<p>I guess gpa's are on everyone's mind today, since I see another thread where someone is "venting". I'm also very confused about gpa's. </p>
<p>Son's school only has an unweighted GPA. So how can an admissions office compare his gpa with another student who goes to a school that has both weighted and unweighted gpa's?</p>
<p>Also, son's school expresses the gpa as a percentile. Theoretically, one can have a gpa ranging from 0 to 100%. These grades have the following meaning:</p>
<p>90-100 A
80-89 B
70-79 C
etc.</p>
<p>Son has a cumulative gpa of 96.50 and an academic gpa of 96.25 (latter is based on their 6 core disciiplines of English, Judaic studies, history, math, sciences, and languages). </p>
<p>How do you change this percentile gpa over into the "normal" 4.0 system? I have one book that has a chart in the back. It says 96.00-96.99 equals a 4.10-4.19 or a 11.40-11.69 on a 11.0 scale. Is this book accurate, or is this baloney? And how can you have an unweighted gpa that is "higher" than 4.0? </p>
<p>Also, do schools use the academic gpa or the regular one, or do they look at the grades and come up with some other number based on their own criteria?</p>
<p>I guess what I am saying is that I have very little idea how admissions committees actually use the gpa information!</p>
<p>Anyone else confused about their son's or daughter's gpa?</p>
<p>There are so many different systems in use, cami. That's why so much venting. Some "conversions" distinguish between A+,A,A- etc. So a 97 might convert to a different number than a 91, even though both are A's. Others give every A a 4.0 - so the 90 student gets the same conversion as the 99 student.</p>
<p>I believe that most of the very selective and "more selective" schools do their own recalcuation of GPA's. That is what we were told at every info session, because they are aware of the huge variations out there in the hs world. And, they take into account - either numerically or by making a qualitative judgment - the strength of the kid's program.</p>
<p>In the end, as far as I know, you can only guesstimate what your kid's GPA will convert to.</p>
<p>You can also only guess at what his weighted GPA might be. As you can see by the other thread, there are many approaches to weighting Honors, AP and IB courses. Since my S's school also uses the 0-100 scale and does weight, you might want to consider our school's approach if you want to guesstimate your S's weighted GPA: 1.3 for Honors, 1.35 for AP. (Our school requires 93 for an A though; 85 for a B, etc.; however, they only report the numeric GPA to colleges so I'm not sure that matters). Our school sends numerous kids to HYPSM, AWS etc. every year, so their system "works" for competitive college admissions, I would say.</p>
<p>Cami, you will find out that the most generous system is the "back-of-the-book" one. I think it must be the CRS conversion scale published by Hernandez or Hughes.</p>
<p>Your best bet is to TRY to have your small school present its own version of a conversion scale. From what I gathered on this subject, the colleges might have their own conversion scales, but TYPICALLY follow the scales provided by the high schools themselves. If the high school offers a conversion scale that was poorly researched (such a simple conversion to a letter) you are being put at a disadvantage. This is especially true for schools that adopted a A=93, B=85-92 scale and "forgot" to use +/- adders. </p>
<p>FWIW, you may want to check the position of Yeshiva on this issue, as they may have more experience with smaller religious schools.</p>
<p>xiggi - how detailed do you think (or know) colleges get in this conversion? EG, DS has a 93.xx, so if they just convert his overall average, he gets the 4.0. Would they actually go to the trouble of converting every single 0-100 course grade, so his 90's in Spanish or whatever = 3.0, and then average? Sheesh. Our school transcript and profile does have the "disadvantaged" conversion printed at the top: A=93+, B=85-92.C=75-84.
I ask because of the pleasurable task ahead - transfer apps for DS due to Tulane's ditching of Engineering.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Your best bet is to TRY to have your small school present its own version of a conversion scale. From what I gathered on this subject, the colleges might have their own conversion scales, but TYPICALLY follow the scales provided by the high schools themselves
[/quote]
Well, at least that's something. S' HS at least has a conversion scale (94-100 = 4.0, 93 = 3.875, 92 = 3.75, et.) But it's stil a pain.</p>
<p>Jmmom, my take on this -and I have to speculate to a large extent- is that two things happen: </p>
<p>a. there is a quick conversion made on the overall GPA based on the experience of the college with the type of high school. </p>
<p>b. there is a quick "hunt" for B and C using the school conversion sheet. At the end, the officer receives a report that may look like 3.94u/4.12w for the GPA and the mention 2 Bs. </p>
<p>With this information, the officer can check the transcript to ascertain the impact of the 2 B. For instance a B in Calculus may be viewed differently from a B in Religion or History.</p>
<p>xiggi -do you think most schools would look at 2 Bs in freshman year differently than 2 Bs in the upper grades? Don't you feel that the difficulty of the program counts at least as much as the gpa? (within a range)</p>
<p>"xiggi -do you think most schools would look at 2 Bs in freshman year differently than 2 Bs in the upper grades? Don't you feel that the difficulty of the program counts at least as much as the gpa? (within a range)"</p>
<p>Yes, I do think that the freshman grades have a lesser impact. Schools such as Stanford -amonmg others- even ask for GPA and ranks to be computed without the 9th grade. </p>
<p>I also believe that the difficulty of the program is of paramount importance. However, the key here is that this information has to communicated to the colleges via correct transcripts or past relations. I do not think that it happens automatically and Murphy's Law still applies to this issue.</p>
<p>Thanks for the tips. Yes, I was looking at the CRS scale in computing son's gpa. Sounds as if that is the most common one used. </p>
<p>Just a clarification regarding Yeshiva and Jewish schools in general..... There is a real range in Jewish schools. A community wide school such as my son attends is unlikely to send a kid to Yeshiva, since the latter is largely for orthodox students. At son's high school, there is not much intensive textual study, which is the norm for orthodox schools. (He did textual study for 8 years at an orthodox school, and has had tutoring on the side since then.) At most orthodox schools, the kids have less time to spend on secular subjects, since the priority given to Talmud and such is very high. The Jewish subjects normally occupy half the day. Son's school requires students to take a Jewish studies class each semester and to pass Hebrew at a minimal level, but otherwise kids take the normal load of science, math, English, history, etc.</p>
<p>If my school has a 90-100=A scale and shows only numerical class grades on my transcript, will colleges see a 92 as an A (which it would be at my school) or as a B (which it would be at some other schools)? Also, if it makes a difference the school also shows my UW GPA on my transcript as a 4.0/4.0 (so far:)).</p>
<p>jmmom, I'm sorry your S has to transfer. I thought he was staying at Tulane for physics?</p>