<p>The Dean of George Mason University has been writing a series of articles about how to get into college and he claims it's really all about the grades. </p>
<p>What do you think?</p>
<p>Most colleges will not hesitate to tell you that the most important factor in admissions decisions is your academic record. Colleges are, after all, academic institutions. In my opinion, the essay, extracurriculars, etc. are there to help separate you from a crowd of similarly academically abled students, but will not make up for a mediocre record.</p>
<p>Well, in order to evaluate a student’s work ethic and self-motivation, only grades and ec’s can really be considered. Sure, someone may get a 2400 on the SAT, but maybe he/she is failing his/her classes and has no motivation whatsoever.</p>
<p>Some colleges attract weaker students than others. </p>
<p>[College</a> Search - George Mason University - Mason - SAT®, AP®, CLEP®](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board) </p>
<p>If a student has taken mostly wimpy courses, yeah, the student had better have good grades. In general, it’s always a good idea to get good grades. But don’t neglect the opportunity to take challenging courses and to participate in intellectually stimulating extracurricular activities too. </p>
<p>Just last week I heard Vanderbilt admission officer Brad Weiner say in a public meeting in my town that “G.P.A. has become the most meaningless number in college admission,” because lots of students have very high grade averages, but not all of them are taking courses of equal difficulty. That’s something to look out for too. </p>
<p>[College</a> Search - Vanderbilt University - Vandy - SAT®, AP®, CLEP®](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)</p>
<p>when colleges say ‘GPA’, does it mean weighted GPA, and only of core classes?</p>
<p>Colleges can mean whatever they want about G.P.A. (I’ve just looked at some Common Data Set reports for various colleges today, and no definitions are specified.) That’s one of the problems: it’s not at all clear that one G.P.A. is comparable to any other G.P.A.</p>
<p>I hope you realize that at many schools, there are many students that have never had anything less than an A, and in the most rigorous classes too.</p>
<p>What kind of most rigorous classes are we talking about? What are some examples of rigorous high school classes taken by many students at many schools?</p>
<p>This is why schools send profiles to colleges. The one our school sends includes information on grades for the whole school so adcoms can have a sense of what an A or a B suggest. They also note that all classes are at ‘honors’ level and that the GPA is not weighted.</p>
<p>tokenadult: examples of rigorous high school classes:</p>
<p>IB courses and IB exam; all the APs that are available; more than 1 foreign language in the 3rd, 4th or higher year level; Greek, Latin, the classics and philosophy that are available at many elite schools. That’s what PBailey is talking about, I believe.</p>
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<p>How many, I wonder, high schools have courses like that, and how many high school students pull straight A grades through all courses like that? </p>
<p>(And how many of those students apply to which colleges?)</p>
<p>Lol@ katliamom: I’m pretty sure that tokendadult knows about rigorous courses.</p>
<p>@tokenadult: I stand by my opinion that many kids have straight As in nearly all AP classes and not just due to grade inflation. This could just be my impression due to living where I live, but frequently kids in my area take 9+ APs, get 5s or at least 4s in all of them, and get straight As. Nearly all of the local schools in my area offer most of the APs, and students frequently go to local colleges to take multivariable calculus, college Spanish, etc.</p>
<p>Admittedly, these students apply to the top tier of colleges, so obviously this is of less concern to those applying to lower ranked colleges. But even there, many applicants have got nearly straight As, though in much easier classes, and they apply to CSUs or go to CC.</p>
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<p>Yeah, I’m trying to get a sense of quantity here, so I appreciate the examples. The AP high scorers can be tracked by looking at how many AP scholar awards are given each year around the country. </p>
<p><a href=“Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board”>Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board; </p>
<p>And in turn, one can use another AP report to look at which colleges received the most AP grade reports. </p>
<p><a href=“Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board”>Supporting Students from Day One to Exam Day – AP Central | College Board;
<p>Interesting data! Admittedly, I live in a supercompetitive area (lots of second-gen Asians with highly educated parents, with postterminal degrees, etc). Lots of kids I know have parents that teach at Stanford.</p>
<p>It’s interesting to note that only around 600 10th graders took an AP (if I’m reading the chart right, only glanced at it). At my school, at least 50+ kids took at least one, out of a class of 125ish. And my school dissuades students to take AP classes if not interested in and prepared for the subject matter.</p>
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<p>I think the chart shows how many children in each grade received an AP scholar award. The minimum number of APs taken for the AP scholar award is three. But, yes, the AP national report </p>
<p><a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/ap-report-to-the-nation-2008.pdf[/url]”>Higher Education Professionals | College Board; </p>
<p>shows that very few ninth graders take AP tests. </p>
<p>An appendix to that report (which I haven’t had time to read as I post this) </p>
<p><a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/Appendix-B-Web-AP-Report-2008.xls[/url]”>Higher Education Professionals | College Board; </p>
<p>appears to provide more details.</p>
<p>Tokenadult -</p>
<p>From our local public HS with 300-350 students per graduating class there will usually be one or two unweighted 4.0 GPAs. The top few students will take 14-16 APs, 20 or so kids will take 8 or more.</p>
<p>Typically one or two kids per year will earn the National AP Scholar designation junior year.</p>
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<p>That sounds like a rather unusual high school. Where do students from that high school enroll in college?</p>
<p>In a typical year 1 or 2 might go to HYPS, a few will go to top LACs, quite a few will go to well known, out of state 2nd tier schools, but the vast majority, including some of the academic superstars, go to the instate public schools.</p>
<p>Tokenadult -</p>
<p>My local HS is somewhat similar to sherpa’s. From each graduating class of 400-500 students, there will usually be in the vicinity of 10-20 unweighted 4.0 GPAs. The HS offers 14 AP classes, four of which are 5th year language classes, which essentially means the maximum number of AP’s that a kid can take would be 10. The top few students will take 7 to 10 APs and 20 or so kids will take 5 or more.</p>
<p>Typically 3 or 4 kids per year will earn the National AP Scholar designation. Not all the kids get 5’s on their exams, but the ones that do take the exams usually score decently. (Note: There is no requirement that AP students take the test - probably about 50% do so.) As you can see from the AP Scholar performance, I think the school does a pretty good job of teaching the AP courses.</p>
<p>Each year about half a dozen kids go to the Ivies (usually one or two are recruited athletes), several (never really noted the numbers) will go to other 1st and 2nd tier schools, probably 30 to 60 go to the main campus of one or the other of the two state flagships, but, as sherpa also notes, the vast majority go to the other instate public schools, including branch campuses of the flagships.</p>