At the time of admission decision, are the colleges considering the self-reported GPA from the Common App (which includes college classes) or the high school transcript?
Colleges are looking at your entire profile so they’re looking at both your self-reported and official, but they are looking more towards your official.
And they get GPA from the GC on the Common App’s School Report. By RD decision time, they should have received your 1st semester senior grades. They look at what you report, what the GC does, and the transcript.
It’s an unusual question.
Or to come at it from the other direction, what rational college admissions process would take the word of unseen, unknown applicants as to what their grades are when making the decision as to who to admit?
If there is a discrepancy between self reported and transcript grades an acceptance will be immediately rescinded.
No. Nor are they taking your word on your self-reported SAT scores. They will look at the transcript for your GPA.
And while we’re at it, you can’t misrepresent senior fall classes, either.
I think a better way to put it is:
To avoid a discrepancy between my self-reported GPA and the GPA from my transcript, if I took college classes outside of my high school, do I factor those in to my self-reported GPA? I will be sending both my high school and my separate college transcript.
If the high school doesn’t factor college course grades into their GPA, I don’t think I would either, but I’d find a place on the app to note that you’re taking them. If you do factor it in and it’s in the ballpark of your actual GPA, I think you’ll be fine. Colleges will recalculate anyway based on their own policies.
Agreed. Your self-reported number should match your HS transcript. Unless a particularly college say differently, if your colleges classes do not figure into your HS GPA, don’t try to recalculate. The admissions office will figure it out.
One does not need to struggle to find a place to note this; one needs to list all institutions attended and current year classes. There are clear places in the application to put this.