SAT Scores...

Chance Me / Match Me!
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<p>I think the weight of the GPA depends on the courses. If someone is taking all regular courses and gets A+ on all of them schools will wonder why he/she hasn't taken advanced courses, even if the marks would have been lower than A+--for example, a B+ in a ridiculously hard AP course. In this case, the GPA carries less worth than if the student has taken more advanced courses. </p>

<p>If I were the adcom, I would take the B+ AP'er over the A+ no-honors/AP student simply because AP is so much harder. </p>

<p>SAT is supplementary info about a student's reasoning/academic ability. While it is true that some people score lower because of personal problems or just human nature, the reality is that in competitive admissions assuming there were no extenuating circumstances, unfortunately it is, in most cases, the 2100 4.0, not the 1800 4.0 or the 2100 3.0, who will get the most favorable treatment. Of course this is by no means always the case--in wholistic admissions, and it seems to be existing in some schools--there are exceptions. </p>

<p>What schools need to realize (and fortunately, some are) is that GPA and SAT, while they carry a lot of weight, are just numbers and do not tell anything about the applicant as a person. People with ability and notable character, not necessarily those with high scores, should be more recognized.</p>

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<p>I think the SAT score should matter much more than getting a good GPA. At some schools, a 4.0 is REALLY easy to get, however if you went to a top prep school a perfect grade point average is almost unheard of.</p>

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<p>i agree with jonathan taht sat should weigh more. the different difficulty levels accross the country is really just too big to make gpa the most imoprtant factor in so many schools admission process. especially unweighed gpa... i kinda wished now that i had just taken all normal classes and gotten a 4.0 unweighed instead of having a 4.3 weighed and only 3.4-3.5 unweighed. btw i was always wondering how some ppl are bad test takers? how does it differ from any other test at school?</p>

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<p>I completely agree with Jonathan and hinvestorp. If I had known that GPA was the biggest most deciding factor in college admissions I would not have taken 12 AP classes and several honor classes in my high school education. I would have limited that number to some where around 5 or 6 which would have definitely boosted by GPA to around 3.95 UW. Sadly, I am being penalized for trying the hardest I could in high school reguardless of my grades. I know that grades do show merit and are somewhat accurate when comparing them to other students GPA's, but they do not weigh the rigor of the students courseload who has a 3.4 enough versus someone who has a 3.9 with the easiest courseload.</p>

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<p>My friend got into UMich and he is taking Pre-Calculus as a senior. I mean I took Pre-Calculus as a sophomore then AP Statistics and AP Calculus as a junior during the SAME YEAR! (Not to mention AP US History, AP Biology and Honors American Literature). His GPA of 3.74 UW and my GPA is 3.44 UW are seen as 2 extremely different GPA's with mine being the weaker one. I mean I know seniors who have 3.9's/4.0's who take "Teachers Assisstant" as a senior class...yet my 6 AP classes (in a 5 class trimester scheduling system) is not looked at with some respect even if I get 1 or 2 B's.</p>

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<p>karan, what was your GPA? U / UW?</p>

<p>my school uses the british system, we dont have a GPA system. however, if i calculate it</p>

<p>AS level</p>

<p>A- 4.0
B- 3.0
C- 2.0</p>

<p>It comes to about 2.75. I realise some colleges give a higher weighting to AS levels, so using them it comes out to</p>

<p>A- 4.5
B- 3.5
C- 2.5</p>

<p>3.25. Using the standard weighting, my GCSE grades give me a GPA in my freshman and sophomore years of ~3.22.</p>

<p>Keep in mind however, Emory is pretty familiar with international students and would realise assigning a GPA to exam results is inappropriate.</p>

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<p>I see, so would you say your GPA was similar to mine? What do you think allowed you to get into Emory?</p>

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<p>this message is for karan:</p>

<br>


<br>

<p>Karan my school uses a british system too, but ur kinda gettin the GPA equivalency wrong coz both our O and A-Level grades go upto an E,
so its something like this:
A = 5
B = 4
C = 3
D = 2
E = 1</p>

<p>But still, u cant really ever compare the american and the british system, bcoz the science parts of the british system i believe are **** hard!!!
coz i transferred from an american school to one which follows the british system (i had like a 3.6 GPA) in the middle of the 9th grade >>> BIG MISTAKE</p>

<p>The rest of the YEAR was horrible.......but in the end i turned out arite i guess
(horrible freshman and sophomore years though) coz i aced my As and A-Levels.</p>

<p>the point is............american school-ers and british school-ers are looked at differently................</p>

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<p>and cheers karan on getting into emory.........gives me hope.......although my SAT 1 score is much lower than urs (2010)....:)</p>

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<p>well sniper, thats the thing... my first SAT was 2010 as well. although i sent my 2150 as well, on the phone the person told me they wouldnt look at it because i did it after the ED date (on nov 4th). maybe they ended up looking at it anyway.</p>

<p>and im guessing the reasons i got into emory were firstly, i showed a huge amount of interest. i visited the school in october (coming all the way from hong kong), spoke to 3 professors and wrote some pretty great essays as well (imo). my gcse grades were by and large decent as well.</p>

<p>also, snipe, are u saying that our gpa is out of 5.0, or it is weighted on the normal 4.0 scale? cos in that case, mine is 3.75 for AS levels and 4.0 for GCSEs (including a U in d & c).</p>

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<p>yea i was sayin that IF the colleges decide to compare they'd have to create a GPA out of 5 ( a U = 0.0 ) for us.</p>

<p>But in any case...you cant compare our systems to american ones....an A in an A-Level exam will get u far more advanced standing credits than a 5 on an AP exam.</p>

<p>PS. thanks for reviewing my thread</p>

32

<p>solsek, am posting because your situation is similar to my son's a few yrs ago; he graduated from college last year.</p>

<p>In answer to your question, basically if high testing offsets lower gpa, as you probably already know there isn't a clear-cut answer. At big numbers-driven schools like Penn State you could probably determine pretty much how one may offset the other, but at the schools you're looking at there's much more to it.</p>

<p>My advice: </p>

<p>1- Spend time and effort on the essays. It's where you can shine.</p>

<p>2- Try to get recommendations from teachers who understand you... that you may be a little on the lazy side (of course they hopefully wouldn't use that wording!) but you are obviously quite intelligent and intellectually curious (taking heavy AP load).</p>

<p>3- Try to get good AP scores junior year (I don't know what year you are). Even if you get a B or B+ in the course, a 4 or hopefully 5 will show you have a high understanding of the material.</p>

<p>4- Apply to a range of schools precisely because you don't know how each school individually will view your high score and lower gpa (btw 3.45 is nothing to be ashamed of...half As half B's with 12 AP's is commendable). What's your class rank, I may have missed it, and what kind of hs do you go to?</p>

<p>5- Try not to worry about prestige in a college name (I'm not at all saying you are, just that it'll help if you are disappointed in that area next April), rather hone in on going to a place where you'll get a great education and be living with and learning from other bright people.</p>

<p>[fwiw,am posting this hoping it may be of some use, son had between 3.4 and 3.5, lots of APs, was pretty lazy but highly intellectually curious, I believe he was ranked right around 20%-ile, but had scores all above 700 which actually (V and M total at least) were highest in his class of 300+ so I know where you're coming from...college admissions can be especially tricky here, like I suggested apply broadly because your results may be different than what you might predict. For that reason he had a lot (4) relative safeties, got in them (Villanova, BU, GWU, Rutgers)...one rejection, an ivy...then for the 5 "target" schools he really liked: accepted at Carnegie Mellon, Johns Hopkins, Boston College (honors program). Waitlisted at both Case Western (see what I mean?) and NYU, went to CMU, was great fit)].</p>

<p>Good luck to you.</p>