<p>This is just something I have noticed, and I'd like to see what comments people have on it.</p>
<p>There seem to be a HUGE number of students with GPA ranges in the 3.7-3.9 range. At my school, almost everyone that applies to a school that's even slightly selective has a GPA in the fairly narrow range of 90-97% (3.6-3.9). On CC there are of course the large number of 4.0's, but for the most part this seems to be true everywhere.</p>
<p>However, the is a HUGE disparity in course load, EC's, and test scores in this group. It's not at all uncommon to have one person with a 3.7, 2100 SAT, and 7 AP's and another with a 3.7, 1600 SAT, and 2 honors classes. How can GPA be the most important factor in admission if students with the same or very similar GPA's can have such different qualifications? More importantly, would any college really take the second person over the first if his or her GPA was a 3.9?</p>
<p>Out of all the numbers on an application, GPA seems to provide the least information simply because it is so uncorrelated with other indicators of success. If you had to predict the SAT scores of a student, you would be wise to choose a 3.7 all-AP student over a 3.9 student without any honors or AP classes.</p>
<p>GPA does a very good job of showing how students preform in a certain class and how hardworking they are. But the overall number that comes out in the end does little to differentiate the qualifications of high school students, especially when so many classes seem to grade "A for effort."</p>
<p>You’re right that grade inflation is a problem. I think some high schools don’t really want to fix the problem because they hope it gives their graduates an advantage in college admissions against kids from other schools.</p>
<p>But not all schools calculate GPA the same way. Some schools are on a 4 point scale, others 5, and others 7. Some are a straight 100 point scale. It’s never quite an apples-to-apples comparison. High schools also send an information sheet to colleges with the students’ transcripts. It’s usually a brag sheet of some kind about how great and competitive the high school is, but it also includes average GPA of last year’s graduating class and that provides a context for high GPA’s.</p>
<p>So yes, grade inflation does muddy the waters, but adcoms know it’s variable and try to account for it. It’s not a perfect system.</p>
<p>Me: 3.63 GPA, 2300 SAT, hardest course load, significant sports extracurriculars + summer programs.
My friend: 3.66 GPA, ~ 1750 SAT, middling course load, significant sports extracurriculars + church extracurricular.
I had significantly better admissions results than my friend. He’ll probably end up at a local, middling university while I’ll be matriculating to a highly renowned LAC. I don’t think adcoms considered him to be a stronger candidate based on his slightly higher GPA. The point: course rigor is more important than actual unweighted GPA.</p>
<p>Yes, definitely. There is one student in my graduating class that is ranked third despite never having completed an AP or college course (but was still admitted to UC-Berkeley as an out-of-state student, however).</p>
<p>^There’s no additional weight added to harder courses to balance out the differences in course difficulty? That kind of ranking system seems unfair.</p>
<p>This is where the weighted GPA comes in, as well as class rank.</p>
<p>If you take a harder course load and recieve B’s in all of them, while your friend takes the easier classes and gets half A’s half B’s… YOU come out as the winner. Your weighted GPA would be higher, which colleges DO look at. Also, your course rigor should be exemplified in your class rank. I.e you being ranked higher than your friend right there.</p>
<p>My high school provides no additional weight to courses deemed to be more difficult. There is an unofficial “weighted” ranking system although only the “unweighted” class ranking is released to universities along with the transcript. I am certainly not supportive of that policy.</p>
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<p>Sure; my basic point was that he was able to receive admission to a well regarded university in spite of his lack of class rigor (a significant criterion).</p>
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<p>While that may be perfectly correct according to your school’s standards, that ranking/grading methodology does not uniformly hold true across all high schools. My school’s policy, unfortunately, provides no incentive to pursue more rigorous courses if the preservation/improvement of class rank is purely the concern.</p>
<p>In my school as well, there is no weighing system for harder courses. In two more months the valedictorian will be declared, and the individual who is currently on track has never taken a single honors or AP course. Many of the AP and Honors teachers grade extremely harshly. In fact, it is openly declared that if you take harder courses your GPA will suffer. No one seems to realize or care that this affects class rank and college admissions.</p>