Why does Johns Hopkins have wierd admissions?

[bluebayou]

<p>the directions are included on the common data set, vossron. Reed makes its CDS available on its website.</p>

<p>

According to Whitman’s CDS, 62% of its students ranked in the top decile (with 61% of students reporting rank). PR reports Whitman’s GPA as 3.8. Is it plausible…

</p>

<p>…that Whitman has a 3.8 mean gpa? Only if those 62% have a 4.0 uw (which is beyond belief).</p>

<p>

But let’s not compare Reed to Princeton, or to the UCs.

</p>

<p>But why did you put them all into a list? I have no issue with any of those fine colleges, just using bogus data for comparison purposes.</p>

[vonlost]

<p>“the directions are included on the common data set”</p>

<p>Please point to what you mean; I see only this as appearing relevant:

Grade-point average (academic high school GPA): The sum of grade points a student has earned in secondary school divided by the number of courses taken. The most common system of assigning numbers to grades counts four points for an A, three points for a B, two points for a C, one point for a D, and no points for an E or F. Unweighted GPAs/assign the same weight to each course. Weighting gives students additional points for their grades in advanced or honors courses.

</p>

<p>[Common</a> Data Set 2010-2011](<a href=“http://www.commondataset.org/docs/2010-2011/CDS_2010-2011.htm]Common”>http://www.commondataset.org/docs/2010-2011/CDS_2010-2011.htm)</p>

<p>Reporting unweighted is what seems bogus, equating an AP A and a regular A.</p>

[tk21769]

<p>^^ The OP raised the issue of JHU’s average GPA, suggesting its 3.72 was “not great”. The point of my list in post #4 was 2-fold. First, it illustrates that 3.72 is not out of line with JHU’s peer schools. Second, it illustrates that (when compared to data for other schools) there is no precise, consistent correlation between GPA (in isolation) and selectivity. Many very selective private colleges report mean GPAs lower than some less selective schools. </p>

<p>There also is no precise, consistent correlation between mean GPA and the class rank distributions. Therefore, the fact that 38% of Whitman students ranked lower than the top decile does not compel us to believe that, for the 3.8 average to be accurate, the other 62% must have had 4.0 GPAs. In some scenarios, a 3.8 will not put you in the top decile. In others, a 3.6 will. </p>

<p>I assume PR is reporting weighted GPAs, and that many students who rank in the top 10% do have GPAs reported as higher than 4.0. But the CDS seems to leave calculation methods up to the college.</p>

[hopeandambition]

<p>I feel like I could add relevance to this discussion. I was admitted to JHU with a 3.5 unweighted coming from a competitive private school. I had a 630 on the Math SAT (750 on CR,W), and a couple of mediocre SATII scores (although a 770 on USH).</p>

<p>However, I was Student Body President, Class President, Editor of Newspaper, Head MUN Delegate, had multiple internships, and broke national news through my website. I had amazing recs and great essays.
So it’s about more than numbers.</p>