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<p>I am glad to hear it. I was troubled, however, by the system that heyitslauriebeth described, as it belies such a sensitive admissions process.</p>
<p>It’s a very multifaceted system, for sure, but it does utilize what Laurie was mentioning as one aspect of the process. For example, the GPA weighing system might be very effective in comparing the students who all attend large public schools in Wake County that offer a modest number of APs. It might also be just as effective for comparing students in rural schools in Appalachia who do not have many AP offerings, but the system would absolutely not be used to compare the Wake County kids to the Appalachia kids. </p>
<p>For me personally, UNC did a fantastic job of putting me in context. My unweighted GPA was about a 3.4 and my weighted was about a 3.6 at the time of admission. My schools offers maybe 10-15 APs. If you’re just looking at those stats alone and comparing me to kids with 4.0 UW and 4.6 W, I’d surely have been rejected based on that data alone. Instead, I was admitted. Why? Because at my school, a 3.5+ gives you a good shot at the top 20, and a 3.75 is good enough for an Ivy. My best friend, who had one of the only 4.0s in the school, had to choose between Harvard, Princeton, and MIT. I hope that helps you.</p>
<p>The reason they use the NC weighted scale is because 82% of those offered admissions come from North Carolina, where most schools either opperate on, or are transitioning to the NCWISE augmented weighting system (with 96/A+ being 4.0/5.0/6.0) and even if they use the NCWISE standard weighting (All As 4.0/5.0/6.0) it is fairly easy to convert to the augmented scale.</p>
<p>This might be flawed, but, in my opinion, it is the easiest way to compare students, because it distinguishes between the student who took Art I, Broadcasting I, Yearbook, and Leadership(student council joke class available in some NC counties), and got all A’s, and the student who took straight APs, and got all As, in an easy to see numerical form. In addition the use of the augmented scale, helps to distinguish between someone who got a 92.5 in a class, and someone who got 96+.</p>
<p>Is this to say that’s all UNC looks at when it comes to grades? Of course not! But the simple fact is that weighted GPA provides a nice quick summary of what a person has accomplished in high school.</p>
<p>EDIT: I will provide the link to the official Department of Public Instruction document that outlines the calculation of GPA for NC Public High Schools, like I do every time this discussion comes up (about once every 2 months). Some counties still use the Standard grading scale, but there is a push to adopt the augmented one statewide. It also provides info about the addition of quality points to GPA (for honors and AP):</p>
<p><a href=“http://sbepolicy.dpi.state.nc.us/Policies/GCS-L-004.asp?Acr=GCS&Cat=L&Pol=004[/url]”>http://sbepolicy.dpi.state.nc.us/Policies/GCS-L-004.asp?Acr=GCS&Cat=L&Pol=004</a></p>