<p>That's just crazy. Is this a public school? If so, do the other schools in the district calculate the same way? Does this school recognize the 'top students' through Vals/Sals, etc.? I hope not since it would be completely unfair to the more accomplished students taking the more difficult courses. It sounds like they're playing the 'self-esteem' game to the max.</p>
<p>At least the colleges will likely compute their own GPA so the school's calc will be meaningless at that point.</p>
<p>Yes, it is a public school. There is only one hs is our district. Each town has its own school system- it's not county wide. I don't know how all the surrounding districts do it, but the few people I have spoken to do not do it like this.</p>
<p>We do have a Val/Sal. Uscd ucla dad, I think you are right about the self-esteem idea. What does class rank have to do with "leveling the playing field?" </p>
<p>It reminds me of the kids who enter high school sports and want equal playing time like they had in their younger "club" days. The best athletes play- that's reality. Similarly, if they don't want "reality" in class rank, then they shouldn't rank at all.</p>
<p>^^ It's like having a 'miler' race but counting only the first 50 yards where those who can reach 50 yards but can't finish the race score the same as those who can finish the mile, having a high-jump competition but counting only up to the first 4 feet, having a reading comprehension exam but counting only the 3 letter words, etc. </p>
<p>There must be someplace where the high schools report up to (the county?). They should be made aware of this unfair and counterproductive method of GPA/ranking.</p>
<p>My highschool has a scale of 1-4 per class.
A is 4 points
B is 3, ect.</p>
<p>An A in honors is 5 points. (therefore if it is a “b” it becomes an average courses “A”) and an A for a AP/dual enrollment class is 6 points (if it is a C, you receive the average class A). </p>
<p>My school judges rank by your weighted and counts all courses taken, I currently have a GPA of 4.3 and when I graduate if I ace all my DE courses it could rise to an estimated 5.3. </p>
<p>I know that since schools have such different ways of calculating rank and GPA, colleges use only the core classes unweighted to find out the raw GPA. (English math and science, ect.)</p>
<p>Seniors will have their GPAs, ACT composite scores, and selected advanced courses calculated into a District Rank list (GPA 50%, ACT 25%, and Courses 25% - Example: 28 honor points X 8.93 = 250, 4.00 GPA X 125 = 500, 36 ACT X 6.94 = 250 for a total of 1000). As in all other GPA calculations, there will be no rounding of GPAs or points. Classes awarded points per term will be: Statistics, Trigonometry A & B, AP Calculus A, B & C, Chemistry II A & B, Anatomy and Physiology A & B, AP Biology A, B, & C, AP Economics A, B, & C, AP History A, B, & C, AP English A, B, & C, French III A & B, French IV A & B, Spanish III A & B and Spanish IV A & B or Spanish IV A & B and AP Spanish A, B & C. Students who chose to drop the C section of an AP course will lose all points (3) for that class and an updated transcript will be sent to the student’s college/s of application/acceptance. An extra bonus point will be awarded to students who have taken a full year of Chemistry I and a full year of Physics. Students who have been in band the entire four years will be awarded three honor points. Students who have been in choir all four years with Vocal Ensemble for the last two years will be awarded three honor points. A student will not receive honor points for both band and choir. Advanced classes not mentioned must have Principal approval to be included. They are AP Michigan Virtual classes and dual enrollment classes that are a 200 level or better and in a core area (Math, English, Science, Social Studies).</p>
<p>So basically what that says is the plain GPA (all kids all classes straight 4.0 scale) + the weight of their ACT score (all kids in Michigan must take) + points for a specified list of rigorous classes. The rank is on the transcript sent to the colleges and it is a straight number out of the total. for example it is expressed as the kiddos number/total kids in class e.g. 8/210.</p>
<p>Probably the best way to summarize this three year old thread is to say that schools evaluate class rank in different ways, UW and Wtd. It just depends.</p>
<p>Ranking is figured by weighted GPA. Honors, AP and college courses are on a scale of 0-5, regular classes are 0-4. For ranking, everything is included except on-line courses or college courses outside of school. Those courses do count for your transcript GPA. Val and Sal are important because state flagship will give free tuition to those two kids.</p>
<p>We have two ranks; a regular rank determined only on GPA (out of a 4.0 scale, no weighting) and a second honors rank which a student needs to qualify for by taking a minimum of 2 honors/ap classes a quarter (still no weighting). There has been some talk about a third honors rank with kids that take 4 or more honors/ap but nothing seems to be happening there. </p>
<p>The strange thing (which I sort of like) is they only go to 2 decimal places and if 2 kids have the same gpa the one with the honors rank is listed higher than the non-honors rank student.</p>
<p>The rank is then just listed as the rank over the number of kids. 6/567</p>
<p>Straight 4 point scale for all classes, regardless of rigor. Highest possible Gpa is a 4.0, no matter what courses taken. We had 7 or so students this year with perfect Gpas, all valedictorians. Class rank in descending order based on unweighted GPA. A challenge for my late blooming son because during 11th an 12th grades, the class size shrunk as more students dropped out (he is in a magnet program in a school with about 50% free and reduced lunch population). Even though his GPA kept improving, the denominator in class rank kept getting smaller too.</p>
<p>If weighted grade points are used, to avoid incorrect incentives (e.g. not taking an extra non-honors course because it would worsen class rank even if the student got an A grade), it may be better to base class rank on grade points, not GPA. Give more rigorous courses (e.g. honors) whatever bonus weighting points the school determines should be deserved; divide grade points in non-academic courses (PE, auto shop, etc.) by 5 to make them more like tie breakers.</p>
<p>That way, a schedule with 5 honors courses would not be “better” (for class rank purposes) than a schedule with the same 5 honors courses plus one non-honors or non-academic course, assuming the same grades in the same 5 honors courses.</p>
<p>My HS was in CA and based class rank on the UC ranking. 10-12 academic GPA. Non academic classes are not counted and honors and AP were graded on a 5.0 scale ( although there is no cap). Community college classes that are used for graduation requirements ( the only type added to HS transcripts) are counted on a 4.0 scale. The year I graduated, the Val had the highest GPA in the school’s history (4.81). He took almost all honors and AP courses starting sophomore year. His GPA was " brought down" by chemistry (prerequisite for AP chem) and band.</p>
<p>I think it’s determined by whether or not the drug sniffing dogs stop at you locker. At least at our school. For some reason they act like its a state secret to know where you are in the class. No rank without an act of congress. Top tenth isn’t really top tenth percentile… Huh?</p>
<p>The UC method for calculating high school GPA counts only 10th and 11th grade course grades, with only up to 8 semesters’ worth of honors/AP bonus points. College courses which are transferable to UC count as honors courses for this purpose.</p>
<p>Since the limit on honors/AP bonus points basically means that up to two year-long courses in each of 10th and 11th grades can be counted, the maximum UC admissions GPA is probably around 4.4 for a student who takes a total of five year long academic courses in 10th and 11th grades.</p>
<p>The way they do it at my son’s school (in Florida) is every class including high school level classes taken in middle school, Florida virtual school, and dual enrollment is included in the class ranking. Honors classes earn an extra .5 and AP/dual enrollment classes earn an extra 1 point ( an honors A would be worth 4.5 and an AP A would be worth 5).</p>
<p>They do it that way here too, which really bothers me. My son has put in all preAP and AP courses, and he has had close to 100’s in the computer science classes, include the AP one. Yet, those classes are not included in the GPA or even properly compensated for. So, he is ranking lower in his class than maybe he should be.</p>
<p>UCB, I pointed out in my post that there was no “cap” referring to a maximum number of honors/ ap. My school said the method they used for ranking is the one UC’s use for grades 10 and 11. They just continue the process through 12 th grade to get the Val/Sal ranking. We were not allowed to take CC classes if the same level course was offered at the HS. They gave no “bump” for college classes as they felt students might try to game the rankings (like they already do anyway). Most people that took CC classes had no need to report them to the HS as they were above and beyond what was required for graduation.</p>
<p>I’d be severely p*ssed if our system didn’t use all classes. We get credit for AP and IB but not for honors. We also only get a weighted average for our class rank. You can’t even get an UW transcript.</p>
<p>That was the easiest part - school did NOT rank, no vals, no sals…Colleges still rank based on student GPA (often re-calculated by college) and class profile. At least, that is what we were told at college adcom info. session for Honors</p>