Does any anyone have a problem as I do? There are so many students in my class of 365 who take easier courses and get a better GPA than me. Like I took AP US Hist, and other students took regular. I took some very hard honors courses and got a B and averaged 3.5 whereas my friends take easier classes and get 4.0 or 4.15 with just one AP courses.
In terms of admissions will the college favor me or the other students and ofcourse my class rank would be lower??
any feedback Thank you
<p>You don't have weighted GPA?</p>
<p>Schools always give really ambiguous answers to that, like if you ask "what's better? a B in an AP course or A in regular?" they say, "A in AP" so grr yea it's really hard to say but I don't think it'll be held against you. Remember that schools want to see students taking the hardest courses, and they rate you in the context of your school.</p>
<p>I definitely know what you're talking about. My school HAS weighted GPA but APs are weighted the same as honor courses... so what are you going to do.</p>
<p>When colleges peruse your transcript they are not just looking for your class rank and gpa. They are also scrutinizing the courses you have taken and difficulty level of them. That counts very heavily in the assessment. At the very top colleges, you are pretty much eliminated very quickly and early in the admissions process if you are not taking the top curriculum possible at your school unless you have a good reason for the situation.</p>
<p>Colleges definitely take into account whether or not you have taken harder classes. Your school is supposed to let them know how many AP classes etc are offered at your school, so that the colleges can see if you've taken the easy way out or whatever.</p>
<p>Or least that's what I understand from the college counselor at my school.</p>
<p>Kiran, at my son's school they calculate both a weighted class rank and an unweighted one. Either one can be used for college admission purposes; both appear on the transcripts. I was surprised when the counselor told me that very few schools calculate both rankings. You might want to go to your school board and propose such a change. Of course, it won't help you this year, but it would help those who come after you.</p>
<p>Colleges recalculate your GPA. They throw out things like Phys Ed and The History of Cinema etc., and then apply their own weight to honors an AP courses. Some people who have a high GPA on their transcripts come in for a very nasty surprise.</p>
<p>I agree, if you take harder classes and come up with a b or higher, your fine.. </p>
<p>Although i do have a simular question to this.. My school gives out A-'s and b+'s. Since some schools do that while most don't, will colleges eliminate the +'s and -'s and recalculate your GPA? I have a lot of A-'s :P</p>
<p>To clear this misconception take this scenario:</p>
<p>Student A</p>
<p>GPA = 3.5
SAT: 1250
Courseload: 1 A.P. out of say 10 offered
Others mostly honors
Good e.c's nothing great (A Member of a few clubs and a few sports)</p>
<p>Student B
GPA: 3.4
SAT: 1150-1200
4 A.P. classes out of 10 offered
Recieved A's in the A.P.'s
Very good extracurricular involvement with leadership and decorated awards</p>
<p>It would be close but student B would probably get admitted over Student A for a few reasons. One being a tougher courseload and even though the GPA is lower the performance in challenging classes is better. The student has done more outside of school and really gotten involved.</p>
<p>In my school there are about 15 students who are taking easier courses but still academic like US Hist instead of AP and honors courses that are not weighted. The honors courses in my school are harder and there are people who dont take them but still take all academic classes and get a better GPA. I didnt make it in ELC because of this reason.</p>
<p>Yeah same for me. Our school ranks by decile but those are UW gpa's so there are so many people with no AP's or honors. So my 3.77 gpa lands me in the 3rd decile. It doesn't matter that my weighted gpa is 3.97. I wish our school didn't give our rankings, even if it's just deciles</p>
<p>This high school has so many high-achieving kids at the top of the ranks that we don't rank, either. But they do release percentile ranges if a college really wants them. A 3.5 will only get you top 40% here. No school wants to see that. At a less competitive school, that 3.5 would be an easy 3.8 or 3.9, and the rank would be so much higher. And the state schools will only give money to kids who get a combo of high SATs and high ranks, so the kids who break their backs for a 3.7 or 3.8 and don't make top 20%, even with high SATs, are left out. If they had gone to a less competitive school, their grades would have gotten them some money. We moved to this town just for the schools, which now seems like not such a great idea. Anyone out there with the same problem who got in to a decent school despite a lower rank?</p>
<p>My advice is be sure to point out type of courses, don't assume school will notice. My son took college level courses at a nearby college while in high school, starting sopm yr. Ohio permits this as dual credit, not all states do. On those college courses he averaged 3.4. A couple of colleges he applied to overlooked this, thinking he got 3.4 in high school courses. Not bad, of course but not accurate. We had to specifically point that out to a couple of schools his 3.4 was his college level gpa, earned in high school.</p>
<p>younghoss: We had to specifically point that out to a couple of schools his 3.4 was his college level gpa, earned in high school.</p>
<p>How will you point these things out? I mean, do you call the adcoms and explain your situation? At what stage in the application process will you do this? Also, do the admission officers have the time to listen to appliant's story?</p>
<p>Kiran, I could pull out my standard lecture about What is the purpose of education? (To learn and gain/apply knowledge?) but I wont because I know how important grades are to you.</p>
<p>When you spoke of ELC, I gather you mean Eligibility in the Local Context, the UC program. Frankly, I wouldnt be concerned. ELC designates the top 4% of your high school class to be eligible for UC, but it still doesnt guarantee you admission into the campus of your choice. It is given a relatively weak consideration by the UC system for admissions purposes as well. </p>
<p>Class rank is important to some colleges, but many California high schools do not rank their students. More important in admissions criteria would be the combination of academic measures (GPA and test scores), along with academic rigor (number of AP/Honors classes taken), along with teacher recommendations, essays, and character evaluation (esp. by private colleges). The adcoms are not inexperienced in their assessments, and they routinely factor in academic rigor into how they evaluate whether or not a candidate will succeed academically.</p>
<p>One of my daughters favorite questions to ask admissions counselors was, Is it better to take AP classes and get a B, or is it better to take a regular classes and get an A? The response invariably was something like, We would like to see you challenge yourself by taking as many AP classes as you feel you can handle and we would like to see you get an A ;)</p>
<p>cb'07, here's how we look at it. My wife and I see colleges as a business. We feel they are offering a service. For a price they offer fun, entertainment, education, and hopefully a great path to a fulfilling career. We have a son with certain qualities- grades, testing scores, ec's, future potential, etc. They look at how valuable our son is to them, we look at how valuable they can be to him. Seeing it that way, we treat them as we would any business we might want to enter a contract with.
Our first step was to find out someone's name in College Admissions. We did that with a call, and asking a couple questions about the school, telling them student very interested in their school. My son then contacted his guidance counselor at H.S., asked him to write a cover letter to each school he sent transcript to. It became a form letter in his computer so if he sent six letters, he only had to punch in the name of the admissions counselor and schools address. In addition to the usual compliments a counselor gives, he devoted a paragraph asking the admissions counselor to pay particular attention to my sons gpa, and the unusual way he earned it. He pointed out which were college classes, and how well he did with them, and that in his opinion any h.s. soph or junior that could already get a high B/low A in college classes would do great when he really went to college full-time. He also briefly touched on the idea that while some students may have had a higher gpa, they probably were only taking h.s. courses.</p>
<p>I usually followed up with a call a couple weeks later "to see if they received the info" while on the phone I mentioned how proud we were of him achieving such good grades in college already. That served as an opening to talk about that. Son took initial action with his counselor and possible school, then I did follow-up. We felt that showed a whole family interest, and believe that may have influenced Adm counselor by showing we were serious about the school. Whole family visited his top choices. We mentioned it then, too.</p>
<p>Perhaps we're too practical, but seeing it as a business, we just say to ourselves- how badly do we need this particular school, and how badly do we think they want our son?</p>
<p>We may have been right, or wrong, or lucky, but son got accepted to all he applied for, and (luckily) the best scholarship offer from his first choice.</p>
<p>younghoss, thanks. Quite interesting.</p>
<p>OP - my school has weighted GPAs and I still have this problem. People work the system. But people in easy classes with 4.5 don't look as good to colleges as people with hard classes, and classes they are actually interested in, with 3.5 or 3.9 or whatever.</p>
<p>Are "accelerated" classes weighted as 5 points? There was no honors or AP for thoses classes.</p>
<p>I had the same gripe when I applied to colleges last year.
Very similar situation. We had 25 valedictorians in our
class, that's >5% of ranks. If you got one B, you are out of the top 5%. If you got 2B's, you are out of the top 10%.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, most top private colleges hardly admit
outside the top 10%. They try and go for the valedictorians. All 5 who are going to Harvard from my school are valedictorians.</p>
<p>My advice to you is: Life is unfair. Just deal with it.
Apply to Cal and UCLA. You have a better chance
there vs all those stats-conscious privates.
Plus you might like it better staying in California!</p>