<p>ive been on this message board for a few months now and i gotta say...sometimes you get good advice, and other times you get people who think they know all and think they r the say all end all determining factor in college admissions. The biggest mistake i think some of these "experts" are making is that they r too close minded. For instance, ive seen alot of comments on GPA and what is "low" or so so. What these people dont understand is that GPA's are calculated differently in every school. A 3.8 in one school may be equivelant to a 4.2 in another school that is less challenging and less academically known. I would like to offer some of my advice to people posting on this site...dont take these peoples advice for the most part...do what you want and dont let them discourage you. Fact of the matter is, these people are students just like you and dont know what determines u getting into your dream school or not. Ive made the mistake of asking people for their opinions on if i have chances at schools and i choose to do it no more because fact of the matter is...who are you to say that the scores you are familiar with are the ones that base how the rest of the country performs. Dont be subject to the ignorance on this board.</p>
<p>You are so right- some of the advice is great- but at times people are taking a guess or worse- negative thinking. By Jr. year "it is what it is", so make the most of what you have and be happy to be alive and healthy! Good luck everyone!</p>
<p>Thank you-I agree with the GPA confusion-"weighted" vs "unweighted",etc. My son (who was accepted ED to Columbia University in Dec.) attends a school that grades only on a 100 point scale. His "unweighted" GPA when he applied is 93.4 and his "weighted" (at his school that means AP courses are counted 10% more, and his school is newish and only offers 4 AP courses, one of which was not offered until his senior year) was 94.6. Somewhere on this site I saw a "formula" that said the conversion to a 4 point scale for him would be 3.74 uw, and 3.78 w, which I'm told is "very low". Using this logic, the only way he could have an unweighted 4.0 at his school would be to have a 100 average! I attended a college that graded on a 4.0 scale, A=4, B=3, C=2, etc., and I graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a "lowly" 3.76 GPA!! As my son received only 2 Bs (an 85 in English his first semester freshman year, and an 88 in Global Studies first semester sophomore year), and the rest of his grades range from 90 to 100), I would calculate his uw GPA as @3.9. His class rank, btw, at the time he applied was 5/158 (it's now 3/158), and as the highest average is 96.31, that means the val (who's going to NYU) has a "very low" GPA of 3.85! I'm grateful that CU, like most colleges, actually looks at an entire transcript of individual courses and grades to determine academic prowess.</p>