<p>Hi, I had my meeting with my guidance counselor, and she told me that some colleges recalculate GPA. I'm curious to know if Tufts does, and if so, how?</p>
<p>From a previous post, I know that Dan says Tufts looks at a weighted GPA.</p>
<p>Also, I know Tufts is more holistic in terms of viewing applications, which I appreciate. I am concerned about my GPA however. My school does not offer AP's till junior year and thus, I am taking my first 2 AP's this year. My weighted average on a 4.5 scale is 4.03, but I am in the top decile. My unweighted is a 3.47 out of 4.0. Prior to my lovely junior year I had about a 3.7 unweighted and about a 4.2 weighted..oh woe is me. Calculus is the bane of my existance...<em>cough, cough</em> along with APUSH and AP Spanish. </p>
<p>I see all these chance post, and I'm just like ahhh :[ I'm really trying not to click on them haha...I've had difficult teachers and whatnot, but I won't regale you with excuses :p </p>
<p>Anyways, if answerable, are GPA and scores the first thing admin counsels look at in terms of "lightening" the app pile?</p>
<p>Also, if I do ED I, do I send first quarter senior grades? Thanks :]</p>
<p>First of all.. you can only affect yourself. Do not read chance threads (or at least don't give them a lot of weight); their perfection is somewhat depressing.</p>
<p>Secondly, I am not sure that Tufts recalculates GPA, but you can't do much about that at this point either except as it concerns your senior schedule. Take the most challenging classes you can through senior year. </p>
<p>I have no clue what the cut off is when thinning out the piles of applications.</p>
<p>And even when EDI deadlines come around, you will probably not yet have your quarter one grades, BUT you will want your school to forward them as soon as they are available.</p>
<p>I believe Dan has posted elsewhere that they don't recalculate GPA's but instead just look at them in the context of each school, along with class rank when available. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong.</p>
<p>Work hard and challenge yourself your senior year!</p>
<p>Colleges want to see you excel in higher difficulty level courses. Doing worse in your AP courses than your previous ones will not look good on an application.</p>
<p>If you apply ED1, you do send in first quarter senior grades. That's why Detail ^^ is giving good advice: challenge yourself and try to knock it out of the park!</p>
<p>We do not recalculate GPA. Recalculating GPA washes out a lot of the nuance from school to school, and the logic behind recalculating allows for a belief that grades are the same everywhere. And that couldn't be further from the truth in my opinion. We know that an 'A' at one school is different from an 'A' at another; some schools grade inflate, others deflate. Recalculation eliminates the contextual approach to academic evaluation that we use; it puts everyone in the same boat academically and assumes that everyone has the same options, the same opportunities, and the same circumstances. But they don't, so we don't. </p>
<p>As for the other questions from the OP: Yes, your 1st quarter grades would be used. Your academic credentials are absolutely the first thing we see. And those indicators form the backbone of the admissions process. your essays (of course) matter. Your recs (of course) matter. But your academic performance will dictate how powerful those qualitative pieces would need to be. </p>
<p>Modadunn is correct; the 'chance me' threads are representative of a very select segment of the population and the information contained in those threads is often suspect in its veracity. You say yourself that there's room for improvement in your academic record, but it sounds like you're still doing well.</p>