Grades for Ivies

Pre-College Issues High School Life
1

<p>Okay so I was just wondering how the gpa grading works. I know this seems like a naive question, but my school doesn't declare gpa/rank until the end of junior year in order to avoid competition amongst students.</p>

<p>anyway, I was wondering what my unweighted gpa would be like, if I took 8 classes each year and my grades looked like this:</p>

<p>freshman year, junior, senior (prospective) years too (final averages) </p>

<p>A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A</p>

<p>sophomore year (final averages)</p>

<p>A, A, A, A, A, A, A, B</p>

<p>what do colleges even look at in terms of grades? my school does 4 marking periods, which are grouped into two semesters. the grade on the final exams then are added in, resulting in a final average. </p>

<p>would my final average be the grade sent out to colleges, or would it be individual marking periods/sememsters? this makes a huge difference, because I totally slacked off this year and the end of last year.</p>

<p>i got a C for one marking period freshman year, and than this year 2 C's, 3 B's.</p>

<p>the above are in terms of marking periods. in the end, my average rounded out to all A's except a high B.</p>

<p>how does this affect me later on when i'm applying to my dream <3 school of yale?</p>

2

<p>Most schools use your semester average when calculating your GPA (which, in every case I’ve seen, goes as a 4.0 for high-level A’s and down from there.)</p>

<p>It also depends on your school’s grading range (A = x-y, B = x-y, etc.)</p>

3

<p>you have no chance of getting into any school ever</p>

4

<p>I agree, GETTING A B IN SOPHOMORE YEAR, LOL YOU ARE SCREWED!!!</p>

5

<p>My friend had a B in Honors English freshman year. That was her only B. She goes to Harvard now.</p>

<p>Your grades don’t really matter if they aren’t on your transcript because no one will see them. I got a C for 2nd quarter calc BC, but I had a B for the semester so I’m not too upset.</p>

<p>As long as you have mostly A’s adding up to a GPA around 3.8, you’re good.</p>

6

<p>Wow, fishing for compliments, are we? Sorry, but you obviously know that there’s basically no way your grades could be any better, so you come here to brag about that. Classy.</p>

<p>What you should know, however, is that quite often grades are less important that recommendations and how well you do on the SAT, SSAT IIs, and APs. Because different schools are so different academically, colleges really have no way of knowing which ones hand out easy As and which ones are more difficult. There are way too many school in the US that have significant grade inflation for colleges to just take one look at grades and judge how good the student is.</p>

<p>In conclusion, quit bragging, and go do well on the SAT, SSAT IIs and APs, and get good recommendations.</p>

7

<p>i was actually not fishing for compliments at all. i’m dead serious. </p>

<p>did you not read the part about the C’s and B’s?
i assumed that CC had high standards…</p>

8

<p>Interview, ECs, Essays are ridiculously more important than grades/SAT/ACTs</p>

9

<p>^ Er, I wouldn’t say that those are better than your GPA. A high weighted GPA is obviously one of the first things adcoms would look for. </p>

<p>I think colleges have their own technique for calculating GPAs (considering the vast differences in calculations among high schools), so it shouldn’t particularly matter how your own school’s system is set up.</p>

10

<p>^ Your transcript is way more important than your GPA. But I get where you’re coming from. If your GPA is 0.0, they won’t care if you were taking Fluid Mechanics or Introspective Views on Yoruban Society.</p>

11

<p>I disagree with reapthenightmare.</p>

12

<p>Transcript + GPA > SAT > ECs > Essay > Interview</p>

13

<p>

Perhaps not in the way he intended it to mean, but I’m (loosely) in agreement with this - provided that of course, you don’t have an abysmally low GPA, most applicants to top colleges already have a GPA that’s “acceptable” and passes the cutoff, same with test scores (i.e. 3.8/4.0 won’t be the difference between a rejection/acceptance), and beyond that, I believe it’s the factors above that matter more (I can’t really prove this, of course, other than tens and hundreds of anecdotes and experiences that of course, do not hold any weight…)</p>

14

<p>^I hope you’re right.</p>

<p>I know this is incredibly ridiculous, but I sometimes feel like such a failure for having a 3.96 UW GPA. I hate 4.0’s look all untarnished and godly but when you have like a 3.96 it automatically looks so horrible.</p>

15

<p>Admission officers frequently reference grades earned and classes taken as the most important parts of an application.</p>

16

<p>And they are. I’m not saying they’re wrong. Hence my saying, high grades/challenging courses are necessary and great…</p>

<p>But you missed my point lol…</p>

17

<p>No no, I think I know what you mean. You’re saying that colleges are okay with an acceptable GPA around 3.8 or higher and then they choose who to accept based on other factors such as interviews, ECs, recommendations, etc. because that’s what makes you stand out more right? That GPA tidbit I added in was a random rambling, sorry.</p>