<p>how do the mit adcoms calculate gpa? do they take out electives? do they take out foreign language?</p>
<p>Why in the world would they take out foreign language? That seems more than a bit fishy.</p>
<p>If you're talking about MIT Admissions evaluating your HS GPA, the answer is that they look at the GPA your school gave you, along with an explanation of the school's grading system (for example, information about weighted honors/AP classes). They don't go and recalculate it based on their own idea of what a GPA should be, if that's what you're asking.</p>
<p>After all, the GPA is an average so there is little point in getting too particularly picky about how it is calculated. The uncertainties brought in by, for example, grading standards from school to school and teacher to teacher increase the uncertainty in the GPA's usefulness, particuarly when you're trying to sort through thousands of applicants. As long as the high school's method of computation of GPA is fairly reasonable, no university should put too much weight on a recomputed GPA (which is not to say that they don't).</p>
<p>Does MIT look at freshman grades?</p>
<p>Well, i've heard that some universities recalculate with only core grades (math, science, social studies, english), so stuff like PE, Gym, and Art are taken out. I was wondering if MIT had a similar approach.</p>
<p>I don't think MIT even bothers with it.</p>
<p>Honestly, you're GPA doesn't mean that much. What they look at primarily are your grades and the classes you took. Your rank also factors in somewhere (to make sure you aren't slacking compared to your fellow students, I'd imagine).</p>
<p>Really, a GPA is just a number with extremely superficial/artificial meaning that's likely only useful for your school administration. It's the rank that your GPA gives you that's more important, and even then, it's far from the most important thing.</p>