<p>So in my freshman year, I got B's both semesters in my physical education class. (I'm a terrible runner and you had to run like a 7 minute mile to get an A in the running category which was 50% of your grade essentially).</p>
<p>As a result, my GPA has been lowered to a 3.9 and it shows on my transcript. </p>
<p>How will that look to college admissions officers? In all my other classes I have gotten solid A's or A-'s.</p>
<p>That’s a comically annoying situation…at my school gym is an auto-A+ as long as you show up and wear shorts and sneakers; sorry for your misfortune though.</p>
<p>Most colleges recalculate GPA. So far I don’t know of any colleges which consider gym when they calculate the GPA. And if they don’t recalculate, they never hold gym against you.</p>
<p>Are you sure gym is factored into the GPA at your school? Ask your guidance counselor, because many schools don’t count it.</p>
<p>Don’t worry. My sister had Bs every semester for gym (each absence is automatically down a letter grade only for gym class at my school, and 3 is an auto fail), and at a college interview the interviewer jokingly brought up the Bs in gym, but then laughed and said it didn’t matter at all.</p>
<p>Our school takes physical education really seriously so it’s annoying. I know that a lot of colleges will base it on classes taken but I’m curious to know if colleges would look at the GPA and then dive in to see which classes were the ones that caused the lowered GPA and how that affects.</p>
<p>Hopefully it doesn’t because that would just ruin everything.</p>
<p>As long as your essay topic is not about physical fitness and sports, and you are not being recruited as an athlete…</p>
<p>NYS public schools require 8 semesters of physical education to graduate. Phys Ed is typically a graded subject and counts in the GPA calculation. Some schools I am familiar with have grading rubrics which factor in ability, which can adversely effect the grade of kids who lack coordination or quick reflexes, etc. Others, including the school my daughters attended, graded based on effort and attitude, along with the results of a written exam on rules and strategy of the sports played during the marking period. I’ve also noted that some schools offer co-ed phys ed classes while others still segregate based on sex. It was a real eye-opener for my younger daughter freshman year of high school when she and three other girls had to play touch football in a class with 25 boys.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about it. All colleges recalculate your GPA since every high school does it differently, so they’ll see all your courses and the grade you got in them. They definitely won’t care about gym.</p>
<p>Thank you!</p>
<p>I’m sure admissions will get a laugh out of it. They consider what classes affected your gpa. Unless you’re going in as an athlete I doubt they’ll care. I had a friend who got a B in gym freshman year and he got into Cornell early. GPA’s mostly for calculating academics, and most colleges don’t really consider gym an academic.</p>
<p>The top notch schools will probably re-calculate your GPA; the “safety schools” probably won’t, but a 3.9 should be way high enough to get you into them, so I wouldn’t sweat it.</p>
<p>Yes, just as you said: colleges will see the imperfect 3.9 and scrutinize your transcripts to find where your faults lie. It may be an uphill battle but I do know a few who have gotten into a four year college with poor gym grades.</p>
<p>At my school, they have the total GPA for all your classes in general, but they also have the GPA for just academic classes (which excludes PE, certain electives, etc.) Maybe you could ask your school if they do the same thing?</p>
<p>First most colleges do not recalculate GPAs. Many are too large and don’t have time to do that, many have auto-admit criteria, many colleges will eyeball the grades and the rigor of the classes, some will take the GPA as it is.</p>
<p>Are you sure gym is factored into the GPA at your school? Ask your guidance counselor, because many schools don’t count it.</p>
<p>I’d be very surprised if a high school did not count “gym” in the GPA.
Especially because “gym” is not just “gym.”
At least at our school.
PE is broken into four different classes … Driver’s Ed, Physical Training and Exercise, Health and Nutrition and I forget the fourth.
All those grades count and go toward one’s GPA.</p>
<p>“gym” is just “gym” at my school. I didn’t even think they offered driver’s ed in schools anymore…</p>
<p>If it was “gym” in terms of physical education ie PE, then it wouldn’t be that large of concern. If it was a more academic class like Health an Nutrition (at least, that sounds academic to me) then it would have a bigger impact. IMO</p>
<p>the more competitive schools will calculate your gpa from only the grades in the core academic courses. they won’t factor in gym class.</p>
<p>By the way, I’ll come back in April and tell you all the answer to this in my case. Seeing as how I have gotten a B or B+ in gym every single quarter of school starting halfway through frosh year (meaning I had one absence each quarter, or at least one I didn’t come to make up, because one absence is an automatic B+). My GPA is a 3.99 UW and I applied to many top tier schools. So if I get into a few of them, I guess we’ll know they really don’t care about gym, since the last time I got an A in gym was second quarter of freshman year. If I don’t get in anywhere, I’ll just pretend like all of my rejections were because of my dismal gym scores 
And then we shall have an answer.</p>
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<p>Really? Interesting but too bad. My D has an ‘A’ in gym.</p>
<p>Any chance they won’t count Chemistry? ;-)</p>
<p>^lol no. They only don’t count gym because it’s not academic. Chemistry is very academic. </p>
<p>However, it’s not like you need a 4.0 to get into a top tier school. Or even a high 3.9. Unless she failed chemistry, one bad grade’s not that big of a deal.</p>
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<p>Well, pretty darn close to it from the research I’ve done so far:</p>
<p>[College</a> Search - University of Virginia - UVA - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)</p>
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<p>Well, not failing. A ‘C’ (in Honors Chem). Yeah, unfortunately, it is a big deal. It makes a huge difference in the unweighted gpa.</p>
<p>High school (at least her hs) is much tougher than when I was in school</p>