<p>My counselor told me that my GPA is not high enough for admission into some of my choice schools. I can't help but ponder about it; GPA entirely depends on the classes you take. If I had chosen to take some different classes, there is no doubt that my GPA would be higher. For example, at my high school, there are several math lanes that you can choose from that lead to either AB calculus or BC calculus. But the classes in one lane are significantly easier than the classes in the other lane. I have some friends who jumped from one track to another. Between the 2 lanes, there's a 10-15% grade discrepancy. People who consistantly maintained an A+ in the "lower" lane get a B in the other lane. So students of the same caliber would have a lower GPA if they chose the BC calc lane. How is this fair? Between AB and BC calc, there shouldn't be that much of a knowledge gap, should there? And this isn't the only example either. Even within the classes of the same name, different instructors have different grading methodologies. In one of our classes, one teacher is notoriously harder than the other. There is common advice among the upperclassmen to the incoming students, "If you want an A, get this teacher. If you actually want to learn something but might not get an A, get this teacher." School ranking too, depends upon GPA. But I could easily be in the top 1% of my class if I took "joke classes". Grades aren't created equal.<br>
I understand that discrepancies of rigour between different schools are somewhat leveled by the Secondary School Report. But these differences within a single school don't show up on the Secondary School Report; there is no way applicants can tell colleges that "yes, I got a B, but that's only because I took the high road and wanted to learn something instead of getting an easy A." </p>
<p>I don't know where I'm going with this thread just yet. It's more of a rant. I guess I am seeking reassurance that colleges will somehow know and value my GPA more than a GPA that may be higher but reflective of easier classes. It's not fair, and I know that people will tell me to suck it up, because "the world is not fair." But I'm frustrated, and at the same time disheartened that I was discouraged from applying to some schools.</p>
<p>Colleges would still rather see a B in an AP than an A in a regular class. An applicant with a 4.0 GPA but no honors is considered a weaker choice than a 3.5 applicant who took the hardest courseload they could. Trust me, if you’re worried about your class choices going unnoticed, remember that at most colleges, the rigor of your classes is considered along with your GPA.</p>
<p>But that’s a very obvious difference on those transcripts, and I know that the admissions office people aren’t stupid either. But the more subtle things, like different grading scales between different teachers, is really unclarified, and I think that’s what I’m frustrated about.</p>
<p>Not much you can do, really. At our school, one English 10 teacher hands out A’s as if it were candy while the other hasn’t given out a grade higher than a B+ in more than a decade. Just got to deal with it, I guess. But remember colleges are understanding if you have the odd low grade in a subject if you don’t make a habit of it.</p>
<p>Admission counselors understand that there is discrepancy between grading in many levels. However, the students accepted to top schools will have almost all A’s regardless of the teacher/school and would probably have gotten A’s if the teacher was harder, etc.</p>
<p>And they definitely look at the level of classes. If they see lots of AP’s they will be a bit mroe udnerstanding if the GPA is lower.</p>
<p>This is not something you need to worry about. Your guidance counselor will be asked to rate the rigor of the curriculum taken by you when she is sending your application packet, and only students in the hardest “lane” will be rated “most rigorous” as far as curriculum. Rigor of curriculum is VERY important.</p>
<p>Also, many colleges recalculate gpa on a 4.0 scale, and include only core academic courses…no fluff classes included. These schools also assign a score to an applicant’s rigor of curriculum.</p>
<p>These are things you should think of before you start applying to colleges. Choose your courses wisely. Make sure you learn about the teachers, and how they run classes. College admissions is really a game in the long run, and you have to play it smart.</p>