how do the various schools really calculate GPA???

Chance Me / Match Me!
1

<p>Okay so this is my original post: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/513033-please-chance-me-ivys-uk-schools-updated.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/what-my-chances/513033-please-chance-me-ivys-uk-schools-updated.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Everything on that post is accurate but I think I totally screwed up in calculating my GPA so I need some help from you guys. Here are my grades:</p>

<p>I have excluded P.E. and Health courses...</p>

<p>Freshman Year (Monta Vista High School):
-Geometry Enriched [A/A]
-Computer Programming JAVA [A/A]
-Biology [B/A]
-Art 1 [A/A]
-Chinese 1 [A/A]
-English 9 [A/B]</p>

<p>Sophomore Year (Saratoga High School):
-Algebra 2 Honors* <a href="look%20at%20Key">A/A-</a>
-Chemistry Honors [A/A]
-World Geography <a href="only%20one%20semester">/A</a>
-World History [A-/A]
-Chinese 2 [A/A]
-English 10 [A-/A-]</p>

<p>Junior Year (Saratoga High School):
-Trig/PreCalc Honors [A/A+]
-AP Physics B [A-/A]
-AP Biology [A/A]
-AP U.S. History [A-/A-]
-Chinese 4 Honors [A/A+]
-English 11 Honors [A-/A]</p>

<p>Senior Year (Saratoga High School) [predicted grades]:
-AP Calculus BC [A+/A+]
-AP Chemistry [A+/A+]
-AP Statistics [A+/A+]
-AP English Language [A/A]
-AP European History [A/A]
-AP Chinese 6 Language [A/A]
-U.S. Government/Economics <a href="our%20school%20doesn't%20offer%20AP">A/A</a></p>

<p>(Key)
*- Algebra 2 Honors is not given Honors credit under the UC system, I don't know about the various private schools though...</p>

<p>These are the schools to which I am applying:
Stanford
Harvard
MIT (my father went to Sloan)
Princeton
Yale
Columbia
CalTech
UPenn (Wharton)
UChicago
Oxford
LSE
Cornell
UC Berkeley
UCLA
UCSD
UCSC</p>

<p>Again, I do not wish you to "chance" me or whatever, that's what my other thread is for. But I would really appreciate it if you could tell me how the colleges that I am applying to will calculate my GPA (e.g. will they include freshman year, will they include the first semester of senior year, which schools look at plusses and minuses, etc.) I understand that you guys don't have the time to calculate my GPA for me!!</p>

<p>Therefore...</p>

<p>Any advice/information will be greatly appreciated!!
Thank you! :)</p>

<p>Also, I hope the posts on this thread help the others out there who are just as worried/curious as I am!</p>

2

<p>wow really? no one can answer this question?</p>

<p>looks like everyone is as lost as i am... and i'm not sure if that's a good thing :/</p>

3

<p>A+ counts only as 4.0 at schools of this caliber. your unweighted gpa is 3.8561 rounds to 3.86. except for the uc's, the schools you are applying to could not care less about your weighted gpa. they care about course rigor, which will be shown in your school profile and which has an imperfect correlation with weighted gpa.</p>

<p>by my calculation your uc gpa is 4.2296.</p>

4

<p>I agree with the post above, but I thought colleges only see your final grade, not semester grades (that's how it is at my school). I guess it varies from school to school?</p>

5

<p>really? i thought my UC GPA would be 4.61 since they don't count freshman year...</p>

6

<p>Colleges see both your semester grade and your final grade. At some schools, they see quarter grades, and even exam grades (depends on your high school).</p>

7

<p>and how did you get 3.85 for unweighted? i thought unweighted is only letter, regardless of honors/ap or plusses/minusses... shouldn't i have 3.95 assuming it is 9-11 and 4.0 if it's 10-11???</p>

8

<p>No. A-s are not worth the same point value as an A. An A- is worth a 3.7, whereas an a is worth 4.0.
And A+s count for nothing</p>

9

<p>wait i'm confused...</p>

<p>is the A- thing for UW, W, or both??</p>

10

<p>Should be both, but some schools weight differently.
But it definitely applies to the UW GPA.</p>

11

<p>fack i didn't know this.. my grades suck :(</p>

12

<p>No they don't. Let's be realistic: you are in-state for California schools so you know that you will get in at UCLA, if not UCB. For the rest of your list, they are reaches, yes, but you hopefully will get in at a couple and maybe at all of them. If I were you I would add one safety (like UCI, UCD, etc.) and then apply to the other schools and hope for the best :)</p>

13

<p>Oh and don't forget that your SAT rocks, so I think you are in good shape for applying to the schools on your list :)</p>

14

<p>you seem to know a lot smart.cookie :)</p>

<p>Do you know if ivy leagues calculate W Gpa with plusses/minusses??</p>

15

<p>I believe that the Ivies will take minuses into account but ignore A+s (however they will take B+s, etc. into account)</p>

16

<p>that sucks.. my two B's in freshman year were B+'s but Monta Vista doesn't show B+'s.... crap</p>

17

<p>If they show the percentages, colleges will automatically recalculate them as B+s. :)</p>

18

<p>no my transcript DEFINITELY doesn't show any percentages whatsoever</p>

19

<p>Perhaps your GC could explain the situation by sending along your grading scale? Also, your class rank will pretty much illustrate where you are in relation to your peers, and in this case is probably more indicative of your abilities than your GPA.</p>

20

<p>Ivies don't care about weighted GPAs, which are vague and misleading, IMO (also, my school doesn't calculate GPA:)). They look at your UW GPA, which gives them an idea of what kind of grades you've earned (4.0 all As, 3.8 mostly As, some A-s, 3.5 some As, mostly A-s, maybe a B, etc.) and then they compare the classes you've taken to the classes possible to take at your school. That's it. A weighted GPA would just confuse things, again IMHO.</p>