<p>is a 4.0 with lower level classes better than a 3.7 with higher level classes?</p>
<p>If you’re in all college prep/remedial classes with a 4.0, it really just demonstrates laziness.
A 3.7 on the other hand shows that you’re challenging yourself while also getting decent grades.</p>
<p>so then is class rank determined solely by GPA or the classes you take as well, I take mostly advanced classes and have a 3.7</p>
<p>I think it varies.
At my school, class rank is almost completely separate from GPA calculations; it’s determined by quality points.
An A in an AP class gets you more points that an A in an honors class… and yeah. </p>
<p>I also think that that’s what a weighted GPA is? An A in an Honors Lab course could give you a 4.2 rather than a 4.0.</p>
<p>i would say 4.0 with lower level classes, just based on the people from my school who got into better colleges.</p>
<p>It really depends though. Just keep in mind that some colleges max weighted classes (the college im aiming for does it at 4, so you can take as many ap classes as u want and only 4 count as weighted)</p>
<p>It doesnt matter how you look, for most colleges its a computer that decides whether ur in or not</p>
<p>At the same time though, that’s what the standardized test scores are for.
Some really dumb people are in the collegeprep courses at my school and even if they get a 4.0/3.9; they won’t get higher than a 1700 on the SATs.
So whatever…</p>
<p>To get into top schools, you need the near-4.0 in difficult classes (but this isn’t to say you should make you schedule unnecessarily difficult–play to your strengths). For slightly less competitive schools, I’ve found preferences to be less discernable. From my school, kids with 3.5 or thereabouts in IB Diploma get into UNC pretty easily, but schools like NC State have tended to prefer kids with higher grades in easier courses.</p>