<p>Our school has GPA's on a scale of 100. Nothing is weighted except for AP's, which have a .05 weight. (times 105%) I don't know how the 4-scale GPA's work, and how you weight it. I often see considerably significant difference between weighted and unweighted GPA's (like an UW 3.4 is a W 4.3) and I would appreciate knowing how it works.
Also should I specify to Cornell the grading system of our school, especially the weight part? (Because it is pretty hard in our school to boost your GPA through the weight; W and UW are pretty close) I didn't mention any of these in my application. I don't know if my counselor did. and I don't know if mentioning this make a difference. so should I?
Thank you.</p>
<p>The 4 point scale isn't always the same, but at my school, A is 4.0, A- is 3.667, B+ is 3.333, B is 3.0, etc. My school does not weight, but I believe that schools that do just add a point for AP Classes. As for Cornell, they may reconfigure your GPA themselves (I know some schools do that). If your grading scale makes your rank less impressive, you could say something. I told them on my app about how we do not weight, which is very significant because I have taken all the hardest classes, unlike most of the people ahead of me.</p>
<p>Are you serious? an extra point for AP? then wouldn't someone taking 6 AP's have a 10.something? or did I misinterpret?
Our school doesn't rank. But it does show in our school profile the distribution of GPA's (2% over 100, x% over 90%, etc.) I'm worried if it would be too pushy to send an extra letter just telling them about our school's grading system...I'll ask if my counselor did in her rec.</p>
<p>ALso, how do you guys cumulate GPA's? in my school it's simply averaging every quater's GPA. So it ironically turns out that the longer way you go down along the time, the smaller difference you'll make in your GPA. My current semester GPA only counts as 1/7 or something of my cumulative GPA. and I'm just curious how your cumulative GPA's work.</p>
<p>no no no no no. An A would be worth a 5.0 in the class. If you had all APs and got an A in all of them, you would have a 5.0. Everything is averaged together like anywhere else. So it's just all the classes added together and divided by the number. Sounds exactly the same as your school. Are you in that top 2%?</p>
<p>in my school system, the unweighted (not with honors classes) scale is:
A- 4.0
B- 3.0
C- 2.0
D- 1.0
E- 0.0</p>
<p>when you put in the honors classes, the weight is:
A- 5.0
B- 4.0
C- 3.0
D- 2.0
E- 1.0</p>
<p>Okay I get it...wow i had some stupid misunderstandings
To ungst--My current semester GPA is over 100. My cumulative is like some 98.4. So I guess no, I am not in that top 2%, but these data are from the senior class and I'm a junior.</p>
<p>at my high school (and most nyc public schools) it works like this:
your gpa would be on a 100-point scale. Honors Courses are out of a possible 105 points, and APs are 110 points. Basically, if you took an Honors Class and received a 90, it would be averaged in as a 94.5. If you took an AP and received a 90, it would be averaged in as a 99.</p>
<p>mine is the same as laurastar, except we have the added extra
AP CLASSES =
A- 6.5
B- 5.0
C- 4.0
D- 3.0
E- 2.0</p>
<p>so its actually possible to have a 6.5 weighted GPA</p>
<p>Wow @Hansen that seems like grade inflation to me. My school only gives +.5 for AP classes (Honors are counted like regular) and our grading scale is 94-100 for an A (4.0), 90-93.5 for a B+(3.5), etc. The biggest question though, is how Cornell manages all these different systems of grading when evaluating our apps.</p>
<p>Our local high school adds .03 extra for each AP class. So if your unweighted GPA is 3.97 and you have taken 10 AP classes thay would add .30 giving you 4.27. Most other schools in the state do the AP classes on a 5 point scale. The difference from school to school is why colleges want an unweighted GPA on a 4.0 scale so they can compute their own weighted GPA on a standard basis.</p>
<p>yes its big time grade inflation for those who take APs instead of honors, but since cornell gets a weighed and unweighed, i suppose they'll make use of that.</p>
<p>basically in my school, if you take AP classes and get all Bs, you are in top 10%. if you dont have APs, you dont even have a shot at top 10%, even if you get ALL As in honors, not to mentional regular, oh no, if you're in regular classes, you're already placed around top 40% with all As.</p>
<p>is there THAT much of a difference between honors and AP classes? no. i dont know why they made it like that.</p>
<p>in my high school's county, there is no grade inflation whatsoever. we arent allowed to get extra credit anymore, for ANYTHING. no bonus points. nothing. some teachers squeak it in by calling it "enrichment points'', which is usually an extra assignment. a couple years ago, we couldnt even get credit for homework, which caused a lot of kids to not do it at all. now, homework is about 5%/10% of the grade. we have no participation points. the only thing that we do have is called "reassessments", which gives students the opportunity to retake a test or quiz (depending on the department) no matter the grade. the teachers are told to make the retake harder so students dont fail on purpose. but, however, the retake grade is the grade that goes in the gradebook, even if it is lower. its a risk that we take.</p>
<p>laurstar that must make it difficult...we had a similar situation in a couple of my AP classes…in calc only tests determined the final grade …the same with chem... so we had to do well on the tests and labs and we could only take the tests once! ;(</p>
<p>Platero- GPA doesnt mean anything...no need to explain anything
adcoms know that every school calculates GPA's differently...taking a rigorous courseload and excelling in your classes is all that really matters</p>
<p>biggyboy....which NYC public high school you in???
my school never tell us how they weight our GPA, we just get whatever we have in our transcript....</p>
<p>Hansen, I wish I went to your school. My school has hardcore grade deflation cause there is no weighting. There are like 8 vals and since I have gotten a-s in aps that almost no other juniors took, I got the shaft.</p>
<p>Real grade deflation is in China okay. My school back in China had no curves, no bonus points, no homework points whatsoever. Two huge exams and chapter tests are all your grade. I remember once like 30% of the people in my class had to retake physics mid-term because they failed it. there were about 10 people in total over 80. When I came to US my transcrpits looked so bad(there was no rank on it)...and colleges still can see them now...</p>
<p>ungst, the only reason our school does that is to try to get people to take AP instead of honors. last year we had 10 vals and it was totally ridiculous, and thus they changed it (just this year) to make it so that APs weigh more than honors.</p>
<p>to platero, i doubt that anyone pays attention to GPA given in a chinese high school anyway. (since forging it would be easier than anything, and by forging i mean getting a totally legitiment copy)</p>
<p>um, since when do schools give out the grade of "e"? like two or three ppl mentioned it earlier, am i missing something? and in terms of grade inflation, the weighed gpa doesnt really help you if u get 6 points for an ap and i only get 5. the adcoms arent stupid they know wahts going on... tho i hate how so many care bout the unweighed gpa..</p>