I think that I go to a pretty competitive HS, an A is a 93 and up, and we go off of a 4.0 scale. Everyone is very smart I guess, you rarely any C’s or B’s matter of fact. I am currently a sophomore and my freshman year I averaged a 3.2 and I had a 92.4 average grade (even though I’ve heard colleges don’t look at Freshman year that much.)
Also, is it a bad thing that we go off of a 4.0 scale and not a 5.0? Do colleges look into these sort of things?
Yes.
No
Yes
Regional Admissions Officers are familiar with many of the HS’s in their region. Additionally, GC’s send a school profile from which the AO can glean additional information.
like @skieurope says, Each HS send a “School Profile” that talks about the school. It shows the level of the school and how well students do at that school.
The profile for our local magnet tech HS says things like:
CLASS OF 2009 62 Graduates
Four Year College -> 100%
NMSQT/PSAT 31 Commended -> 9 Semi-Finalists/Finalists -> 3 Winners
SAT I Mean Scores: 685 (Critical Reading), 725 (Math), 680 (Writing)
AP Exams 100% tested, 151 total exams taken, 94.7% scoring 3 or above
AP Courses Biology, Calculus (AB, BC), Chemistry, Physics C, Statistics
Grading System
All courses at HTHS are taught at the Honors level and grades are therefore not weighted or inflated.
92-100 (A) = Superior Proficiency
85-91 (B) = Above Average Proficiency
77-84 © = Proficient
70-76 (D) = Partial Proficiency
55-69 (F) = Not Proficient/No Credit
Class Rank
The majority of our students earn grades that are exemplary. Each year a large percentage of the senior
class receives Semi-Finalist or Commended Status on the NMSQT. We believe that our students’ levels of
achievement are not fully communicated by using class rank as a singular transcript statistic. School District policy, therefore, precludes reporting of class rank.