<p>It is very easy to great straight A’s at some schools while difficult at others… How do Adcoms assess one’s gpa then?</p>
<p>Standardized tests, although there are many arguments that standardized tests aren’t really accurate.</p>
<p>Class rank, course load rigor, questions regarding difficulty (for example, what’s the highest GPA in class? What percentage go to college). Stuff like that.</p>
<p>They also look at the profile of your school to determine whether your school is challenging or not. You are expected to take the hardest courseload, and are not directly hurt by the rep of your school ,or so they say.</p>
<p>My feeling is that they are more likely to only look at GPAs indirectly, that is, they look at class rank. A lower GPA but a higher rank will be more impressive than the reverse, everything else being equal (known reputations of the schools, number and difficulty of courses taken, etc.) Schools also have to send in a profile of themselves to colleges which should help put things in perspective.</p>
<p>So, take someone like my daughter, who was homeschooled. She had no grades from me, but this made no difference to prospective colleges because the grades wouldn’t be comparing her to anyone else.</p>
<p>I am concerned with this as well. While it is easy to get straight A’s at most schools in US (even Americans in my school admitted this), it is very hard in international schools or schools abroad. My school does not even have GPA or rank… ****…</p>
<p>I suppose that recommendations and standardized tests would be the key for you.</p>