85 to 89
At our school it would be 83 to 89.
I think thatâs so hard to say actually. Our school is on a 5.0 scale with a B being a 4.0. So, I just assumed a 3.0 is a B on a 4.0 scale. In most classes, an 80 is the cut off for a BâŠso a student with a 3.0 GPA overall could have an 80% average.
And then thereâs the whole weighted thing. For us, an honors class is worth a 6.0 if you get an A so the top 10% of the class usually ends up with a 5.6 and above weighted GPA on our 5.0 scale. The same student may have a 4.7 unweighted GPA but has taken almost all honors and AP for four years. These kids are getting into Harvard, Stanford, etc with a few Bs on their transcripts. So, I take GPA with a grain of salt when I look at CC. It really depends on the high school.
@EENyMum â at our school, a 3.0 - 3.4 GPA can be unweighted or weighted, and a 3.0 is a B (or an 86 on a 100 pt scale) and a 3.4 is an A- (or a 90). A .5 bump is given for honors courses and a 1.0 bump is given for AP courses. Students enrolled in an AP course do not need to take the corresponding AP Exam to receive the 1.0 bump.
D17 went to college fairs excitedly and got nearly nothing out of them (aside from a good chat with the rep from Smith, I suppose). D19 went with a very targeted list (âIf any of these 50 schools are there, I will talk to them and ignore any othersâ) and some specific questions (particularly whether engineering students are reviewed differently than the general applicant population, and for those in the West how WUE tuition rates work there), and it was quite productive.
If youâre at a point where you can do it: The targeted list was quite excellent, because at the last one she was able to recognize that precisely four schools on the list were there, so she didnât feel like she was missing anything by spending a half hour at the most interesting booth. (Once she was done with those four she got to spend the rest of the time her class was there wandering around with friends who sheâs working on convincing that college would be a good idea.)
Thank you @sdl0625 @homerdog @OrangeFish @eandesmom. D19 has 89 uw average 94weighted, but school does not take that into consideration for NHS or anything else. Only for ranking for val & sal. Has full load of AP and honors this year. Fingers crossed she can maintain and bump up a bit.
D19 used a college fair approach much like @dfbdfbâs D19 â she had a list, with specific questions for different schools, and once she was done, she head off with her friends.
LOL. S19âs list was also targeted (it was just long, there were over a dozen schools he had preliminary interest in and a few extra he hit while there). His approach was to have them sell him on the general idea/philosophy of the school (tell me about your school type of approach, even if he did know a fair amount) and then dive in with his specifics.
@EENYMum I wouldnât stress about rank. Ours doesnât rank or have Val. Sal is audition based. Didnât hold S17 back a bit. Colleges see the schools profile and can put it into context.
@EENYMum that is similar to my S19.
We went to our college fair and didnât get a ton out of it either. We really need to visit so she has a clue what she likes and doesnât. In terms of Letters of Recommendation - are you planning on asking teachers and using their recommendation for multiple colleges? You just use them for all colleges, right? How does that work? Do they give to GC and she loads them up to all the different colleges? We arenât asking quite yet but just wanted to understand the process a bit.
D made it to a college rep visit at her school today! It was for Ursinus, which is a financial reach unless she gets a ton of merit. And we found out that they donât use weighted GPA :(. So that will probably put it out of the running in the end.
It has lots of potential on paper, though, so we will likely visit.
@Cotton2017 Yes, you use the same recommendation at multiple schools. Most teachers are asked to write them y lots of kids so anything more is a little unkind. That said, I am sure there are some parents that have their kids handpick them by school.
@Cotton2017 our school uses Naviance to submit to LORs via the Common App. My D17 didnât have any non-CA applications, so I canât speak to how this is done for other colleges. The teachers (I think) load the letters to Naviance and then they are magically routed to the CA. My D17 submitted same 2 letters to all schoolsâplanning to do the same with my D19.
Ours worked the same as @klinska
I think the first step was to link Naviance to the common app account. S17 would go into Naviance and indicate which schools needed LORâs and I think he could indicate it by recommender. Naviance would flag the teacher. The teacher up loaded to Naviance and the system sent it to the School. Naviance would show status updates.
The only non common app application he has doesnât want LORâs.
S19 may be a different story, the prelim list is a mix of common app, coalition app and school specific apps. Iâve not looked at the LORâs yet and wonât until the list shrinks.
Question about GPAs â for merit consideration, is the end-of-Junior-year GPA used? Is it any help if the first semester Senior grades are higher to possibly get additional merit?
We are using Naviance to get a better sense of admission possibilities, but merit is understandably a completely separate issue.
My guess is that it depends on the school and when they do the merit determinations. Some schools do it at time of acceptance. If you apply early, the school will only get grades through the end of Junior year because that will be all you have. If the school decides later and the the first semester senior grades are available then I would think they would use them. Weâve had both happen with my older D. Two merit determinations were in before Christmas. Two others came later in the spring, even though she was accepted to the school earlier.
I think the pod people may be taking over. Why you ask? This morning, my son, the basketball-obsessed science-hating kid, skipped a basketball game to go to Science Olympiad. My H and I are completely flabbergasted. H is hopeful that S is maturing. My theory is that there is a girl involved. Or his body has been possessed by pod people. We shall see.
Thank you, @me29034
D19 has some schools on her needs-to-be-whittled-down list that require applications to be submitted first before scheduling an interview/portfolio review in the fall. So maybe some of the merit decisions will be later and could factor in senior year grades. (Hopefully?)
@OrangeFish I was wondering about this too and asked our GC. She said transcripts with grades through junior year are sent regardless of when the student applies. (Our first semester grades donât come out until Jan 8th or so.) If the student wants their updated transcript sent, the school can do that by mid-Jan. She also said that sometimes the colleges will request the update.
Like a lot of things, I bet itâs on a school by school basis when it comes to looking at GPAs for merit. In our case, if there was some reason to send the updated transcript, I would just call the college and let them know itâs coming.
Thank you, @homerdog â very helpful info!