What is the general weighing scale that universities use when looking at transcripts? Thanks!
Most schools will have web page like this: http://registrar.buffalo.edu/grades/gpa.php
Basically they unweight it and then evaluate rigor based on classes taken snd more importantly strength of your high school. So a 3.6 from a top high school would mean more than a 3,9 at a mediocre school. Some adcoms will say when they see an A from a certain high school, they know it is a real A.
It depends on the school. For example: The University of California schools use UC GPA by only counting 10-11 grades and giving 1 extra point to every AP or approved Honors course.
@rdeng2614 Do you by any chance know how Ivy League schools, like Harvard, tend to weigh GPA?
Generally, they don’t look at the numbers but rather look at the transcript itself.
Also, with your application, your counselor sends in a school report with a rough range of the GPA’s at your school, the amount of AP classes offered, your class rank if your school ranks etc. This gives context to your academics so Harvard can better understand the situation at your school.
Every college is different. My understanding is that Harvard does not translate your GPA into some standard GPA of your own. Instead they squint at your GPA, your rank if they are given it, the apparent rigor of your course load and what they know about your school. (i.e. an A- or B+ from a top prep or magnet school might be considered equivalent to an A at a mediocre school.) Then they might assign you a number - on something like a 1-6 scale. 1 is for top academic candidates (doing well beyond AP work etc.), 2 for ones with acceptable rigorous schedules with good enough grades. They’ll take about 200 students primarily based on academics “the top minds in the country” or something like that was how it was phrased by the Director of Admissions a few years ago. The rest have to bring something else to the table. I don’t think once you are past the first cut it matters that much if you have a 4.0 or 3.9 or whatever.
As for what is good enough from your school, that’s where Naviance is hugely helpful. When my older son was applying to Harvard about half the kids with his GPA had been accepted. That didn’t mean he had a 50% chance, but it did mean there was no reason for him not to apply. My younger son was in the top 6% of his class, but looking at Naviance we could see no one with his GPA had ever been accepted so we knew it was very unlikely he would be.
Thank you! Do you mind me asking what your sons’ GPAs were?
Older son’s GPA was 97 unweighted, 103+ weighted. Younger son was 93 unweighted, 97 weighted. (GPA was 89 if you took out all the orchestra grades.) We have a pretty funky weighting systems that doesn’t weight AP more than honors. Both give you about a 5% boost.