<p>I am not sure about classist. I think it may have a lot to do with the school’s philosophy as to how prominently the GPA figures. When I was in high school, I knew how to calculate it because of the honor rolls posted each quarter. I knew what it took to get on the A or B honor roll. I got rewards from my parents for getting on the honor roll – a single LP for the B honor roll and a double album for the A!</p>
<p>Conversely, at my kids’ high school, the honors are more low key. They used to be printed in the local paper even, about a decade ago, but then some people felt bad about that, so they stopped. I truly wonder if the school minimizes the significance of the GPA in order to put the brakes on competition. It is already a competitive environment demographically. In other words, an attempt to be less classist could result in kids not knowing or caring about the GPA. I will have to ask my sons if they know how to compute it. I am willing to bet the younger one (HS junior) does not know it exists and the older one (college junior) can calculate it. Also, we as parents do not give rewards. ;)) </p>
<p>It’s hardly “elitist” to know that the general standard in the US is A-4.0, B-3.0, etc. Come on now. Even people in school district which don’t use that scale know the cultural reference of “getting an A on a test.” </p>
<p>Agree. Colleges aren’t going to “mistake” a 4 point something, something for a 4.0 if there are Bs on the transcript when they look at the transcript. Admissions counselors aren’t dolts. You can’t “have” a 4.0 with Bs on the transcript. </p>
<p>Kids, parents and schools can calculate their gpa as much as they want, but the ultimate question is how do each of the colleges that one applies to look at gpa. Do they re-calculate it themselves? In doing so, do they just put in 5 academic subjects? Any electives? If they include electives, do they include art and music? Gym? Creative writing if they already considered AP English? Are they recalculating all grades based on their own scales? Are they weighting or not? When you look at the common data set that shows avg GPA–what does that number reflect? Weighted or not? Only academics? This is a very complicated question and pretty unanswerable. </p>
<p>In our school district, numbers are used. How does that fit in? Is everything 90 to 100 considered an “A”? I really don’t think anyone has a universal answer, since the colleges are not calculating or evaluating GPA in a universal way.</p>
<p>Realistically, however are these small nuances going to change a student’s application list? - probably not. There is enough data out there to figure out whether or not a college could/should be on the application list. As Celeste just pointed out many colleges have it posted right on there web sites. And triple that knowledge if it’s an instate college or uni because most GC probably know what the transcript historically looks like for accepted students.</p>
<p>Unweighted GPA calculation is pretty simple. As illustrated by prior posts, at some school it can be tricky to determine how to calculate weighted GPA.</p>
<p>I was correct – my high school child had no idea what a GPA is, how it is calculated, that grades are assigned numbers, and what they are. Now that he knows, he will probably stress out about it. This kid seems more outwardly stressed about school performance than his brother. I wonder if it is the crowd he hangs out with.</p>
<p>"But I still don’t understand what difference it makes to a college how classes are weighted. "
-None. There are HS that do not provide weighed grades and anyway many colleges strip down and re-calculate anyway. Even rank may be misleading. For example, in D’s HS class of 33 kids, top 2% simply did not exist becuase it represents less than one person. One top person represents roughly top 3%. When I asked this question at some Honors college info session, they said that they are very well aware of this situation and the fact that some schools like D’s do not even report rank at all. These HS still require to ahve a class profile on their webside. If top 3% is reported to have 4.0uw and your kid actually has a 4.0, obviosly, the kid is a top dog, the adcoms are not stupid, they understand.<br>
So, all these HS calculations is more or less waste of time and an obstacle in looking for the true match between future college kid and a college. Tha is were focus should be, I know it is much much harder, tons of research, tons of visiting, but this has a much higher chance of success at college than all these claclulations of the GPA.</p>
<p>“But I still don’t understand what difference it makes to a college how classes are weighted.”</p>
<p>Last year in case of UCLA, over 99K kids (including transfers) applied. Admission offices have to have some arguably objective way to thin out the herd and performance in weighted courses (arguably more rigorous??) offers some selection guidance.</p>