With regard to GPA, most colleges recalculate it based on their own scale and then may assign an overall ranking to that gpa. They can’t compare school reported gpa’s across schools, because high schools have different scales and bumps for APs and honors. One school may add a full point or more for an AP, other schools may give only .25.
And even after recalculating, the colleges are not saying Susie with a 3.98 is better than Mary with a 3.95, they are most likely assigning them ‘points’ for gpa/rigor. Like Susie and Mary both score 10 of 10 for gpa and rigor. Rigor speaks to both strength of the high school as well as classes available
@garvey remember that your daughter’s college choices will not be defined by the presence or absence of 1-2 AP classes, especially when there are specific rules set forth by her school. And… don’t get caught up in the competition of attending the most selective school- although I do know it’s hard. Your daughter’s success will not be defined by her school, but rather what she does while there. My daughter is at a great school, but certainly not the most selective one out there.
You are right, @twogirls - it has been very helpful to get the variety of perspectives her at CC - I am going to try to not focus overly much on this issue, but to instead think about how to support our daughter in having as good an experience of high school as she can.
Garvey, while I disagree with this policy, I understand it. I fought these battles for years at another Boston area school.
I always focused on the education rather than college admissions, and certain combinations of 4 AP courses could be deadly, whereas others are reasonable.
It definitely penalizes the academic stars who can handle it so that the others aren’t under so much pressure. Nobody seems to care about the kids whose spirits are crushed because they get cut from the soccer team, and nobody tells the soccer stars that they are practicing too much.
Which 3 APs is she taking? Which one will be left out? I ask because some are based on a full year of college work and some are based on one semester of college work. It might make sense to choose the 3 that are full-year, and if the 4th is a 1/2 year like psychology and computer science (I think, it may have changed), maybe it’s worth studying independently or online. In our school AP Biology was like taking 3 honors classes at once. Doing AP Bio and AP US at the same time was virtually impossible.
If she’s interested in math/science, I’d just do the honors US history.
If she has extra time maybe do Computer Science at MIT through
http://ati.mit.edu/ap, but you can’t get HS credit for a class.
I get colleges looking at what a kid is offered in their high school and taking advantage of the most rigorous, but how do they not see a kid with 12 APs as a better student than one that had 3 or 4 cause that is all the school offered? Are people kidding themselves about that or are they really objective about it?
Colleges will not hold it against you if your school allows zero APs in 10th grade while another allows 6, or if another school allows 5 junior year while yours allows 3. More APs does not mean a “better” student.
No, I certainly understand that. At the same time, assuming all other things are “equal,” isn’t it likely that the student with the better GPA is in the better position to be awarded a merit scholarship?
Some schools (I think Alabama) give merit based on criteria that is spelled out on the website. Other schools are not as clear cut. In general, you need to be at the top of the applicant pool in order to get significant merit. GPA needs to be looked at in the context of your school. @garvey if your daughter is in search of merit aid then you/she needs to be researching schools where her GPA and test scores fall at the top of that particular schools applicant pool. Merit will not be based on GPA alone, and merit to selective schools will be based on things in addition to grades and scores.
“No, I certainly understand that. At the same time, assuming all other things are “equal,” isn’t it likely that the student with the better GPA is in the better position to be awarded a merit scholarship?”
No not really, as some schools will focus only/mainly on unweighted GPAs. Also, some schools’ “honors” courses are more rigorous than other schools’ AP courses. Lastly, don’t forget that for holistic admissions schools essays, recommendations and ECs (as well as course rigour) can be more important than GPA.