<p>When you see school-published GPA averages for admitted students, how can you tell if these numbers are unweighted or weighted? If you hear that you should not even bother to apply to top schools if you have a 3.5, what if your GPA includes one killer AP class after another? </p>
<p>If a student took the hardest courses available, with 12+ AP's (beginning sophmore year), and had an unweighted GPA of 3.5 or below, that can't compete with a 4.0 student with a weaker curriculum?</p>
<p>Check the common data set of the school you are interested. I did for 2 selected schools and 74% of the admitted students are in the 3.75 to 4.0, the website says over 4.0 scale so I think it's unweighted.
But I think it's more accurate to check with your counselor, they should have some kind of scattegrams of your high school.</p>
<p>Yeah check with your conselor. Every school has a different level of difficulty and a different way of weighting their courses. Your GC will probably be able to show you the average GPAs of students accepted from your school to different colleges.</p>
<p>Well, your GPA is basically a measure of how many A's and B's (and hopefully no lower) you've gotten, so a 3.5 would mean the person got half A's and half B's for all the hard classes. This means that the student overloaded themselves with classes and that they couldn't handle the hard classes. That doesn't sit well with colleges.</p>
<p>sdkdol... that is so not true! I don't know where you go to school, but at my school many demanding teachers give out few A's. Our (UW) valedictorian - yes the HIGHEST unweighted GPA - this year was a 3.7. So a 3.5 is respectable in tough courses.</p>
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<p>If a student took the hardest courses available, with 12+ AP's (beginning sophmore year),
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<p>On the 2 selected schools that I've checked it states the difficulty of the course load is the most important. So I think you have a great chance, plus there is still the essay that yet to be written. I think I would apply to more selected schools if I were you, nothing is concret yet.</p>
<p>sishu, I know what you're saying, some schools are much, much harder than others. 3.5 in a situation where your valedictorian is 3.7 is respectable, but I don't know if it's a plus for you to get into HPSY. </p>
<p>Just FYI, my school's grades are amazingly easy. A lot of people have never gotten anything lower than A's. everything from 90-100 is a 4.0 and an A... But even in very competitive schools, like valedictorian with 3.7, 3.5 isn't a plus. For example our valedictorian is a 4.0, and say, 3.9 is not considered very good at our school.</p>
<p>Well... I have a 4.0 right now, but no one has EVER graduated from our school with a 4.0 unweighted. My class might be the first (we have the highest average GPA's in the history of the school -why is everyone in my grade so damn smart? It ruins my rank!!!!), but I think it is unlikely. Some schools are just tougher than others. Colleges respect that.</p>