<p>Okay, um, for my school, it's really split both ways. For some of the honors courses (usually english, languages, history; but I never experienced these teachers; my friends told me about them), they give out A LOT of extra credit, so it brings their class avg to a 3.9 (unweighted). But the other honors courses (usually math, science, some english) and AP classes are rigorous in my school so it levels their overall GPA. I don't know if this matters, but there is a HUGE gap between the top 4 students (that is, taking account to both rigor of the courses and GPA) and the rest of the class. I'm on the lowest end on the top 4. I can't explain this well, but it's usually the 4 kids that take the highest lvl of courses while maintaining their GPA. Everyone else (#5-20) have a decent # of APs (~4-5) and an avg GPA of between 3.6-3.75.</p>
<p>I don't know if this is considered an easy school to get a high GPA or whatever. What do you guys think?</p>
<p>I'm asking this because, from the replys, it seems that a high GPA and a low SAT usually indicates a school where high grades are easy to obtain. From my experience, it definitely is not. I do consider myself above average intelligence and the people in my class that do work harder or just as hard as me obtain GPA's higher than me by .03-.04), and their SAT scores are pretty high (2200-2300). I'm just a horrible standerized test taker. So now I'm wondering if colleges will consider my school easy or what?</p>
<p>Stop with the rich, white boy comments! I'll admit that my son tried the Kaplan and private tutor route and that it didn't help one bit. Kaplan even refunded our money! I hope that makes some of you feel better. After reading these boards, you'll find quite a few people who question the validity of tutors and prep classes.</p>
<p>yeah i dont know if there ever will be a valid way to check the intelligence of high school students. the problem with gpa's is that every school has different teachers who teach differently and some are stricter than others. and the SAT's you can change them with some practice.
maybe if each college had a universal test that all aplicants had to take, i dunno.</p>
<p>My daughter has the exact same problem. She is a half-way decent good student with a unweighted GPA of 3.5, BUT her ACT score was miserable. Her school is ranked pretty high in our state, she takes a few AP classes (and does well with them), BUT, again, she just can't score well on the ACT or SAT. I don't get it, and neither does she. You know, some kids (people) just can't/don't do well on standardized tests. They've actually done studies which have shown that kids that get like a "20" on the ACT does just as well in college as the kids that get like a "27" .... And, actually a lot of colleges are starting to not even look at ACT or SAT scores because of these studies. They're realizing that they are denying "Good" students because of 1 single test score. </p>
<p>Also, BTW, they can tell how "good" a high school is by that school's API Score. Some colleges even request that you send a copy of your H.S. API Report with your college application.</p>
<p>I think they look at GPA along with class rank a little harder than SAT's because... the SAT's is only oe score and being to tired or nervous does alter the score.
My oldest had 3.8 on a 4.0 scale and had pretty good SATs his best friends GPA was slightly lower and SAT's were slightly higher and my son got into Rose and his friend did not...</p>
<p>Youngest is ranked#1 with 4.0 and even high SAT's so maybe he will actually get a little money hehehe</p>
<p>its obvious that a high gpa/low sat is better than high sat/low gpa, you guys are forgetting one thing:</p>
<p>SAT/ACT measures how well you take the Sat/ACT, a gpa is 3 years of work, over 24 classes. Your GPA gives you more time to recover, the sat/act gives you one more chance. Theres a huge discrepancy there. </p>
<p>and you all are misunderstanding what is considered a low gpa and low sat so its scewing your interpretation. </p>
<p>For the top 25 schools i would consider a low sat to be around 1900 and a low gpa to be around 3.5</p>
<p>I agree 100% with you! My son never got a single scholarship for his SAT scores but pulled them in with grades and activities. I think they even look harder at class rank than GPA if you have a 3.9 out of 4.0 and are ranked 35 out 150 that is not so good.
If your GPA is 3.9 out of 4.0 and you are ranked 2 out of 150 is far better! but now saying that is always means both of those kids were taking the most difficult classes offered too...a 4.0 taking the easiest classes don't add up to a hill of beans!</p>
<p>I hate to say this...but I am not sure a 3.6 would get you in a top school even with high SAT's???
and weighted classes are figured into a 4.0 scale... my son;s school college credit classes, ap classes and honors are all rate the same 4.0 is top grade no A+ either</p>
<p>Ummm its called working ur @ss off to get good grades, why does everyone on this forum seem to have a problem with this
I've seen many people say "The one guys ahead of me studies sooooo much, that is the only reason I can't beat him"
Why can't people embrace the people with sub-genius brains who get high grades?</p>
<p>1900 will get you into many colleges but not the top ones. I advise 1900 to retake it and try to get the scores up to at least 2000 or 2100
actually the three top kids at my son's school have never studied... they just get it and only have to hear things once... those are the ones you can't compete with by studying</p>
<p>I hate it when people always whine about the SAT not measuring intelligence. Blah Blah Blah. If you look at it that cynically, then GPA Measures NOTHING as well - it doesn't measure either effort, course rigor (or teacher rigor) or brains - it's just some random funny number where an idiot can get a 4.0. This is the logical conclusion you must embrace as well if you constantly cry that the SAT doesnt measure SOME sort of ability level.</p>
<p>Sorry, but the person who gets a 2400 simply is not an idiot. It takes strong reasoning and mental thinking skills to get through most of the SAT. By learning SAT ' lol strategies' you only get so high - prob up to 1800. But the last 600 points are simply based on 100% of your OWN PURE ABILITY, whether it be your ability to avoid stupid careless errors or the ability to understand things in shorter time spans than others - it certainly tests things that are extremely important to colleges and life in general. (Yet here I'm just speaking of general categories - it doesnt mean that a 2300 is smarter than a 2200 - minor fluctuations are not the concern here)</p>
<p>I personally believe that extracurriculars should be the most important factor, as it has a relative correlation that people who have proved themselves the top leaders now will prove themselves the world's top leaders in the future as well. Then would come SAT, GPA/Course Rigor, Class Rank, and then the rest</p>
