<p>So basically I think the fact the Michigan recalculates GPA extremely unfair. If I could do high school over and Michigan was my first choice school, would it have been better for me to take all regular classes and get As or to take the most rigorous courseload with 7 APs and all the rest honors and get a few Bs, a C, and a majority of As. The way it looks to me from this unweighted GPA crap is that they are promoting mediocrity instead of wanting a student with desire and drive to challenge themselves. Does anyone agree? Or am I just wrong?</p>
<p>You are crazy. I attended a meeting about UMich at my school with this years upcoming admissions counselors. They do not just use GPA, they also look at your course load. If you have a 4.0 and take mediocre classes they point that out and frown upon it. They do want you to take AP classes, but they also don't want you to get B's or C's in them. They take into account your course load after looking at your GPA, but don't think for one second that just because you took AP classes means you are off the hook for not having A's. Michigan is not a mediocre school, partially due to the fact that their admissions is 'highly selective.'</p>
<p>If it's any comfort, there may be a day in the future when they do not recalculate the GPA.</p>
<p>But they do, indeed, look at your course load--not just what you took, but what you took given what your school had to offer. Curriculum is a big factor in admissions, and no readrer is going to gullibly favor mediocre preparation over a challenging courseload.</p>
<p>Knows, the natural reaction most of us adults have when we see a high GPA is methodical:</p>
<p>"That's nice, but how difficult was her/his courseload."</p>
<p>In other words, the analysis of a student's are almost always two fold. The first, is the actual grade and second, is the meaning of that grade. Merely looking at a GPA without looking at the difficulty of the courses would be like looking at a student's classrank without paying attention to the # of students are in that class. I greaduated #7 in my class. Pretty impressive eh? Well, my class had 20 students! LOL </p>
<p>In short, a 3.9 student who took a bunch of bird classes and scored a 1100 on the SAT will probably not stand a chance at Michigan whereas a 3.7 student who took a bunch of honors and AP classes and got a 1400 on the SAT will have a great shot at getting in.</p>