Note that a NM scholar with a 3.0, most rigorous courseload may well have been in a school where that GPA could put you in the top of your cohort. One of my collegekids spent some time in a secondary school that on principle did not give A’s in English to 9th graders, and had a de facto cap on the # of As a teacher could give out in one class. There was no such thing as a 4.0 from that school (and no weighting either).