple, Stuyvesant (at least until the SAT cheating scandal) a few years ago got over 200 students (out of 700 or so in the class) into five Ivies and Thomas Jefferson in NOVA has sent 20 plus to MIT each of the last few years.</p>
<p>I’m definitely going to apply to in state schools just in case I don’t end up receiving good financial aid, but I would probably qualify for a pretty substantial amount of need-based financial aid. My parents are also divorced and my mom just got remarried, though, so that kind of confuses me, in terms of the FAFSA, etc…but I’m thinking I’ll apply to Berkeley, which my school is a feeder school to, UC Santa Cruz, and a few more.</p>
<p>My school (with classes of 600) probably sends 50 a year to Ivies/Stanford/MIT/etc, 100 to UC Berkeley, another 50-100 to top schools like Northwestern, etc and TONS to UCs like UC Davis and UC San Diego. I’m not sure if we have direct connections with any school, but they make a ton of visits here, and from the admissions officers I’ve talked to, it seems like they all know our school’s reputation pretty well.</p>
<p>A quick question: my school calculates both UW and W grades using 10th and 11th grade core academic classes, and that’s what shows up on our transcripts. How many schools will bother recalculating that to include the freshman year, and how many will just look at them?</p>
<p>The average UW GPA is a B+ (3.3) and you are worried about grade deflation? What would you expect the average to be? 3.9?</p>
<p>Your statistics point to your GPA being in the top 20-25% of your class. You later describe that 200-250 out of 600 go to Ivies/Berkeley/top schools. Based on your own data, you are clearly in this group.</p>
<p>If your high school is as prestigious as you claim, you should talk to your GC. She will be able to provide much more accurate and better information than anyone on this board.</p>
<p>Sorry! Yeah, looking at it again I guess grade deflation is a completely different thing. What I meant to say was that my school is really competitive and rigorous, I guess. I’m just trying to figure out what range of “match” schools I should be looking at.
Thanks so much to everyone for replying I’m only asking these questions here because we have about 5 or 6 guidance counselors for each class, so it’s a bit hard to meet with them.</p>
<p>Thanks for the advice! Judging from PSATs and practice SATs I’ve taken, I’ll probably end up with about a 2200. I’ll probably apply to a couple of dream schools, even though I have no chance, haha. I’ve just got to find some realistic safeties/targets/etc.
Is it only the very selective schools that count retaken classes in GPA, or is that standard across the board?</p>
Thanks for the input!</p>