<p>GPA. An inconsistent and subjective quantity attached to high school students in order to simplify the college application process to a "pick the biggest number" game. Why do colleges and graduate schools value them so highly in the selection process, and why should such an attitude be justifiable? </p>
<p>I'm certain that everyone has heard of "diploma mills" famous for giving</a> domestic pets doctorates. Now we have this phenomenon spreading to high schools that I would now like to call "GPA mills". Never heard of it before? That's because I made it up on the spot just now. This problem is more popularly known as profuse grade inflation, which plagues high schools across the US everywhere. A student can fail to show up for class even once in the entire year and still receive an A+ on the report card. My school's AP economics teacher is known to assign grades not based on performance, but for personal preference. Students who join the Mock Trial club he runs miraculously gain a few extra points on their report card. Hmm. Can't see any connection there. </p>
<p>If grade inflation makes students look better on their college applications, why should we worry about it? Because it contaminates the pool of applicants with fraudulent entries and pushes away students who earned legitimate grades in favor of cheaters and people who just happened to go to a lax high school. The fact that someone who can earn a 90 without as much as handing in homework the whole year while someone much smarter has to struggle to maintain a B- because he/she had a teacher who was extremely strict in grading is a worrisome image. Alarm bells should be going off in your head. If a college admissions officer sees a GPA, then he or she will just see the B- or A. No indication of how well the student performed on a scholastic level, or how difficult it would be to achieve it. It's just a number that is mapped differently for every state, county, school, teacher, or even CLASS PERIOD. Comparing GPAs of two students from two different schools is like comparing apples to oranges. Not even. So why are colleges doing it? Why is it that over 70% of schools consider this "GPA" to be extremely important in their admissions process? I cannot even imagine the sheer number of things that have to go wrong for someone to even believe that GPA is a reliable indicator of performance. </p>
<p>What would you suggest instead as a criteria? That’s why colleges factor in SATs, because they it establishes a common guideline for all applicants. But then you have people complaining about the unfairness of weighting one test that’s taken in four hours. Then you have ECs, but you have people complaining about how some students have greater ease of access and opportunity to ECs than others do.</p>
<p>The college admissions system in America is skewed because as a whole America lacks a Government Administered exam that many other countries (UK, China, India, Singapore) have (for example GSCE modules) which actually test the subject STUDIED (similar to AP exams but for every subject you take) - and thus college admissions are much more complicated and convoluted here - and thus more susceptible to issues and problems - such as the rampant grade inflation and in some cases deflation in US schools. Such exams are almost the sole criteria for determining admission in many of these countries.</p>
<p>But until someone comes up with a suitable alternative, we’re stuck with this antiquated system. Part of issues is being able not only to recognize them, but to provide an alternative, a solution.</p>
<p>Great post by the way. And I can’t help but laugh every time an article about diploma mills makes its way into mainstream news.</p>
<p>It happens in college too. I remember one semester where I had 3 A’s in easy classes that I don’t remember much of today, and 3 C - C+'s in classes that were very rigorous and where I learned (and retained) quite a bit. The C’s were because the professors were disappointed in the whole class. In one class, I got at A on the final an A on the midterm, an A+ on a term paper, but an F for class participation (everyone got an F for that). I spoke to the professor about it, but that was in September and she couldn’t remember the reasons why too well. I was too intimidated to complain to a higher authority.</p>
<p>So, GPA is not perfect. I got into an Ivy grad school with those grades anyway, but it was a program that required a portfolio, so the grades were less important. </p>
<p>In my mind, reliance on the SAT is even worse though. Remember when it was called the Scholastic Aptitude Test? Not any more. Considering it doesn’t predict future college success in terms of GPA or graduation rate, it isn’t a reliable indicator of anything (except perhaps parental income). </p>
<p>My bad GPA events, and the ones you describe are not the norm. Let’s hope they don’t become the norm. And let’s hope that colleges “unweight” all those inflated grades too.</p>
<p>That is why class rank is so important. Your class rank tells your relative performance compared to your fellow students. If there is grade inflation it should affect the entire student body and the relative gems will still stand out.</p>
<p>Some schools refuse to supply class rank for its students even to colleges, including mine. I also know 3 people from the same school from the same grade who were all considered “valedictorians” and given recognition. None of them ever did well in school.</p>
<p>Oh well i think standardized tests (not only the SAT, but also the AP or SAT II, etc)) are always more reliable than GPA. GPA doesn’t mean anything. (well, if the GPA is exceptionally low, then of course it’s bad lol, but i don’t see a big difference between an A or B+, because GPA is just too subjective.)</p>
<p>I think GPA does matter. It shows that you either put in the hours in school (which is desirable) or you have good personal skills and know how to butter up your teachers (which is desirable). Personally, I find dealing with my english teacher and suckering an A out of him a learning experience, as similar skills are needed to get a pay raise out of your boss later on.</p>
<p>Above poster has a point. You don’t always have the luxury of dealing with perfectly rational people who like and respect you; being able to deal with the situations where you don’t is a necessary skill even in college. Because there will always be some people who just don’t like you, your instructors included.</p>
<p>Also, if you weren’t competent/smart/resourceful enough to get higher grades than these so called “undeserving students,” doesn’t that say something negative about your abilities?</p>
<p>Honestly, if you can’t perform better (as measured by 35-40 grades over the course of 4 years) than other people in a grade inflated or otherwise “unfair” system, how do you expect anyone to believe that you would perform better than those people in any other “more fair” condition?</p>
<p>Besides, if it’s so pointless, why are you lamenting it? Wouldn’t that imply that you’re complaining about a trivial matter?</p>
<p>The entire point of my post is that GPA completely fails to quantify any meaningful attribute, because different schools have different inflation indices. This demonstrates that you failed to read my post to any meaningful extent. </p>
<p>Tell me how you would go about “performing better” than someone who just blew every one of his/her teachers to get 100s. Does your definition of “competence”, then, extend to sexual promiscuity? Is “smart” and “resourceful” now defined as your ability to flirt and your unreserved utilization of your orifices?</p>
<p>A nonstandard example, granted; but how is a honest-to-goodness student supposed to compete when his/her teacher’s AP essay rubric doesn’t go above 85 points since “no one deserves an A”, but kids attending said “GPA mills” receive 99s in their nonaccredited AP courses despite doing absolutely nothing? GPA is meaningless on a large scale.</p>
<p>If you want to complain about how other schools have easier grading scales, why don’t you just transfer to one of those schools? I’m sure not every school in your area is so difficult as to require sexual favors in exchange for good grades?</p>
<p>Colleges and universities have multiple years (in some cases centuries) of data that clearly indicate that the single best indicator for all measures of success at the college level (first year GPA, final GPA, graduation on time for the program enrolled in, sophomore year returning student status, post-graduate education admission, etc.) is the HS transcript. In other words, the HS GPA and the courses those grades were earned in. In every single analysis, this information trumps standardized exam scores, personal statements/essays, letters of recommendation, etc. </p>
<p>Over the years, the colleges and universities in this country have developed very sophisticated methods for interpreting transcripts from high schools (and home schools, international schools, GED, etc.) with different course offerings and grading systems. The only grades you should be expending time thinking about are your own.</p>
<p>I will speak for your mom here: Stop whining about this and do your homework.</p>
<p>^ Best post yet in this thread. Colleges indeed know a great deal about the high school transcripts they receive. They realize that an A at one school may not equal an A at another. That’s why you will see that some high schools send many kids to top colleges and some send few.</p>