Hi,
I am from Canada. I am taking the MOST rigorous courseload possible. There is one honors course at my school and I am taking it. I took two APs that my school doesn’t even offer the courses and I got 5 on both. However, I got straight A last year but i was not even in top 10% of the class (close though) in that year (my school doesn’t rank cumulatively. No weighted GPA either). Will this affect my chances at the Ivys? Does this happen often at other schools?
<p>IF your school does not rank, it will be no problem. If you look at the common set data for most of the schools which you are interested in you will see that many schools did not submit rank.
I would not worry about the weighting thing either because many schools recalculate GPA where the courses become unweighted because there is an expectation that students would be taking the most rigerour curriculum their school offers</p>
<p>Regardless of the weight issue, if people had grades better than you in previous years their rank should be higher. Don't worry about your rank, just focus on taking the most difficult classes you can handle and doing the best you can in them.</p>
<p>I applied from a Canadian school last year, and my school didn't do GPA/rank. The school told me that I could leave these fields blank, as the Canadian education system is different from the US. But the adcoms are knowledgable about the Canadian system and know more about it than we think. So I don't think that your situation will affect your chances.</p>
<p>When a college sees a record of straight A's and then discovers that the student is not in the top ten per cent, it is often perceived that the school has too much grade inflation. I read an article about a student who thought he was doing great with a 95 average --- but there were over a hundred kids with higher averages, and the class only had about 400 kids! Clearly grades here were like cash in the Weimar Republic!</p>
<p>So in cases like that, the AP scores count more than they might otherwise. My kids never even submitted their AP scores til AFTER they were admitted (to top ten schools), but in this case - especially since they are 5's) be sure they are submitted.</p>
<p>Wow...how many 4.0s are there at your school? In my class there are exactly 2- our valedictorian and salutatorian. It's a great school, with great SAT scores, etc, but very little grade inflation. Is it common to have so much of your class with a 4.0?</p>
<p>is determining valedictorian and salutatorian based on GPA from 1-4(or whatever), or a numerical grade (say, 101.5 or 102)?</p>
<p>if your hs doesn't rank, how do you know you aren't in the top 10%?</p>
<p>Val and Sal are decided in umpteen different but equally convoluted ways. Best guess? Just check your student handbook, there should be a formula there.</p>
<p>As to the other issue, I would wager at D's above average to average public that 5 to 7% of the students have a 4.0 each year, while only 4 % will graduate with all As for all 4 years (a 4.0 uw) .</p>
<p>Thank you for so many responses</p>
<p>My school DOES rank, but only for one year (not cumulatively throughout highschool). There are TONS of students with 4.0 GPA, because my school is the top in the province! (as good as, if not better than, other private schools in the province). Students at my school are EXTREMELY hardworking. I think 30~35% of the class gets at least straight A every year. This is a problem for me since the school uses numerical values (on a 100% scale) to calculate ranking. Therefore, my ranking is not even in top 10% of the class.</p>
<p>That's grade inflation. If everyone is so smart, then your teachers should challenge the students more.</p>
<p>I think they're saying that an "A" is 80-100 or 90-100 and while their grades fall in this range, others have higher "A's".</p>
<p>It is not necessarily grade inflation if Fran goes to a top Canadian prep school. If there are 100 or so kids in each grade and ALL of them go on to university, you are looking at a group of fairly competitive individuals and you could have a big chunk of kids who are getting 4.0. In many Canadian prep schools the only mark on your transcript is the year-end mark, meaning that you don't have term fluctuations affecting your grades. Also, your final exam tends to be a very large percentage of your grade, 30-60%, in preparation for grade 12 province wide exams required by every student in every school. The mark on this exam is generally 40-50% of your final mark in grade 12. So, a prep school would be full of kids preparing to get As on the final exam.</p>
<p>Fran, your question should be to your school university counselor. On the US applications, how will he/she fill out the section about ranking? Will he say they do not rank or will he estimate your rank? Our school only does decile, so top 10 or top 20, etc; however, if you are higher, they try to work it into the letter of recommendation. Not ranking should be helpful to you.</p>
<p>I understand how you feel, my oldest had straught As, but just missed top 10, it was very frustrating.</p>
<p>I do not know how much of an understanding of the Canadian system there is among the US adcomms, but 4.0 unweighted is 4.0. You might want to ask how your school translate the percentage marks into grades. In our school an A is an A, no +, no -, just A, so you could be simply an unranked, unweighted, 4.0. Then it all comes down to your ECs, SATs, letters, oh, and those essays!</p>
<p>It is difficult to build up the huge bank of awards and ECs honours in Canada that you see US students have, there are simply not as many awards given out, in my experience. BUt, take heart, the applications ony want 4-6 lines of ECs and honours, so, hopefully you'll be fine.</p>
<p>Good luck. Where are you applying?</p>
<p>I go to a public school. there are around 100 students in the grad class. and I think around 70 go to top-ranked university, maybe 10~20 go to less prestigious ones.</p>
<p>At my school, there are no A+ or A-. But the ranking is not derived from letter grades, but from percentage grades. That's why getting 90% at every course is different from getting 95% at every course. I had around 91~92% average but apparently some people at my school have 97% average...therefore, I'm not in top10%.</p>
<p>theres only one honors course at ur school and thats the most rigorous? (im kind of puzzled)</p>
<p>..yes. one honors course at my school and that's the most rigorous...because most students would choose to take a few non-academic courses in which they can get high marks.</p>
<p>97% is pretty high. hmm we had some guy with 99 last year.. well 98.8% average but hmmm i doubt anyone in my graduating class ahs anywhere near high.</p>
<p>rankings are easy because of the class grade lists. if you're in the top 3-5 in each class then chances are you'll top 10% overall. exceptions if there's a big difference between peope liek the top guy has 99% and second has 90 or soething but usually it works</p>
<p>Without ranking, how would admissions people compare grades? I wouldn't say my school is an academic boot camp, but it is one of the better schools in the province, and you would be in the top 10% with a 3.6 (91%) GPA. The top marks are usually around 94%, although one guy last year had an unprecedented 98%!</p>
<p>i guess they'll be like hmm i bet he's in the top 10%.. i duno but it seems like they can only guess :p</p>
<p>Will your transcript indicate the per cent or just the letter grade? The form asks for cumulative ranking, I think. Since your school only does the decile thing for one year,
the counselor should put nothing in the space as it is not cumulative -just say not available. Get the counselor to stress you are taking the most rigorous courseload possible. You should be okay. </p>
<p>nbachris: 91 % could be a 4.0 GPA, if all the courses were 90 or above.</p>