<p>Hi guys. I was looking at the report card dates for my school and they got me thinking.
I know that when you apply Regular decision, your semester grades won't be available (or at least mine won't since they come out on Feb.8 and deadline for regular is Jan. 1st) but can colleges still the first marking period grades? (the first marking period grades come out for me on Nov. 3)
If colleges see the first marking period grades, can they still be factored into the cumulative GPA? </p>
<p>Also, which Ivies do not count electives/health/gym?
AND, which ivies ( and MSC) use the +/- system for gpa? (i.e. A-=3.7, B+=3.3, B=3...)</p>
<p>Colleges will ask for the mid-year report if you apply RD. This is usually sent in January, or February in your case. These grades are definitely considered; in fact, they are weighed very heavily because they are the most recent information about your academic performance.</p>
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<p>I don’t think that there are any stated policies on this. Most likely, though, non-academic classes are considered to a lesser extent if at all.</p>
<p>At my daughter’s school, the fall applications only included grades through junior year and a list of classes. No quarter grades were included at all. You might want to ask your guidance counselor what your school does.</p>
<p>DAMN. Everytime i bring this question up, no one seems to be able to answer it. WHY NOT? Especially since it’s an important question. COMMMME OONNN SLOWW POKESS
Im getting ****ed.</p>
<p>Colleges generally focus on college prep courses – math, English, social studies, lab science and foreign language-- to determine admission and applicable GPA and ignore health, vocational studies and gym. That is true of all the higher ranks, including all ivies, except the UCs which also consider art/music, and is generally true of most other colleges. </p>
<p>As to senior grades: (a) most public universities use grades through junior year to determine admission; that is also true of many private universities including any that use rolling admissions (issue decisons beginning in fall as applications are received); (b) high ranked privates which issue their decisons in March/April for regular admission require (USC just requests but does not require) that after you apply that you submit mid-year grade reports after first semester and those are considered in admission, and that is also true of many privates below the high ranked and some publics; (c) even those colleges do not use senior grades for Early Action and Early Decision where you receive a decision in mid-December; (d) for early action or early decision a few may ask certain cadidates, usually after they apply, to supply mid-first semester grades, but generally those are not used by most with EA or ED. In other words, mid-semester senior grades are usually not used but there are a few exceptions. Colleges that recalculate grades usually use + _ system but not all do. Those that recalculate also use their own weighting system for APs and honors (ivies included).</p>
<p>From my limited experience with three high schools, I can tell you that the grading policies vary widely. So my OPINION would be that any school that recalculates would have to use a fairly simple scale. </p>
<p>For example, our county’s public high schools use a simple 90. 80. 70. 60 scale for determining grades (and many teachers round an 89.5 up to an A). The number grades do not appear on the transcript at all, so any college reviewing an applicant would have no idea whether the A was an 89.5 or a 99. The schools system does not use pluses or minuses, so how could a college recalculate using pluses or minuses when no percentage grade appears on the transcript?</p>
<p>Because of this, it has always been my assumption that any recalculation of percentage grades would have to be 90, 80, 70…etc.</p>
<p>Another local private school uses a very strange 100-point scale and then reverts it back to a 4.0 scale. At that school, a student could (for the sake of my math skills, I am making this easy) have half of her grades be 86% and half of her grades be 96%, whcih figures to a 91% average. 90 and above are A’s, so this student has a 4.0. </p>
<p>I hope this makes it a little clearer as to why people aren’t answering your question. The reason is that short of actually being an admissions rep at one of the schools you are interested in, no one really knows how they do it. I would also imagine that only academic courses are included because they are somewhat standard.</p>