<p>Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but…
I go to a very “different” sort of school. It claims to be college-prep but offers very little in terms of opportunities or support for students who want to go to anything other than a middle-tier CSU or community college. The coursework is extremely difficult but it does not count as Advanced Placement, GPA’s are not weighted, and there are no class rankings. There is only one freshman math class, one sophomore English class, you get the picture. Starting junior year you may take college classes at Cal Poly Pomona if your GPA is a 3.0 or higher. I have taken at least one class per quarter since the beginning of junior year and I have a 4.0 at Cal Poly. Unfortunately, I only have a 3.65 at my regular school. This is still considered an extremely good GPA-an average is probably 2.3-2.5. But again, no class rankings. It is virtually impossible to get a 4.0 at my school (partially because the coursework is as or more difficult than your average AP class) but mostly because the school revolves around group projects which are an enormous chunk of your grade. It doesn’t matter how hard you yourself work at times-if the rest of the group screws up, you are expected to take a lower grade. You could have been a great leader and done your work perfectly-if one member fails the whole group fails. This drags people’s grades down immensely. I am frequently put into groups that the teachers will tell me they know will fail and I am still expected to take the low grade. Honestly, if I went to a normal school I would be doing less work and getting a 4.5.
I’m pretty mad at myself for not getting out of that school ASAP, but what’s done is done and I’ve got to work with what I’ve got. My college counselor is pretty much completely incompetent and so I don’t expect her to do a good job explaining this school at all. I am the first applicant from my school at most of the colleges I’m looking at so they will not have any point of reference either. How will colleges look at an applicant from a school like this? Am I screwed? How do I explain my education so they have some context?</p>
<p>For UC and CSU admissions, college courses taken during high school do count as “honors” courses when calculating the GPA used (with certain conditions, like being transferable).</p>
<p>See [CSUMentor[/url</a>] for CSU and [url=<a href=“http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/index.html]University”>http://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/freshman/index.html]University</a> of California - Freshman](<a href=“http://www.csumentor.edu%5DCSUMentor%5B/url”>http://www.csumentor.edu) for UC. If you are a senior applying to enter college next fall, be aware that the application deadline for CSU and UC is November 30.</p>
<p>I am applying to UC Santa Cruz and UC Santa Barbara. That info is good to know. They literally tell us nothing at my school. I am not applying to any CSUs. My top choices are Barnard, Smith, and Mount Holyoke, in that order. I’m mostly concerned about how this is going to affect my chances there.</p>
<p>*bumping thread</p>
<p>You should ask to see your school’s profile - it gets sent to colleges along with your transcript and guidance counselor recommendation. The profile explains everything about the courses your school offers including whether there are honors/AP etc. available, grading philosophy, etc. It might help you feel better.
Re: the grading system, hopefully your SAT or ACT scores will be good enough to demonstrate your academic potential.
You do need to work closely with your GC even if you have doubts about them. Perhaps you could also ask some of your teachers about your questions.
The short answer is that colleges nowadays have to evaluate kids from an enormous variety of school types such as charter, magnet, public, private, Catholic, Christian, home-schooled, IB, international etc. etc. They are used to it.</p>