<p>The most weighted factor of admission is two things, GPA and SAT.
If you have a 4.0+ with a near perfect score on the SAT with an considerable amount of service hours, you have a great chance to any school. Frankly, this is what my Ivy-league counselors have told us, so don't worry too much folks.</p>
<p>That's incorrect. The transcript (a list of classes and your individual grades, organized by year) is most important. The GPA (at most four digits that appears on your transcript) is not important. Some schools even recalculate GPA because school systems are so inconsistent. Additionally, a GPA does not show course rigor and trends accurately. Even with weighting, some school systems don't weight honors, some post-AP classes aren't weighted, the number of courses people take may be slightly different.</p>
<p>More than the GPA, it's what type of classes you took. If you took all cake classes when your school offers a ton of AP, then it won't look good. Also, I hear class rank is more important because it gives them a better view of what your GPA means. Like, if you have a 3.0 and you're second in your class, that's going to tell them something just like if you have a 4.0 and are 80th in your class or something. As for SAT scores...some people get in with lower scores than others. Someone with a perfect score might get rejected over someone with lower scores. Maybe the person with lower scores had a hook or a special EC. It's not that easy to determine if you'll get in.</p>
<p>The more selective the school, the less of a tendency that the GPA is unweighted because there is already an expectation that students should be taking the most rigerous classes their school offers.</p>
<p>NACAC's 2006 Annual State of College Admission Report provides analysis of the combined results from the Admission Trends Survey and the Counseling Trends Survey. Based on surveys of school counselors and colleges and universities nationwide, NACAC provides this report to highlight issues of concern to college-bound students, their parents, and the educators who serve them. </p>
<p>Even if you don't read the whole report, you should definitely read Chapter 4 Factors in the Admissions Process</p>
<p>
[quote]
Colleges and universities receive transcripts and GPA calculations from thousands of high schools, each of which may calculate GPAs differently.</p>
<p>Many high schools use a traditional 4-point scale to measure grade averages, others use weighted 4.5- or 5-point scales, while still others use grade scales that reach as high as 8 or 10.</p>
<p>To provide a standard comparison of grade point averages among applicants, some colleges recalculate grade point averages. Colleges
are virtually evenly split on the practice of recalculating GPAs—49 percent do and 51 percent do not. </p>
<p>High yield institutions are more likely than low yield institutions to recalculate GPA. </p>
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[/quote]
</p>
<p>(Basically more selective schools where if admitted the student is more likely to enroll will recalculate your GPA to a 4 point scale)</p>
<p>Schools will look at major courses : English, Math, Social studies, Sciences, Foreign language, etc. They will back out of the GPA: Band, Gym, Peer Leadership, Yeaarbook, etc.</p>
<p>Yeah, your GPA isn't worth anything. Stanford, for example, recalculates the GPA. They take out all electives and don't give extra points for AP or Honors. So it doesn't really matter if you have a 4.5 GPA is you have mostly Bs and only got a high GPA because of AP classes.</p>