How do colleges analyze grades??

When they look at your grades do they see the actual number grades like 96 for each class or do they just look at the GPA for that year or semester?? because this year and last year I was 1 point or less away from maxing which in my school is a 97, for soooo many classes. I gave a lot of effort but if it shows my gpa it would just mean i’m secondteering even though I was extremely close to maxing over 7 classes… Will colleges look at that? or just the gpa for each year? I am trying to go to a competitive colleges but my high school is extremely competitive which makes me look bad when in the application proceeds they compare me to my class and it doesn’t look too good even though I do have great grades just not as impressive as my classes which is also what i’m worried about

It is my understanding that they look at your actual courses and the grades. However, unfortunately. I think that kind of granular evaluation happens after they have tossed 90% of the applications. So in highly competitive high schools you will often see that many students take the easiest courses possible for GPA strategy and then ace the various tests. I do believe that when it comes to top colleges that only goes so far.

Every college is different and almost no college will explain their process in any detail. So don’t drive yourself nuts trying to figure these kinds of things out. Focus on putting forth the strongest possible application and then you just have to let go.