Thanks
yes
It may vary by high school.
At ours, the average grade for HYPSM accepted students is an A- (assuming all honors/AP courses, although most get rejected even with mostly As). For schools ranked between 15-20, the average grade was a B+.
If your high school has Naviance, it can reveal what colleges expect from your high school.
An A- in a challenging class is better than an A+ in an easy class.
The difference between an A and an A minus is meaningful. Whether or not it’s okay to have a lot of A minuses depends on how challenging your high school is (which the college will determine from the school report and any prior knowledge they have of your school).
Course rigor and the overall rigor of your high school come into play as well as your rank or standing vs classmates. I have heard ad coms say things like - An A from hs __, really means an A, implying that they suspect grade inflation at other high schools. That’s why a lot of colleges recalculate gpa according to their own metrics. And if the majority of kids in your school are getting A’s in a particular class, your A- doesn’t look that impressive, but if the A- is the high grade in the class it will. Lots of related factors here.
If your school gives straight A-'s a 4.0 what can Naviance tell you? The kid with all A-'s will look the same as the kid with all 100’s.
Naviance may let you look at weighted GPAs as well, which often differentiate between an A- and an A. At least our school does so.
U of M does not count A-'s.
Our school doesn’t differentiate in any way. My kid has gotten a 90.0 many times and gotten 4 points unweighted and 5 weighted, the max, for every one. She works those 90.0’s, it is a gift.