I found this interesting, it’s the stats for the middle 50% of the accepted students for the class of 2015 at my son’s university:
SAT: 1140-1320
SAT CR: 560-660
SAT Math: 570-670
ACT Composite: 25-30
GPA: 3.51-4.0
This tells me that ALL of the students in the top 25% have a GPA of 4.0 or above, while some of them have SAT scores as low as 1330 (on a 1600 scale; high 600s on CR/M individually), and/or ACT as low as 31. I find it interesting; I would have thought that GPAs of 4.0+ would correlate with higher test scores. (However, it doesn’t say if this is a weighted GPA, and if so, what is the highest possible; that could be a factor.)
Do you think this shows:
grade inflation in HS; not so hard to get a 4.0 anymore;
this school is looking for hard workers who aren’t necessarily as great on tests (maybe trying to increase yield by accepting students who might not get into more selective schools?? the acceptance rate is high and yield low, it’s a very expensive private school that gives generous aid, including merit, but does not meet full need for all students [it does for some]);
something else (what?).
By way of an interesting related fact, my son had SAT (1350) and ACT (31) in the top 25% for this school, he was diligent (but not outrageously so) in HS, and his GPA (our school doesn’t weight, so it’s on a 4.0-scale) was 3.93. I thought his test scores were low-ish for his GPA, but maybe not? (The school turned out to be a great match for him.)
+1 to grade inflation (IMO it’s rampant in HS). The college listed GPA spread also has to include weighted GPAs. It is possible the school emphasizes GPA over scores, too.
A lot of schools weight for AP/IB/honors, pre-honors (huh?), and my favorite ‘pre-AP’ (what the heck is that course?).
GPA is based on the the high school class. It could be full of dunderheads, but A’s will still be awarded. OTOH, a school full of really brainy kids means that many of them will be earning B’s.
Yes, grades are inflated at our high school. They don’t publicize the unweighted GPA’s but my guess is that at least 15% of the students graduate with a 4.0 unweighted average. Some teachers will simply curve the grades up if they aren’t high enough. I think it’s a deliberate effort to make school less stressful and to some extent it works. It does have downsides though because it also has the effect of making a B pretty much a failing grade for the better college-bound students. It also makes it rather difficult for the top students to distinguish themselves from the large crowd of students with nearly identical grades.
Our high school weights honors and AP classes. When the school ranked, a 4.0 weighted GPA was probably below the top 25%. This meant that a student taking as many honors/AP classes as allowed (lower level foreign language classes and many electives did not offer an honors/AP option) could have an unweighted GPA at around a 3.2 or 3.3 and a weighted GPA at around a 4.0. A student who took no honors/AP classes might have an unweighted 3.9 or 4.0 and still fail to place in the top 25%.
In practice, though, it seemed to me that students who easily got A’s in regular classes were encouraged to move up to the honors level in the next grade. (Students who got C’s in these classes would move down a level.) An unweighted GPA of 4.0 was rare among students taking these classes, even among students with perfect or near-perfect SAT’s and a boatload of 5’s on AP tests, although a few each year seemed to achieve this and there always seemed to be one or two students who never got a single B in any marking period. (Transcripts reported end of year grades only, except for senior mid-year transcripts.)
I have no idea of how these GPA’s correlated with SAT scores. From the scores that frazzled kids reported hearing about at lunch or sports practices, etc., it would seem that most students in honors/AP classes had combined CR/M scores of at least 1400 and usually above 1500, but it could be that students with lower scores did not volunteer the information.
If it’s a weighted 4.0 that doesn’t tell you anything about grade inflation. Also it may be a recalculated GPA that takes out minus grades. At our school about 15 percent of kids have an unweighted 4.0 if you take out - grades. But an A - is a 3.66 so all but one of those kids don’t have a 4.0 as we calculate. In other words almost all have A- and most have several A - grades. My daughter for example has a 3.82 but U OF MICHIGAN would report that she has a 4.0 because they recalculate her A- grades.