Okay, so on chance forums, I see things like “I have 3.69 UW GPA, can I get into harvard???” but and see responses like “GPA is too low”. I am even guilty of this. The responses seem to fail to take in high school difficulty/reputation, course rigor, grade inflation/deflation etc. At my high school, people compare weighted GPA’s more than anything. People will say, “I have a 4.6 GPA” or “I have a 4.35 GPA” at my school because it gives insight into their course rigor. To me, a 3.95 UW GPA (in easy classes) that people consider to be “good enough for elite schools” is FAR inferior to a 3.7 in an AP/IB extensive schedule. What are your opinions? I’m no admissions officer, but this is my opinion. Please comment your opinion on the subject.
I rarely go into chance threads because I’m not an AO. In fact, none of us are, which kinda makes that whole forum a waste. However, IMO, a GPA that’s in the top decile and a GC rating of “most rigorous” will at least get the applicant invited to the party. Admissions officers have generally been doing their jobs for a while, and I’m sure do a good job on their own of assessing a transcript.
@skieurope I agree with you on the second half of your post but not the first. Chance threads are a way to ease some of the nerves of kids who aren’t 100% confident in their abilities. Chances can give an applicant a good understanding about their competitiveness at a school before they do there research. Most posters in the chance thread are usually first time posters and so they don’t have a good college admissions research background so imo its good to have them there to guide students into a good direction. The only thing with chance threads is that yes no one is an AO and can properly assess chances but once students understand that people who reply to chance threads are only there to help and have no qualifications then it can be a very important part of this website.
@Gatortristan I agree with you, but really, your example is why the College Search & Selection forum exists.
I believe that the reason why CC prefers that folks post their UW GPA is because weighted GPA is so different from school to school. For example, most public school add +1 for AP classes, most private schools at 0.33 for AP classes, some add 0.5. Also, it is common is private schools to limit the AP classes to 2 or 3 or 4, whereas public schools generally do not. Therefore, it is tougher to interpret weighted GPAs. One has to explain the school’s grading system, mention if there are limits to how much APs they can take, etc.
With UW GPAs, everyone knows how that is calculated. Of course, when a student says, “chance me at Harvard, my UW GPA is 3.9” it is assumed that s/he is taking the most rigorous classes, or the classes are simply listed, so the reader knows exactly how rigorous it is.
I think that is the simple explanation. Now, if you are comparing grades with each other, coming from the same school, I suppose it makes more sense to mention your weighted GPA…but typically that is not preferred at CC forums because of the diversity in grading systems
Admissions Officers agree with your opinion, which is why they want to know what courses your school offers and where you rank (and for a good school, they will have an idea of the caliber of students who usually get in based on years prior)
That said, the kids who get into the top schools take the most rigorous classes and do well in them - they are not usually comparing a kid who has a 3.9 taking regular classes vs a kid with a 3.6 taking mostly AP/IB because neither of those kids get in. It’s the kids with a 3.9+ and a heavy AP/IB courseload who do (assuming that = a good ranking).
Harvard wants rigor course AND high GPA. 3.6 is simply low from their admission stat. Unless the school has severe grade deflation.
I have to agree with these posts, especially the grade inflation. At some point last year, I had roughly a 135% in AP World History just because I went to a couple extra credit sessions. Ironically, I did awful on the actual AP test. I go to a public school, but they limit us to two AP classes a year(not including DC classes). I’m constantly seeing kids who have their entire schedules filled with only AP classes on this forum. Why would you do that to yourself? Don’t you want to have somewhat of a social life? High school isn’t only about increasing your GPA for college. If you’re getting straight A’s with only AP classes, most likely you do two things. One, you don’t do any sort of EC(at least you can’t be that heavily involved in one), or you’re being taught only towards the test. In AP World alone, we got about 4 hours of homework each night. It was ridiculous. Although I got an A in the class, it completely destroyed my weekend plans every single week. I have no idea how people can be taking 7 AP classes a year.
I think this blog by DeanJ of UVA gives some good insight http://uvaapplication.blogspot.com/2015/03/i-dont-care-about-your-gpa.html. Particularly the part about grade distribution and whether an AO may (as in her case she cited) or may not even know the history of a given teacher in a school with respect to grading.
@JackLuzzy Remember that the rigor of an AP class usually depends most on the teacher. For example, I have 4 AP classes and I have self-studied for AP Music Theory (I do composition, already know the curriculum). This is what my homework load looks like in each class:
Language: Joke, tecaher gives little to no HW and doesn’t give below 85% on essays. I have a 101% in the class, but the teacher actually prepares us for the AP well.
US History: We have mandatory notes (~3 hours per week) but it’s an easy A in the class.
Computer Science: I have a 106% (but I do have programming experience, so class is a breeze for me).
Chemistry: Actually a demanding class, but grade is based on tests and labs so we have very little homework. However, I am preparing for the USNCO competition so AP Chem is too easy for me.
Again, the teacher you have determines the fate of the difficulty of the class. There are two language teachers at my school – I have the “normal” one. The other teacher grades on a curve and does not let more than 3 or 4 students of 60 get an A.
@1golfer1 I understand. This year, I’m in AP U.S., AP Lang, and DC STEM(Computer Science). These classes don’t give nearly as much as AP World did, but we still have a relatively hefty load. It just seems a bit unusual for someone to have 7+ AP/IB classes, lots of EC, all A’s, and a large social life.