<p>At my high school, GPA is assigned on transcripts using the formula A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1. I have heard that some college admissions officers assign GPA as A=4, A-=3.7, B+=3.3, etc. Is this true? My school counselor told me that it was not true; that "an A is an A is an A." </p>
<p>I know that for UC's, it makes no difference (they don't even see the + and - grades). I wonder if private schools such as Stanford also don't differentiate between an A- and an A.</p>
<p>In other words, is it worth my time to get an A instead of an A- or a B+ instead of a B? I have always thought that it didn't make much of a difference. (Probably about half of my A
's are technically A-'s).</p>
<p>There is no common way for high schools to grade. It varies widely, and cross school comparisons are only roughly useful. Some schools tend to inflate grades, while others (and often the more academic private high schools) grade conservatively. So what matters is how your school grades. Selective colleges compare students within schools.</p>
<p>That said, if recommendations are important for the colleges where you're planning to apply, teachers will no doubt give stronger recommendations to the "A" student than the "A-" student.</p>
<p>fogcity- your response that would seem to indicate that the college would use the gpa that the school assigns rather than calculate it their own way, right?</p>
<p>Lets say a college were reviewing a transcript of one student in California and one from Colorado. They see that the kid from California received A's and A-, while the kid from Colorado received mostly A's without a minus. Would they look more favorably upon the kid with fewer A-, or would they assume, like you said, that "cross school comparisons are only roughly useful," and not differentiate substantially between the students?</p>
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Lets say a college were reviewing a transcript of one student in California and one from Colorado. They see that the kid from California received A's and A-, while the kid from Colorado received mostly A's without a minus. Would they look more favorably upon the kid with fewer A-, or would they assume, like you said, that "cross school comparisons are only roughly useful," and not differentiate substantially between the students?
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<p>I honestly don't think they look that closely. They probably see what classes you were taking (and I'm assuming your grades are listed as numerical anyway). This allows them to consider if you took advantage of your opportunities, challenged yourself, and took advanced and diverse courses. Then they probably look at your GPA as a general measure of whether, in your context, you did well--which is non-uniform, leading to the assignment of more weight to scores and rank. The rank puts your GPA in better perspective. Your the ACT/SAT/AP/SATII scores not only lend to an assignment of whether you can handle their school academically, it allows them to assess the quality of your school. If you are 1/300, and scores a 1650...they know to put your application in the trash--I mean recycle--bin. After that, they review your EC's to make sure you're not a robot and to see if you'd fit their vision of their student body.</p>
<p>It's not clear from the original post...does your transcript distinguish between pluses and minuses? If not, don't worry about it (and consider yourself lucky! My school has a 7-point scale--93-100 is an A, 85-92 B, etc).</p>
<p>My transcript does not give numerical values, just a letter grade with a + or - included. I assume that the + or - doesn't make much of a difference as it does not affect the calculated GPA that appears on the transcript.</p>
