<p>My school ranks people with AP classes being a 5 for an A and regular classes 4 for an A, all averaged together.</p>
<p>Well, I'm a straight A student, and will be graduating with 35.5 credits, 14 weighted. That's a 4.39. Yet I know most people will graduate with 28, 29 at the most (I went to a middle school where I got high school credit...). If the person with 28 credits takes 11 weighted courses, they will have a 4.39 as well. And while I know that someone as insane as I am is unlikely... Right now I'm #5 in rank because of those extra classes pulling my GPA down. I still have the ends of junior and senior year (where most of my AP classes will be coming in, but so will theirs) so we'll see how this might change...</p>
<p>Do you think the ranking system at your school is fair? I have a friend who goes to a school where they add .07xx (I forget the exact number) per year of weighted course. I think that is more fair (I know most colleges unweight them before accepting, so there's no use comparing my GPA to hers, but it does matter within the high school for ranking purposes...) If I went to a school like that, the only way someone could get a higher GPA than mine is if they had more AP classes than mine, not just if they have a higher AP:regular class ratio than I do.</p>
<p>Ugh, my school can't even calculate our GPAs properly, I haven't any idea what my rank is.. I screwed it up freshman year by taking some unweighted classes, but took 7 weighted classes last semester, and am taking 6 this semester. My unweighted GPA is 4.0, and I would estimate my cumulative weighted is something like 4.7, which still isn't enough to be ranked ahead of the kids who took the right courses freshman year, even if their course load isn't as rigorous as mine. Whatever.</p>
<p>Don't the colleges have their own way to calculate your GPA?</p>
<p>I don't think it's that bad, you have a very good rank.</p>
<p>Many schools have unjust grading policies, it's very sad but often each of the alternatives will tick someone off just as much, so they just choose the one that supposedly they would believe would tick off the least amount of people. Nonetheless, you still have quite a nice and high rank.</p>
<p>Hahah my school's GPA system is really whack. First of all, it's actually a "quality point system", or QPA, and it's out of 18 points. An A+ in a level 1 (regular) class is an 18, an A is a 17, an A- is a 16, etc. For AP classes you get 1 point added to your QPA in that class only, so if you get an A+ in an AP class it's a 19 QPA. They add 0.25 points for an honors class. But anyhoo it's totally ridiculous b/c so many kids who take level 1 classes get straight A+'s, while the AP students have to bust their a*ses to get an A- avg, and they end up with a lower QPA. Hmph. Ok i'm done with my rant now :)</p>
<p>Yeah, that does seem really unfair to me, freznow. But, like everyone else said, your rank is still amazing. :)</p>
<p>I think it's annoying how my school weights AP and honors classes the same, even though the latter are ten times easier. And you get inadvertently penalized for taking higher-level math courses. Lol, I wish they gave us extra points for taking calc as juniors, which is rare here. And apparently there's a sophomore taking calc, which is completely unprecedented. He should totally get extra weighting because the normal sophomore course, Geometry, and the advanced track course, Algebra I, in no one compare to calculus. </p>
<p>The one thing that I don't like about the weighting is that it discourages kids from pursuing art or doubling up on extracurriculars that take up a period, i.e. sports, dance team, band. Idk how that could be addressed, though.</p>