<p>It has not happened to me yet, but two of my friends from school applied to Dartmouth ED and both of them got calls from admissions asking about our grading system. Our system is so messed up that the adcoms couldn't figure it out. Basically it was this:</p>
<p>AdCom: Hello, I'm from DMouth
Friend: Hi! (Very excited. They thought they were in already)
AdCom: Your grading scale is screwed up.
Friend: Yes, yes it is
AdCom: Want to explain it?
Friend: I would if I could. Talk to my guidance counselor
AdCom: Does he get it?
Friend: Probably not
AdCom: oh
Friend: Yeah
AdCom: Wow. What the heck is wrong with Wisconsin education?
Friend: Yeah, everyone knows, dude. You know, except for the guys making the laws. (Shakes fist at Russ Feingold)
AdCom: I see. Thanks. bye.
Friend: see ya.</p>
<p>I thought it was hilarious, and as I am also applying to Dartmouth (RD), I thought it would fun to share. Anybody else have funny stories like this?</p>
<p>It’s based on a 5 point scale. You cannot get a grade like 4.6, only whole numbers. But when it averages out in the grade book, a 4.25 and lower is an A- and a 4.75 is an A+. You can only re-asses(the big highlight of the program) up to a 4. But, when we convert it to GPA, we have three GPA’s. One GPA is on a 4.0 scale where pluses and minuses don’t count. Another is a 4.3 scale where pluses and minuses count, but you don’t receive honors points. And we have another 5.0 scale that is a cumulative total with honors points and pluses and minuses. However, it is impossible to get a 5.0 until senior year, because it is in fact cumulative. Go figure.</p>
<p>If you set out to create an unnecessarily complex, poorly understood grading system, you’d be hard pressed to outdo this. I suppose this was all done in the name of “fairness.” Adcoms see an incredible number of grading schemes and somehow manage to sort things out. For the adcom to have to call the applicant is an indication that they are having a trouble getting a fair assessment. If you are asked “is there anything else I should know” in an interview for Dartmouth or any other school, be prepared to put your grades and grading system in context. You don’t want to be disadvantaged by a murky grading system that is out of your control.</p>