What are my chances of getting into Penn State main campus?
Weighted GPA: 3.7
SATs: M: 660 R: 570 W: 650
14 honors and AP classes taken throughout high school
National Honors Society
Varsity Basketball
Stock Market Club
My entire family went there
Pretty good
If that’s your weighted GPA, what’s your unweighted? Around a 3.4ish? Because that’s not that great.
i dont understand why unweighted is taken into effect if I’m taking hard classes
Because schools have different ways of weighting GPA’s. These no way to compare the system, so they compare unweighted GPA’s which are treated the same way across the board, and also take into account the rigor of your classes.
They do consider your weighted GPA, but they will look at HOW your school weights it. There were a few people here who were really surprised (as were the rest of us) that they did not get in, and when they called they were told that the way the highschool weights their grades and their grading scale did not work in their favor. Many schools have different grading scales as well so they have to take all of that into account. They told us that they never compare one student to another…they compare how well a student did within their given system as well as the rigor of classwork. That’s why you may see someone get in with a much lower stated GPA than someone else who was denied. It’s honestly very futile to try to figure out the system. It’s baffling and drove many of us crazy this year.
My D had a 3.45 WEIGHTED with a very hard grading scale and good test scores and EC’s and got in for summer.
If you go back and read the decision thread from this year you will see what i’m talking about. It was an incredibly stressful time because no one really knows. Penn State has their way - and only they seem to know exactly what that way is!
All of that being said, I think you have a pretty decent shot. Apply DUS and say you’d be willing to go summer…that ups your chances. GOOD LUCK!
Thanks. My school’s grading scale is very similar to a 4.0 grading scale. The only real difference is that an A+ is weighted as a 4.25 instead of a 4.0. I attend one of the top rated public schools in Pittsburgh. Will that be taken into account?
Well, I don’t know if the rating will be taken into account. The rigor of grading scale and classwork will be though. My D goes to a school in a suburb of Pittsburgh too. Her school grades an A at a 94% and above. The neighboring district grades an A as a 90% and above. So you could not compare a 4.0 from one school to another. At one district it is easier to get a 4.0 than another. Those are the kinds of things that PSU will look at. And it’s the reason why comparing GPA’s on College Confidential is so difficult. You have no way of knowing how the school scores. Test scores are a much more level playing field to compare - but test scores are a smaller portion of the decision.