<p>Due to weighting of AP classes, my D has something like a 5.05 on a 5.0 scale. I guess when we convert it to a 4.0 scale she will have a 4.0. But she's only in about the top 11-13% of the class, at a school where quite a few kids take 6-7 AP classes a year.</p>
<p>So...will colleges be impressed by her GPA, or unimpressed by her class rank?</p>
<p>(BTW, I am already aware that some colleges recalcuate GPA, taking away the weighting.)</p>
<p>Will her counselor check the “most demanding” course selection box on the counselor’s assessment? That may be the key for some colleges. </p>
<p>Highly selective colleges may not be tremendously impressed with a student who got excellent grades but who didn’t avail herself of the advanced classes available, but lots of other colleges would be thrilled to have her.</p>
<p>Schools usually send a “School Profile” to colleges that accompanies the transcript and helps give the admissions office a sense of the school. Ask your guidance department for a copy and see what it says. Ours includes things like the gpa averages per decile, specific weighted courses that are available, number of IB diploma graduates, percentages of graduates in last year’s class who went to out-of-state private colleges, out-of-state public colleges, in-state 4 year public colleges,…</p>
<p>They will take both into consideration when they look at the high school profile as well as standardized test scores. They are looking not only at your D compared to her high school and class but your D compared to all other kids applying so they need to consider everything in context. It’s always good to get a copy of your high school profile to see what kinds of information the colleges will receive, although much of that data regarding school districts is now also available on the web.</p>
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<p>With a total of 8 APs, she better!</p>
<p>As long as she took the most challenging courses the school offers, she should be fine. Class rank is secondary.</p>
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<p>D wants to go to school OOS…her course load has been challenging…but I wonder what the schools far away from Texas will make of a full one quarter of her high school credits being in drill team!</p>
<p>Credits for drill team? That’s a new one. Actually the college will most likely look at it like art, band, choir, phys ed, etc. An activity that the student was heavily involved with and adds dimension to the application. My youngest is a three sport athlete and takes “conditioning” all year long which is a for credit class and it means he has to give up an ‘academic’ class for it, but that is part of him and the total picture of him. I just look at it as supporting his interests which is also a good thing as far as colleges are concerned. Because so many school districts are different, they will look to see if the applicant challenged themselves in their particular environment and within the context of what their school was able to provide. We have a school district a couple miles away that is large and has all the bells and whistles with regard to the number of AP classes, IB and the such, unlike our “little” school with it’s 5 AP classes, no IB etc. etc., but “our” kids on a percentage basis consistantly outperform “their kids” academically on standardized tests, math and science competitions and that is reflected in the college choices. The “regular” curriculum at our school is rigorous although not AP branded and that is noted in the profile.</p>
<p>I think course rigor is important, but so is rank. That said, the rank that is “good enough” can vary a bit depending on how familiar a college is with a high school. Magnet high schools which skim off top students for example will have class rank profiles that look very different from my son’s school. (I think orchestra must have been a quarter of my son’s credits - he had two classes every year.)</p>
<p>We have the same issue at our house. (S2 is in top 11 or 12%). Most top colleges like to report how many kids they have in the top 10%. So I don’s see how this will not hurt those who fall below. I almost feel like BEGGING his high school to not report his rank.</p>
<p>Our HS is on a block schedule (alternating A and B days) and band, cheer, drill team and sports are double blocked (you have those classes every day)…meaning that it takes up 2 out of the 8 classes every year. So if you do band/cheer/drill team/sports all four years, that’s a quarter of your credits. Bizarre, but hey, it’s Texas.</p>
<p>I’d have her ask the counselor what it takes to have the counselor choose that “most demanding” option, and whether that is likely given D’s course plan. I took the comment that a number of kids take 6-7 AP classes a year to mean that a number of kids are graduating haven taken 12-14 AP classes – in that context, taking 8 might not be considered “most demanding”. Sorry if I mis-understood. </p>
<p>(I know that some counselors have a profile they use to determine what is “most demanding” – and students don’t get the “most demanding” box checked unless they took an AP Calculus/IB HL math course or higher course, at least one year each of chemistry, biology, physics including one AP/IB HL science, …)</p>
<p>I’ve asked her GC to her face what it takes to have the “most demanding” box checked and was unable to get a straight answer…“It varies…”</p>
<p>I would say that the top 5% take 6-7 APs Jr and Sr year…that would be maybe 30 students. The rest of the students with a higher rank took about the same courseload as her - maybe a bit less rigourous - but got better grades.</p>
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<p>Ask the counselor. At the high school my son attended, the student needed at least 9 honors/AP classes for the counselor to check “most demanding” course selection. My daughter needed a minimum of 12 honors/AP courses to have that same little box checked. I believe the difference stemmed from the fact that my son’s high school allowed no honors/APs freshman year, while my daughter took 3 honors classes as a freshman. Most rigorous curriculum varies by high school but the counselor knows the answer.</p>
<p>Addition to first part of post:</p>
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<p>Keep pushing. “Varies how? With regard to my daughter - where does she fall within that variation.” 
In my admittedly-limited experience (three high schools), counselors know the answer - and yes, once I had to push to get the answer.</p>
<p>Since I asked the question straight out and got no answer, I can only assume that we have no definitive policy or that they make it up as they go along.</p>
<p>You have a school with major grade inflation. Some state schools that go by numbers might go with GPA, but more selective colleges will look at rank.</p>
<p>It’s not actually grade inflation at all. It’s significant weighting for APs and preAPs. An 88 in an AP = a 100 in a regular.</p>
<p>It would probably be helpful to look at her unweighted GPA for only the core academic areas (english, social sciences, math, sciences, foreign language). For more competitive schools, that will matter more than her weighted GPA.</p>
<p>GPAs mean nothing out of context. We look at the methodology used to compute the GPA (weighting, what courses are included/excluded) and the distribution charts on the school profile to assess the GPA.</p>
<p>There is no way to determine a “good” GPA these days because the methodologies vary so dramatically from place to place.</p>
<p>Rank is definitely helpful and would be used if provided. There are times when those reveal that As are pretty easy to come by at a school.</p>
<p>A related question: Many schools’ highest merit scholarships have several requirements, one of which is a GPA of “X” or above. Does anyone know whether this means the weighted GPA our high school reports, or whether they will “un-weight” it for purposes of qualifying for a given scholarship?</p>
<p>To momofsongbird - it really varies from school to school. We’ve pursued that question as well and found that some big schools simply accept the weighted GPA your hs provides with no recalculations while others recalculate with their own weights (or no weights) and sometimes excluding the nonacademic core courses. Best to ask that question of each school individually.</p>