<p>dadx: I thought a school system that considers an A to be 90 or higher would assign a 4.0 GPA to a student with a 90 average. It seems that your method would only award 4.0 to a student with a 100 avg. What's the most common method?</p>
<p>SS</p>
<p>What i meant in my post was that I believe that the colleges do their own conversion from the 0-100 scale to the ABCDF scale, and that I believe they do it the way I implied.........90= 0.9, or 90% of the perfect 4.0, and thus is converted to 3.6 on the 4.0 scale. Our high school doesn't do any conversions.</p>
<p>Actually, this type of conversion would probably help the middle students, since a 70 would end up converting to 2.8 on the 4.0 scale. I don't know that they do this, but it seems like the way it is lilkely to be done.</p>
<p>One thing I found in using our guidance departments data for admissions, (which is anonymous, but gives the GPA, and SAT scores, and the results, but sorted by school....so as to make it only marginally useful) was that the students with a weighted average of over 100 were shown out of order on the print out, as though they had to be added to the list after the fact. I have a suspicion that our computer system will not handle numbers above 100, and that the faculty may have been instructed at some point to make an effective ceiling on grades of about 95. I have no evidence at all for this speculation. However, it is either something like that, or there is a "grading effect" in a 0-100 point system that causes teachers to never give 100%s consistently to the highest performers. That is the only reason I can think of why letter grade schools have multiple unweighted gpa acheivers at 4.0 and above, and our highest performers are unweighted at about 95.</p>
<p>The saddest thing about this is with what Xiggi points out. The people running this system are utterly and completely oblivious to the results. If you bring this up to anyone, they think you are nuts, and some kind of overly involved, intrusive parent. (Well, I am and was, but I am correct on my facts here.) </p>
<p>Class rank is important, and if the school can determine the rank using the profile, then the absolute grade level doesn't matter that much for the top 3-4 ranked kids. But it matters a great deal for the rest of the top decile and the high second decile, where you don't look that great in a non-gradeinflated system.</p>
<p>In the non ranking schools, most of them provide a table that allows you to rank anyone within a few points. Consider the following, which comes from the website of a known high quality northeastern public school
DISTRIBUTION OF GPA
CLASS OF 2006</p>
<pre><code> Cumulative Avg. # of Students % of Class
4.0 - 3.8 41 13
3.7 - 3.5 63 21
3.4 - 3.0 112 37
2.9 - 2.5 46 15
2.4 - 2.0 28 9
Below 1.9 15 5
</code></pre>
<p>It wouldn't be very difficult for someone to ascertain a students class rank within a few places. A 3.9 would put you at about the 95th %tile, assuming a roughly normal grade distribution. A 3.5 leaves you at about the 65th %tile.</p>
<p>I'll bet most of the kids at 3.5 at this school think they're at about the top of the second decile.....maybe higher. Yet they are in fact in the middle of the fourth decile......and no one knows it except the colleges. This is one reason, among others, for some admissions disappointments. </p>
<p>In any case, I don't have another dog in this fight for four more years, as my oldest is already in college. But its clear to me that a lot of what is asserted by guidance counselors (especially as it relates to the elite admissions process) is absolute poppycock.</p>
<p>Sorry, I am rambling on this rant, but this is a topic that gets me a little heated. And its one that is nigh impossible to do much about.</p>
<p>Well, what gets me, is not so much admissions, but the rigid guide for merit aid that some colleges follow stictly, and without any regard for the high school the student attended.</p>
<p>dadx: I guess I need to ask her GC to see the school profile/cover sheet for the transcript. I imagine it has some sort of GPA distribution chart. Thanks for the info. Now I'll know what to ask for.</p>
<p>CAN ANYONE PLEASE ANSWER THIS PREVIOUSLY POSTED QUESTION???</p>
<p>Along these lines when a book or web site like PR states that a specific school's average GPA is 3.5 is that W or UW? Also, is that GPA average based on major academic subjects only? No PE or Health?</p>
<p>
[quote]
believe they do it the way I implied.........90= 0.9, or 90% of the perfect 4.0, and thus is converted to 3.6 on the 4.0 scale
[/quote]
I am not an expert ... however I have not read someone explaining a college actually converting grades in this manner (take the overall average and multiple it) ... while I have read numerous accounts of schools coverting a class at a time to a 4.0 scale and then figuring out a GPA. I would think the schools your kids are targeting would share their conversion practices ... and I'd be shocked if they do the straight conversion you describe.</p>
<p>3togo,</p>
<p>You may be right, but its hard to imagine Yale or Harvard or UVa wasting much time on it. Maybe if its Exeter, but not if its just Upper St Clair or Greenwich HS. My point is that if there is something in the mechanics that introduces some material, but subtle bias, you can't expect the admissions staffs to catch it or remove it for a small minority of schools.</p>