<p>A quick shorthand would be to take the GPA on the 5.0 scale, multiply it by 4, then divide by 5. The result will be your GPA on a 4.0 scale.</p>
<p>The “long” way would be to take the transcript and assign it class by class based on the 4.0 scale. As = 4.0, etc.</p>
<p>One last comment, with S2 (more than with S1) we noticed the more competitive colleges “weighting up” our kids GPA. I’m sure for reporting purposes the colleges “like” to use the higher GPAs. My older son’s college after three years had a “big jump” in the reported freshman entering class GPAs this year. I’m sure they went from using unweighted to weighted…they certainly didn’t “suddenly” start admitting “better” students. At some point I decided it’s all just incremental and the colleges really do know what they are “looking at” when they look at the transcript and the school profile.</p>
<p>Son 3.3 GPA, ACT 28, SAT 1200 (math & verbal) no extracurricular superstardom</p>
<p>Going to SUNY Oswego
Accepted at SUNY Potsdam, Keene State, Plymouth State, Cazenovia, Emmanuel of Boston, University of New Haven, University of Tampa
Waitlisted Fall of 2010 at SUNY Oneonta with guaranteed Spring 2011 acceptance. He chose not to consider that.</p>
<p>He’s thrilled to be an Oswego Laker and I’m thrilled with the price tag since we qualify for no financial assistance.</p>
<p>3.49 UW, 4.24 W, 2290, full IB, 11 APs
Accepted: UChicago EA, Tufts, UMD with some merit, URoch w/some merit
Waitlisted: Carleton, Bowdoin
Denied: Georgetown SFS, Swarthmore</p>
<p>Attending: Tufts IR<br>
Seriously agonized over Chicago and Tufts til 8 pm 5/1. VERY tough decision.</p>
<p>S2 is attending Pitzer.</p>
<p>He was also accepted at WPI, Clark U, Marist, Goucher, McDaniel, Univ of Denver, Gonzaga, Lewis & Clark, and UPS.</p>
<p>Denied at Whitman and CMC.</p>
<p>3.2UW, 3.7W (depending on method, schools uses 100 pt scale)</p>
<p>3.67 Unweighted GPA
?.?? Weighted (school uses a crazy 8pt method for determining ranking which landed him at about top 5%)
all APs senior year
SAT 1310/1980</p>
<p>ECs: Probably made the difference. Leadership-oriented with positions on state-wide organizations
Also had one absolutely spectacular teacher rec</p>
<p>Admitted: Villanova EA, Northeastern EA, Marquette, UConn
Many applications left incomplete after the EA acceptances</p>
<p>Denied: Notre Dame</p>
<p>Will attend: Villanova, even though all other acceptances came with significant merit awards.</p>
<p>(not my child, me… lol)</p>
<p>3.57 UW. 3.93 W. 1220/1910 SAT. 28 ACT. 5 APs.</p>
<p>Accepted: St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Virginia Tech, Salisbury University (with honors and some merit money)</p>
<p>Waitlisted: University of Maryland, College Park (accepted for spring), American University (declined waitlist spot), Johns Hopkins University (accepted spot)</p>
<p>Attending: St. Mary’s College of Maryland! overall, my results weren’t ideal but i’m quite pleased with this, was probably my first choice all along.</p>
<p>Like justaverage, this is me not my child haha, but I thought it might be helpful for others.</p>
<p>3.3 UW, 3.9ish W, 1500/2300 SAT</p>
<p>Accepted: U Alabama, Tulane, Occidental (merit scholarships for these ones), UNC, USC spring admit, Rice (albeit with a weird mess-up so they accidentally rejected me first and then called to say I’d been accepted), Claremont McKenna</p>
<p>Rejected: Princeton </p>
<p>Attending: CMC, my first choice! </p>
<p>My application had some redeeming features, but NOBODY expected me to get into the schools I did, including myself. I guess it just goes to show that GPA isn’t everything. It’s interesting to be in that 2% that wasn’t in the top quarter of their high school class!</p>
<p>87 UW (academic courses), 92 unweighted (school method), 97 weighted, 2140 SAT, top 6%, 6 APS (7 if Physics C counts as two)</p>
<p>Accepted: U of Chicago (EA), Tufts, Vassar, American (Honors, Pres. Schol.)
Rejected: Georgetown, Harvard, Brown</p>
<p>Attending: Tufts (like CountingDown’s son - tough choice to turn down Chicago!) We considered everything but American a reach, so very pleased.</p>
<p>MANY thanks for including test scores, HS advanced courses and the summarized additional info. </p>
<p>3.3 - 3.6 kids with 1950+ SAT and AP’s and/or significant leadership/EC’s is likely to have a different list than 3.3 - 3.6 kids with no AP’s and/or no significant leadership/EC’s and 1500 - 1800 SAT. </p>
<p>Very helpful thread for the 3.0 - 3.6 HS sophomore and juniors.</p>
<p>We’re just getting started on the college admission process and could use some advice. what are realistic options for our 3.4 UW boy with 2070 SATs? Decent though not head-turning ECs (JV tennis, tutoring, plays synthesizer, piano, but no longer taking lessons). Did Outward Bound between freshman and sophomore years, attending a music technology program at NYU this summer. He wants to go out west (we live in the midwest) but will consider going closer to home. He liked Knox when we visited. Interested in music (technology/composition) but wants a regular college degree. He doesn’t need financial aid, if that’s a plus. Should we even bother with the upper-tier LACs, like Reed, Oberlin, Bard and Occidental?</p>
<p>I haven’t looked at the stats for the other schools, but from our school Bard is definitely a match for a B student. (Their average accepted GPA is 3.5) Definitely worth looking at. They also have an immediate decision plan which is a nice way of knowing at once whether you are accepted.</p>
<p>Son started at USC and is excited!!</p>
<p>Bumping for new parents!</p>
<p>Hi, </p>
<p>Thanks for this thread. I see people posting “go for it” and “we didn’t expect to get in to these” or “they were all reaches”. What do you think were the determining factors and what was exceptional on your application? </p>
<p>Pixeljig, Anonymityyy and others - I would love to hear your perspective? I really thought you could only get into USC with a certain GPA (but I don’t know what the exact number is but the impression is that it is high - have just heard that at our school). </p>
<p>I am fairly new to CC so I hope this is ok to ask on this thread. Don’t mean to hijack it or anything. </p>
<p>Thanks!!</p>
<p>Hi Snow, happy to help!</p>
<p>I totally agree that sometimes its just taking a chance and applying. Of course, the safety, match and reach rule still applies and because son’s GPA was not stellar, his matches were kind of high matches too.</p>
<p>So we had solid safeties (like Santa Clara and U of Miami) because his ACT was 35 and SAT was nearly 2200, we thought it was a safe bet. </p>
<p>The folks on CC really helped me with the confidence that it is indeed possible if you at least try. I asked A TON of questions and everyone came forward to answer.</p>
<p>Son has no ECC except 1 (he has his own software business) and so this may have been the hook besides the SAT/ACT. Plus he had ten AP’s. Recs were excellent. </p>
<p>He got into WASHU STL, which was the biggest happy surprise and plus into UT Austin w honors, another big happy surprise, plus of course USC, which is where he is now. He is happy there. He was WL at GTech and CMU. </p>
<p>I suggest your child fill out the Part 1 of the USC app so they can start a file on him asap.</p>
<p>Any other questions you can PM me. Best Advice? Keep your cool and enjoy the ride!!</p>
<p>Thanks for the additional info. It is helpful.</p>
<p>It seems like ancient history, but our S got into USC film school with a 3.4 a couple years ago. He had perfect SATs on M + CR (which were what really counted then), and went to a very rigorous prep school. Seems like USC takes into account the rigor of the high school curriculum and grading trends, especially for a kid with really high test scores. S is living the dream at USC :)</p>
<p>My D has a pretty good list of schools that she will apply to in the fall but she is just going through the motions with most. Her heart is set on Tulane. Her stats: SAT 1980 ACT 29 WGPA 3.6 and UWGPA 3.3. 1 AP in junior year and is registered for 2 APs & 1 honor class in senior year. She goes to a very competitive HS in the southwest that no longer ranks. She has very good ECs that include serious community service and has shown the school a lot of interest. Any advice? Anyone know her chances? Her list includes Bucknell, U Richmond, Northeastern, U San Diego & Santa Clara U. Thanks</p>
<p>I don’t know much about Tulane so I can’t help you there but you’ll but you’ll probably get a lot more help and advice if you start a new thread that asks this question. Good luck with the college search–you’ll find lots of good advice and support here on CC.</p>