How do schools examine gpa?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Columbia University
1

<p>Hey, I was just curious about how Columbia (and other top schools) examine gpa. My school doesn't weight gpa's, so even though I have a ton of college classes, I'm ranked 32 out of about 214. This is incredibly frustrating since my high school is pathetic and I'm ranked below the kids that took only the min 2 yrs math, 3 yrs English, 2.5 yrs science, etc. with billion art/music/PE classes and have 4.0's.</p>

<p>Will the colleges see this? I heard there's a formula they use to put weighted and unweighted gpa's on the same level, but what about my rank? If I had a weighted gpa, it would be about 4.87 and I would be like number 1 or 2.</p>

<p>Did anyone else have this problem at their school?</p>

2

<p>Isn’t this the purpose of the school letter? That letter should explain that all GPAs are unweighted, so the admissions committee will consider your grades in the context of your curriculum (as they should anyway). I wouldn’t really worry about it.</p>