<p>Do they view it as a number and a number only, or will they take a look at the classes you have taken, and see if there is any improvement or not? Or, in other words, will colleges spend some time on your transcript?</p>
<p>Thanks for any answers</p>
<p>transcript
GPA as such isnt important. If I take Useless subjects and get a 4.0, they will burn ur transcript in lieu of a 3.7 with Honors/AP and all</p>
<p>Colleges spend a lot of time on your transcript.... your gpa, academic rigor, and trend of grades are all considered</p>
<p>Your high school profille, which is sent along with the transcript, will also tell us how grading works at your school (does an A start at 90? 93?) and how GPA is compled. Many also tell us the range of GPAs in a class (how high they go is important when having over a 4.0 is possible).</p>
<p>So, we look at things in context...or we try to. Course strength is the first thing on my mind.</p>
<p>Class rank is much more important. And they take a hard look at how hard your load was. Top colleges don't really care about improvement, they want people who have done well throughout. Once you get below the top 25 or so, they are way more likely to look at things like upward trend.</p>
<p>While I would agree that it makes sense for colleges to look at class rank more than GPA, I'm not sure to what degree (if any) they actually do this. At least, not if you believe page 6 of this CDS that was recently posted for Williams.</p>
<p>Most privates do not calculate class rank at all---it ends up only hurting alot of kids who are great students</p>
<p>How will my GPA vs. courseload look if I got a high gpa with hard courseload freshman year, a low gpa with easy courseload sophomore year, then a high gpa with hard courseload junior year? What will adcoms think? Also, is this good?</p>
<p>Filling your schedule up with simple electives to get your a 4.0 definitely won't look as good as taking AP and honors courses and getting a 3.5. But at the same time, a 3.5 in AP and honors courses won't look as good as someone else's 4.0 in APs and honors.</p>
<p>Your transcript is absolutely one of (if not THE) top priority of college admissions officers. It shows how well you've performed academically over four years (unlike the SAT, which can be subject to many variables), and the past four years are the best indicator of how you'll perform in the next four years. The strength of your courseload (preferably getting stronger as the years progress) is also looked at. Unfortunately there are quite a few people with strong courseloads, so in the end I'd have to say it comes down to performance.</p>
<p>Thanks for the inputs guys! What if I have nearly straight-A's with ~3 B's max, but two isolated cases of D's in freshmen year? (By the way that is due to a special circumstance.) Do you think it would matter much to the admins?</p>
<p>It really depends on the schools you're applying to. An "isolated" D would have more of an effect at Harvard, Yale, etc., than it would at some smaller liberal arts schools, for example. What schools are you considering?</p>
<p>Isolated D's, especially in freshman year won't hurt your chances really anywhere UNLESS they use some type of formula that factors in GPA and class rank without looking at weird outliers like those "D"s. Also, if you have a decent reason that you might be able to develop into an essay to account for those 'D's that also would be great, but if not I think the colleges will think its fine.</p>
<p>I recently attented a college fair kind of thing, and when asking a Duke admission dean (just happened to meet her first, but since it's a good private...) she said that I should have my counselor explain it.</p>
<p>Do colleges usually use formulas for GPA and class rank, or do they count your classes holistically?</p>