<p>How does Tufts determine the GPA? What classes are weighed? Do they take first semester GPA into consideration if I apply EDII? Thanks</p>
<p>We do not recalculate GPA. Recalculating GPA washes out a lot of the nuance from school to school, and the logic behind recalculating allows for a belief that grades are the same everywhere. And that couldn't be further from the truth in my opinion. We know that an 'A' at one school is different from an 'A' at another; some schools grade inflate, others deflate. Recalculation eliminates the contextual approach to academic evaluation that we use; it puts everyone in the same boat academically and assumes that everyone has the same options, the same opportunities, and the same circumstances. But they don't, so we don't. </p>
<p>So for the VAST majority of applications, we don't determine your GPA or the weighting of grades: your school does that. </p>
<p>That does not, however, mean that we're slaves to the ranking and GPAs that schools give. We look at the transcripts - closely. And you can't help but notice, when looking at that transcript, what courses students have chosen to take. I read plenty of schools that don't weight their GPA, and when I look to see who the best students are, I know I need to pay attention to the curriculum and its strength. That's true for any school, but more work is required for schools with unweighted, or lightly weighted, GPAs.</p>
<p>And your first semester grades are super-important. Midyear grades were among my most frustrating surprises during my first year of admissions work. There were many applicants who I loved, and I was all ready to fight for them in committee. Then, I'd open the folder during committee to find that significantly sub-standard grades. That argument that I had built - that fight I was ready for - poof! Gone. Applicants need to take at least the first half of their senior year seriously or they risk eroding the platform on which we build our cases of advocacy.</p>
<p>Awesome. Thanks for the response, dan.</p>
<p>Are the averages listed on sites such as college board the weighted gpa averages? </p>
<p>My school does not weight, but I have taken a significant number of honors classes...</p>
<p>Honestly, I have no idea how a school calculates its average GPA. We don't, so I don't have the frame of reference.</p>