Hi everyone, I’m a junior in high school and as the year is closing out I am incredibly stressed about my GPA. My school calculates only the weighted GPA and the unweighted is not disclosed to us until next year. I am top 20% of my school but my GPA has lowered over the year.
Right now it’s a 97.9 out of an 100 scale.
I started off freshman year with a 99.2, sophomore year with a 97.8, and this year receiving a 96.6 (as of right now)
I’m worried because this is a downward trend and I don’t know how I can present it to the top admission officers. I’m an asian so they already expect the perfect GPA which worries me more.
I had to start working as soon as I turned 16 to help my mom pay the bills but I don’t think I can justify my lowering grade if I had time to focus on my extra curic. ( a choice I made because I didn’t want to sacrifice the things I loved) and there have been conflicts with a teacher this year ( but obviously I can’t use that as an excuse).
I understand that I can’t justify my low GPA with an excuse but I was wondering if I could explain it using the reason that I have to work ( even if it’s generic) despite having time to work on my activities outside of school, or if i should just leave it as it is.
As an aside, if you had a “perfect” GPA, which I assume you mean hovering around 100, AOs will not necessarily think you are an academic superstar; they may think your school has rampant grade inflation.
Depending upon what colleges you are targeting, be careful not to appear too one-dimensional; few colleges are interested in applicants whose only goal in HS is getting perfect grades.
hello ! thank you lol that was a confidence booster. but it’s a low grade in my school, we’re number 1 in the state so everyone is mega competitive, there are kids with over 100 GPA. I guess I’m worried because I couldn’t take more than 1 AP this year due to the schedule but self studied and that’s why my gpa this year is exceptionally low ;(
you must have a lot of grade inflation if you are only top 20%. Or, is that just a guess?
And more importantly, unless you attend a nationally-ranked HS like TJ or Stuy, a top 20% rank ain’t gonna cut it for the Ivies, where 99% of their non-hooked students are top decile at a minimum.
btw: are you a CA resident? If not, why UC? (very expensive OOS, and not worth it, IMO.) Or, do you mean UChicago?
Why not calculate your unweighted GPA yourself by averaging the grades on your cumulative report card?
If you also want to calculate it on a 4.0 scale, convert each grade to A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0 according to the conversion used at your school, then average the grades.
For UCs, convert to A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1, F=0 and then use https://rogerhub.com/gpa-calculator-uc/ to calculate GPAs that UCs use. Most UC web sites used the weighted-capped version unless otherwise specified. Note that UCs do not give financial aid to out-of-state students.
The difference in your GPA between freshman and junior year is minimal (under 3%) and it not worth explaining/justifying.
Include your part-time work on your application - that is a positive in most admission officer’s eyes and can take the place of an EC.
When the time create a college application list that make sense give your grades, standardized tests etc. taking into account affordability. Find not only reach but also match and safety schools that you would be excited to attend.
Since the OP mentions that it is a weighted GPA, outsiders to his/her high school cannot known whether it is “low” by whatever standard that may be relevant for college admissions.
It is rare to be able to justify a lowered GPA adequately. You let your GC do that in the recommendation if it’s an issue. It looks like making excuses, and frankly, the top schools look for students who faced adversity and STILL got great grades, kept up the rigorous courses.
I don’t understand your grading system and how it will be converted to what colleges use as UW GPA. But I’ll bet your GC does. Your GC can also show you where you are in your school and where students at that level tend to get into colleges from there at various test score levels. Does your school have Naviance? That can give you some idea.
The grades you state look fine in of themselves. But we have no idea how the UW conversion is going to be. On face value, the fluctuations look small enough that no explanation is needed. Like it’s nit picking and being obsessive. But the upper 20% makes little sense too—that’s generally not good enough for the most selective schools unless your school sends that % to top schools. They may simply release rank to the colleges. But all of that is speculation and your GC has the answers, not us.
Thank you for your response, the counselors in my school doesn’t really offer us much insight. Our school doesn’t release the rank but colleges can still figure out our % based on the school report. My GPA compared to my sxhool’s accepted students for my colleges are not significantly different but I’m worried my race will play a big part in the process. I’ll talk to my counselors, thank you sm
Thank you so much ! This was really helpful, I didn’t think about the % difference. I’m worried because this is my weakest link ( in my opinion) but this really helped
Hello! My school stopped ranking but the top 20% are sent invitations to NHS and we usually have about 10-15 ivy acceptances each year and 20 for other top schools out of a class of 150. Your comment was really helpful, thank you
Hello, thank you again for your comment. I posted this because my GPA is my weakest link in terms of how my application looks and i have been told that it is an important factor, but thank you for the blog post, it helped a lot
Also, I’m not sure about the grade inflation situation, my school is pretty small. My class is about 150 students ( I think, not sure) so top 20% is only 30 people but I don’t know if that means anything
Be sure you build up a solid college list comprised of reaches, proper matches and real safeties. This is a better strategy than trying to justify a “low” (however defined) GPA.
If you insist your gpa is your weakest link, then you dont know what matters. And that’s the ‘weak’ that could spoil your app and chances.
First, I wanted to shout about this decline from “A” grades to (horrors!) “A” grades. Now you want to draw their attention to that? Lots to learn.
Of course, that gpa is weighted. Any hs kid aiming high has surely learned how to calculate from letter grades. Do it. Then realize holistic adcoms look at the transcript, not one gpa number.
Top 20% could be in shooting range. But it depends on various factors. Your course choices, activities, your thinking all matter. Right now, I don’t see this understanding. Without it, you can’t begin to know what makes you viable. Or how to self present.
@lookingforward I’m saying that my GPA is the weakest link because everyone has said you must be the top 10%. If my extracurriculars are up to par, then this is the “weak” link in my application. It might not matter much but it’s doesn’t change how it’s below average. Thank you for your comment.
The thing I’m most worried about is my GPA bc I feel like it’s my weakest link 