<p>I was wondering. Are colleges aware of the different grading scales among high schools? </p>
<p>My daughters high school has a 94-100 as an A, 90-93.5 as a B+. She has plenty B+'s and I was just wondering if this is going to hurt her with her GPA when it comes time to apply to colleges. </p>
<p>Thanks in advance for any feedback.</p>
<p>Most high school trainscripts have a section that expalins their grading scale.</p>
<p>Your D's hs should be sending a hs profile with her transcript to each school. Ask for your hs's profile. I cannot imagine that it would not include the grading scale. The problem, IMO, is that many schools don't care when it comes time for merit aid. Many simply treat all high schools equally. Many have a chart and consider sats/grades. This left my S out of $$ at 2 schools. He had the sat scores, but the gpa was not high enough for $$. 5 other schools, however, recognized his achievements and offered merit scholarships. So, IMO, the high schools that do not have grade inflation, are really limiting options for their graduates.</p>
<p>Be proactive. If your child's GPA is calculated by some Byzantine formula that you can't read without 3-D glasses, explain it and give the admissions folks an alternative. </p>
<p>There are several formulas used by high schools that cripple kids chances at admissions and merit (IF the college does not recalculate everybody- many say they do but who knows?) </p>
<p>98 equals a 3.8 while their grading scale says 90-100 is an A. Say what? LOL You mean a kid who had straight 98's throughout high school would have a 3.8? I don't think so. Not on my watch anyway and the college would know about it.</p>
<ul>
<li>an - are the next most common robbers of points, especially the A+ = 4.0, A = 3.75, and A- = 3.5, from most of the high achieving kids (although some will gain from the +'s more than they loose from the -'s). A kid has 3 93's and 3 95's. A 93 is an A- and a 95 is an A. A- gets 3.5, A gets 3.75. 3.675 for a kid with straight A's? Yeah, right. </li>
</ul>
<p>It is my opinion that colleges want to show the highest GPA possible for introduction into the USNews and the guidebooks. Give them that opportunity.;) </p>
<p>I recalculate the high school UW GPA as follows: Translate everything to a letter grade and then to a 4.0 scale where 4.0 is a A, 3.0 is a B. Drop all pluses and minuses. You are stuck with the high school scale of what an A is. If an A is a 94-100 by school board rule, then that's what it is. Then multiply the grade by the number of credit units per course - Math is 1 unit and I made a 94. 94, look at the school's scale , that's an A -. Drop the minus. That's an A. An A is worth 4 points. 4 x 1 = 4 . Add up all the points. Divide by the number of units. </p>
<p>Obviously if your kid has nothing but B+'s and you school rewards a B+ with a 3.5 DON'T use the formula above for UW GPA. LOL. </p>
<p>Now this does nothing to equal out schools that give 10% A's with schools that give 40% A's. That needs to be reflected. If the GC doesn't- then your kid needs to address it in an "Explanation of Grading"or somesuch . Obviously it's better coming from the GC, but do what you gotta do.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. Much appreciated.</p>
<p>I just find that there are so many inequities in figuring out GPA's, here in Fairfax County, Virginia we go by the 94-100 = A, but accross the state line in Montgomery County 90-100 = A. It seems like you can have big disparities amoung GPA's with all schools not using the same scale. </p>
<p>I guess my main concern was are our kids at a disadvantage with the higher grading scale.</p>
<p>Cur, you lost me when you say that + and - grades are grade robbers. I did not overanalyze your post, but I believe that the biggest grade robbery is provoked by the adoption of the WRONG scales. In my opinion, if a school does report A as 93 or a 94, every effort should be to battle the school to </p>
<ol>
<li>Change the scale to what public schools do in your city</li>
<li>If they convert to letter grades, add plus and minus to</li>
<li>If all fails, and if your school pretends to only use the numerical scale 0-100, try to make them DROP the conversion scale altogether. </li>
</ol>
<p>The scale from 0-100 is clearly superior, but the conversion used by schools to convert to letter grades and a 4.0 scale is entirely illogical and usually whimsical. Alas, there is simply no way around hiding the fact that schools that use a different system and then attempt to convert it DO hurt the students in both applications and scholarship contests.</p>
<p>PS Cur, the State of Texas did pass a law making the use of 0-100 scale mandatory to all its schools (with a 90 being an A.) Visibly, the application of the law did not get much traction as several private schools are still clinging to their erroneous ways.</p>
<p>I don't think that's fixable other than by the "Explanantion of Grading" I suggested. There are many threads on this that you can search for that address this. The way I always approach it is that is not as much a question of the scale as you might think. </p>
<p>The board decides an A rewards exceptional work and they decide at your school that means a 94 or a 90. The unfairness ,if there is any, isn't in that decision as other factors control the relative ease or difficulty in achieving that score. At some schools you might do twice the work and at a higher level to get a 90 than another school makes you do for a 94. </p>
<p>The curriculum nor the grading is standardized, why should the scale be? That's why the school profile containing detailed evidence of student quality school wide is important when you have a situation where lower than stellar class rank, and grade deflation as compared to other schools, and then punitive GPA calculations conspire to make Little Johnny who made a 33 ACT look like a slackard with his 3.4 GPA. And it happens . Especially in well funded suburban schools and magnets. It happens all the time. </p>
<p>Be pro-active. Find a way to accurately and calmly present the relevant facts. Without being perceived as whining. </p>
<p>Little Johnny made a all 5's on the AP Test. Only 2 A's were given in his class . No one since Pam Andersen's first kiss has graduated with a 4.0. The 75th percentile SAT at this school is a 1400. The median is 1200. </p>
<p>For a kid in this situation aspiring to select schools it would be great to have outside indicia of scholarship - essay contest winner, regional math competition 4th place, published research or a poem. It goes without saying essays , interviews, and rec's will have to save the day. Good luck.</p>
<p>How do you handle that 90-100 type of grading scale if the school never converts anything to an A or a B? My sons JUST get a number grade. For instance 94.9, 89.9, 90.2 - these are what the GPAs look like. Thanks for ideas.</p>
<p>xig, as I have posted before - our Texas public had a system so convoluted that we didn't have an UW GPA that was reported and the weighted scale produced GPA's lower than what they would have been unweighted. It was so bizarre. </p>
<p>And what I meant to say about pluses and minuses is most apropos to the high achieving kid who makes A's that are then devalued by the system I mentioned, the one where not all A's are 4.0.</p>
<p>Well, just to help out: Stanford does not consider +/-. A is 4, B is 3, etc.</p>
<p>weenie, somewhere there is a grade scale (at least I've never heard of a school without one). You do the conversion yourself from numerical to letter based on their scale. If there truly is not a conversion scale allowing you to calculate a GPA, superimpose the grid I outlined above onto the transcript with 90 being A being 4.0 , 80 being B being 3.0. Colleges are familiar with it.</p>
<p>^^-----^^</p>
<p>Are you sure of that? I know that a program that is massively inspired by Stanford uses 3.7 for a A- conversion (on a 0=90) scale.</p>
<p>Xiggi, I was very curious to know how Stanford calculates GPA, because my high school does not calculate GPA. I sent an email to the admissions office and received this response:</p>
<p>"When reviewing applications, we recalculate a student's GPA using a straight 4.0 scale, discounting +/-, and include only those classes that are considered core academic courses. Electives are taken out of the equation.
In the end, what is important to us is that you are taking a rigorous curriculum, We want to make sure that you are maintaining a high number of academic solids as you go through your senior year."</p>
<p>Cur, regarding the A losing value in a =/- minus scale, consider the example of a student who has a 98/100 average at a school that uses an 8 points conversion scale (A=93.) The 98 average comes from almost perfect grades of 98-100, but a couple of unweighed 92 in two very hard AP classes. </p>
<p>The result is that the student drops BELOW a 4.00 scale, and that his (or her) 92's are converted into a 3.00/4.00 (or a grade of 75%.) From my vantage point, if the grade of 92 yields an A-, at least the conversion of 3.7 is a little balm to the injustice. </p>
<p>FWIW, I do not see any rhyme or reason in forcing the conversion into less than precise letters. The public school kid who compiles a lackluster record with every class between a 89.6 and 90.5, gets a PERFECT 4.00 average. All the while his neighbor sweats blood and tears for four years earning a 98 average that converts into a lesser GPA. if he happened to have a couple of 92. </p>
<p>Utterly ridiculous!</p>
<p>Fair enough Jimbob, the only unanswered question is what constitutes the straight 4.00 scale when the schools report different As and Bs.</p>
<p>
[quote]
just find that there are so many inequities in figuring out GPA's, here in Fairfax County, Virginia we go by the 94-100 = A, but accross the state line in Montgomery County 90-100 = A. It seems like you can have big disparities amoung GPA's with all schools not using the same scale
[/quote]
You can't make any assumptions on GPAs based on those scales. They certainly are a factor in the average GPA for a school. Here are 2 more. 1) What percentage of the students get As in a class? (If a teacher is shooting for 100% As the "tougher" 94% requirement wouldn't be an issue. 2) Teachers create exams to fit grading systems ... if two classes are shooting for the same % of As then the class is a 94% requirement for an A should have a slightly easier test than a class with a 90% requirement. Frankly, the curve of the school (% of students getting As, Bs, and Cs) probably effects the GPA more than any of these other factors.</p>
<p>
This is how I described it also. </p>
<p>Xiggi, I don't disagree. That's why the "Explanation of Grading", and a detailed school academic profile that you know my D didn't have, and an application geared to show that academic quality is important. But a giant word of caution. I learned in the process that schools use computer data entry folks to list your GPA and such and scan all your forms in to the system. There is somebody at another building away from admissions doing this (Case does it this way). </p>
<p>Do everything thing you can to have that info where it is available on the initial screenng if there is such a thing ( and I think there is). Try to talk the GC into an explanatory note stuck to the transcript. Something that they will see.</p>
<p>I agree with 3togo. That's how I see grade scale also- except that at a school where all or almost all kids are doing A and B work, like some magnets - the % of A's will look out of whack and needs to be explained .</p>
<p>I am afraid that it is a misconception that schools and teachers teach to the grade and maintain en eye on the distributions of As and Bs. The two schools I know that use a numerical scale specificaaly instructs teachers to ignore letter grading. In so many words, the difference between a 92 and a 93 is one point, not one letter. </p>
<p>Again, there is nothing wrong withe the numerical scale. It is the conversion that is flawed. It makes no sense for a school to shout loud and clear that they do not believe in letter grading, but then convert the score via an asinine and ill-designed scale. </p>
<p>For the record, when it comes to criminally stupid principals and GC in high schools, this is the issue that annoys me the most. There is no excuse for college preparatory schools to handicap their students in such manner, especially since a higher conversion scale indicates a LOWER difficulty.</p>
<p>It is also my contention that schools do very little transcript analysis and, ceratinly not to the extent it is being touted. I still believe that some minimum wage technician simply transposes the GPA provided BY THE SCHOOLS with the smallest of corrections. I do believe that adcoms do have access to the full transcripts, but by the time they spend analyzing the minute details of a file, the majority of the files have already been decorated with a glossy letter "R." </p>
<p>Let's not forget that more than 40% of high schoolers in the US report an A average.</p>
<p>I think we're forgetting a few things: At most competitive colleges (e.g. Stanford), the admissions rep for an area like Fairfax County VA sees multiple candidates from the same schools year-in and year-out. They ought to have a pretty good idea of how to read those transcripts, and how to compare one school's apples to another's oranges. If there's a problem, it's with tiny schools, or rural schools, that may have someone apply to X college (especially LACs) once in a blue moon, and regardless of what formula the school uses to report GPA the adcomms have no idea what it really means, not because they can't read the formula, but because they have no idea what an "A" at that school reflects. That has to be something of a disadvantage for the kid, but I'm sure that there's a corresponding mild advantage in geographical diversity. Also, if the recommendations say "This is the best student this county has seen in a decade," the adcomm hasn't seen five other letters in the past two years saying the same thing.</p>
<p>OP, to answer your question, I will explain what we did with my older son's grade report when he was applying. He went to a private hs in TX where the grading scale was 93-100 - A, 85-92 - B, but with no actual number grades on the transcript. They then, in his junior year, changed to 90-100 - A, etc. to be more in line with the publics. This put us in a dilemna because he had had a number of 90-92 in FR and SPH years and they were B's, but the same grade would be an A in JR and SR year. We typed all the info out and attached a letter from the counselor explaining the different grading system. We also attached number grades to the letters so that they could see his actual grade. Whether they looked at all that or just his overall GPA, I don't know, but we felt better for having gone to the trouble to try to explain. </p>
<p>Good luck :)</p>