High School Grade Inflation: I AM SO SICK OF IT.

Applying to College
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<p>This has been bothering me for quite some time, and I think I am finally ready to VENT!!!</p>

<p>It is pretty obvious from reading the, "What Are My Chances?" thread that almost everyone on this board claims to have upwards of a 3.8 UW GPA, and anything below a 3.6 or 3.7 is considered, "bad" or comes with defensive excuses such as, "I've been sooo lazy during high school!" What is going on here? This is not just on CC...almost everyone I meet these days seems to have a stellar GPA. </p>

<p>No one wants to admit it, but doesn't anyone see a problem with the fact that it's possible for someone who builds a nuclear power plant for science class and a kid who builds a volcano get the same grade? All my friends at, I'm sorry, public schools, seem to maintain very impressive grades with minimal or no effort. And then some of these people get into colleges they don't, in my opinion, deserve to be at. Colleges put so much emphasis on grades, but these GPAs don't even mean anything anymore. A 3.5 at one school means "slacker," where at a very challenging high school it means, "dying of sleep deprivation." I think this whole thing has gotten so competitive that teachers are afraid to give out a C once in awhile. </p>

<p>My high school, which I graduated from this year, was so unbelievably challenging that 3.9 was considered an unbelievable GPA, and most very intelligent, hardworking students struggled to maintain 3.5-3.6. I think this is the way it should be everywhere. I certainly didn't have this ridiculous 4.8 GPA people magically come up with on this board, but I am fairly confident that because I was pushed, challenged, and not handed A after A, my 3.63 accurately reflects the knowledge I gained. However, I am going to venture that many with these people with mindblowing GPAs don't know half of the things my classmates have learned over the course of four years. </p>

<p>So many college freshman come into college all cocky, because they had a 4.3 in high school, then find themselves struggling to maintain a 3.0. People from my high school, even those with GPA's hovering in the 2.5 range, report that college is "a breeze, "a walk in the park," etc, compared to high school. Could the reason that so many countries outperform the US is because the standard American public high school requires NOTHING of the students? </p>

<p>Any response?</p>

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<p>I agree with you OP.</p>

<p>My high school was a Magnet Public School with 2600 kids and rampant grade DEFLATION being one of the top ranked schools in the nation, 26th on Newsweek's list this year. </p>

<p>My friends would study for hours and pull tons of all-nighters and would maybe scrape a 3.0 GPA due to just tremendous competition and the fact everyone can't get As and some people need to have Bs and Cs, so it doesn't look light we have grade inflation, so basically grade deflation happens to make our numbers look "normal" GPA-wise.</p>

<p>Most of our classes were full of tremendous competition and hard graders, though some were a joke. Basically, hard workers would need to go nuts just to pull a 3.5 with many students working 6+ hours a night. Students at my HS hovering above 2.0 would slack and procrastinate and still easily get over a 3.5 at any other HS in my school district.</p>

<p>Though I did slack and procrastinate (a lot) and simply wouldn't do HW during HS, I somehow pulled off a 3.67 UW/4.25 Weighted GPA, which made everyone think I studied copious amounts of time as others with 3.6+ GPAs did. I guess it was because I actually remembered lectures and could recall many facts at will in many subjects.</p>

<p>Truly, if every school in the USA were based on the grading style of my HS, I would not be surprised that a majority of the kids in the country would be scraping Cs & Ds or be failing outright.</p>

<p>I would love for every HS to adopt strict grading standards, but it is feasible to fail more than half of the school, so basically we will keep the same standards of grading to please the parents and the school board who hate to see failing grades.</p>

<p>The only good thing about schools with grade deflation is that colleges do know that these HS deflate and that those GPAs are worth a hella lot more than those from grade inflating HSs.</p>

<p>Case in point, my UW GPA is way below the middle 50% of Cal's UW GPA as was most of the 50 people in my class accepted, yet we all were accepted because colleges know that most of the high GPA rejects couldn't cut it in such a cutthroat environment.</p>

<p>Many countries outperform the USA because we have no teaching standards to put on our students and we don't teach them rigorous courses in math and science. Without strict standards, most American students are medicore or worse in quality and it keeps becoming worse and worse, which is why there is so much Brain Drain to get qualified people to work in the US to make up for the idiots that the USA produces.</p>

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<p>I'd hate to say this CityGal55, you have a typical elitist private school is better than public school attitude. Do you realize not everybody is rich or pretentious enough to waste their time attending a private school? If you spent so much money on high school maybe you should have spent some time, oh, i don't know, learning about the college admissions process? GPA matters. Unweighted GPA matters. At some schools, you need a 3.7; they don't care what school you are from.</p>

<p>I would request that you drop the elitist attitude and acknowledge that your public school counterparts are just as hard working, if not more. Just because you got a 3.6 doesn't mean you should take it out on everybody else.</p>

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<p>GoldenBear, first you ramble about how hard your high school is, and then say "i slacked off and procrastinated alot, and got a 3.67"</p>

<p>you ruin the credibility of your entire argument.</p>

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<p>um, just as an fyi to all of you, good colleges recalculate GPA according to their own standards. regional reps also have the job of getting to know the schools in your area. also, your class rank can add context to your GPA. on the counselor rec there is a space where the counselor indicates the highest GPA at your school.</p>

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<p>Aye, I slacked but talk to my friends with 2.0s and died pulling 6+ hours of work in HS and can only go to CCs. I'm just a statistical anomaly at my HS, because there always is one, and it happens to be me.</p>

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<p>i thought one of the purposes of the SAT was to eliminate this problem, am i wrong?</p>

1 Like
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<p>"Aye, I slacked but talk to my friends with 2.0s and died pulling 6+ hours of work in HS and can only go to CCs. I'm just a statistical anomaly at my HS, because there always is one, and it happens to be me."</p>

<p>Wow...someone's a little arrogant. So intelligent that no effort is required to compete with those working 6+ hours a night, so intelligent as to be considered a "statistical anomaly." And all of this coming from one's one mouth. Must be nice!</p>

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<p>Class rankings will show how well you do comparative to the rest of the class.</p>

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<p>lol...i'm sorry, but if your friends spent 6 hours a night and could only pull off a 2.0 then it's not the school...it's them.</p>

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<p>I've noticed that too. A lot of people come on here asking for chances and they have all As in their AP classes, but they got 2s and 3s on the AP test. Also people with 4.0s and they're not even in the top 10%. At my HS the kid at the top of the class had a 3.9</p>

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<p>I am not arrogant, I am speaking the truth, just ask my parents what I do instead of studying/working on HW.</p>

<p>I did real well in the classes where I could remember lectures and regurgitate them on tests because I have a good memory while others couidn't. I did poorly on classes where I couldn't remember things for a grade such as English and AP Physics C, and also on classes with proofs like Pre-Cal and Geometry.</p>

<p>I personally loaded up on humanity classes in HS where I could either (A) remember the lectures to do well on tests or (B) read the book to do well on tests.</p>

<p>This boded well for me because many of my classes didn't even count HW at all or it was worth at most 20%, so yes many people struggled to study while I could somehow remember the material. This made up for the classes where I could only scrap B-s, which became a B with a dropped off minus.</p>

<p>Is it fair? No it's not fair and I'm not ashamed to say that I shouldn't deserve my GPA with my lack of work, but that's just life. Life's not fair and that's the way it is no matter how eglitarian we wish to be.</p>

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<p>simranchawa, I don't know where your hostile attitude is coming from, but no where in my original post did I make a blanket statement about all public schools across the country. There are certainly many excellent public schools with competitive students and qualified teachers, as well as many great magnet schools that outperform many private schools. But I think it is time everyone realize that our school system in this country is in serious disrepair. Overall, kids in our public school system simply are not learning what they need to be learning, they are not excelling at the rate of students in other countries, we are performing horrendously in math and science, the physical buildings are oftentimes crumbling...but I am sure that is hard for you to understand, as you probably attend a very well maintained, humble public high school in a safe middle-class neighborhood. I, on the hand, live in a large city, and witness every day the sickening conditions a lot of my peers go to school in. Some of the inner city schools are literally CRUMBLING. And, for those schools that are not crumbling, many schools seem to be handing out A's like they are going out of style, to, as someone else said, please the overeager school board and overzealous parents who can't bear to face that little Johnny might be failing Algebra 2. They would rather get more funding based on a student body that gets all "A's" even though money never solves any problems, and even though half the kids who got an A or B in US History can't tell you the difference between the American Revolution and the Civil War. </p>

<p>As for "wasting" my time attending private school...as for being "rich" and "pretentious"...HA! Many parents make serious sacrifices in order to afford private school, because in many areas, private school IS worth it. You get the best teachers, the best facilities, the best resources, the best education, and the privilege of being in a classroom full of other motivated students. Sure, in a suburb, public school probably is an appealing and common-sense choice. But when my parents looked around at where we live, they decided that paying for private school is the way they wanted to spend their money. Why is that anyone's business, and furthermore, why is that such a stupid choice? I feel that I have learned SO MUCH, and I am so thankful that I have the means to attend the school I did. But looking down on public school kids? No way. I simply disagree with the grade inflation many schools seem to think in a great way to get funding and please the parents these days. </p>

<p>I do not disagree that there are tons of hardworking public school students. But your post alone proves my point of how public schools have brainwashed students into thinking a 3.6 is a bad GPA!!! At one time, believe or not, Joe Blow and Jane Smith and every other kid on the block didn't have a 4.0. My point is not that there are not hardworking public school students; it is that many public schools (and some private) are now handing out an A on the same project to two students, one of which spent a week on the project, and one who spent 2 minutes on it. There are no standards in some schools. </p>

<p>I have to laugh at your comment, "Just because you got a 3.6..." Oh yeah, cause a 3.6 sucks so much. Is that why even though I only got a B in AP Modern Euro History, I got a 5 on the AP Exam? Oh yeah, cause my GPA sucks so much...open your eyeballs and realize that its maybe because my teacher accurately simulated a college course.</p>

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<p>1) chances threads aren't very helpful because gpa's aren't all the same. Reps know this...</p>

<p>2) we had 8 of us at my public school get 4.0 uw gpa's. Does that mean there is grade inflation? Not the way reps look at it since all 8 of us are going to pretty darn respectable schools (Brown, Duke, Yale, Carleton, Stanford, etc) and prior history shows that most people at my school can do fine in college even if we have a bit of grade inflation. Again, reps know this, which is why my public school does well year after year.</p>

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<p>That's why GPA does not really matter that much (if at all)in admissions, it is your CLASS RANK that matters.<br>
Number # is still # 1 no matter what his/her gpa is.
Ivies like champions, that is why they put so much premium on the high rankings.</p>

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<p>Is that why even though I only got a B in AP Modern Euro History, I got a 5 on the AP Exam? Oh yeah, cause my GPA sucks so much...open your eyeballs and realize that its maybe because my teacher accurately simulated a college course.</p>

<p>Actually it means that your school teacher did not accurately simulate a college course. In the perfect world the grades would match (A = 5, 4 = B, 3 = C, etc)</p>

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<p>Eh, I'd rather have a harder teacher. He was so influential that I don't really care about the B anymore. I feel like I learned a lot. </p>

<p>Class rank is great, except for the fact that not a lot of schools rank anymore. My school doesn't rank because so many people would share spots or be so close it wouldn't work, thus making the ranking system devoid of meaning. Case in point: the valedictorians were separated like this: 4.0, 3.999. Then the person who is soooo close ends up being number 2, and the many others who follow share spots. I would guess about 50 people in my class have a 3.6!</p>

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<p>that's nothing...</p>

<p>we have GPAs to four decimal points....</p>

<p>like 95.0342</p>

<p>and we rank</p>

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<p>First off, class rank doesn't count for as much as you think because the number of high schools reporting class rank is only around 60% and the high schools with the most talented and accomplished student bodies are the LEAST likely to report class rank. </p>

<p>GPA does count, but not like you think it does (in all cases). At some schools (state schools, especially), there can be a scale in which GPA, often combined with other factors, gets you automatic admission. I think that's absurd, but there it is.</p>

<p>In elite colleges, though, what's important is what classes you took and how well you did in them. If a high school consistently gives out 90% As in AP Chem and gets only 5% 5s on the AP test, elite colleges are going to know that. In the course of some recent research, I got to review several high school profiles from high-performing high schools. One of them simply listed GPA per student from the previous year and the acceptances those students received. As I recall, one school had a student with a 2.9 getting in to Georgetown.</p>

<p>Kids with all As in tough courses from tough high schools (be they public or private) are going to do well in college admissions decisions. Sometimes, these high schools have many kids with all As because the student body is so academically talented/skilled.</p>

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<p>Why do you care so much about other high schools? You should care a lot more about yourself and only yourself. You got into a good college (I'm assuming) with your 3.6 GPA (which you should be proud of). That number doesn't really mean anything. Do you think anyone is going to care about what your high school GPA was when you're in college? Are you really feeling "cheated" about getting a better education?</p>