This is very interesting to me. I constantly marvel at all the high GPAs parents and students quote on CC, even considering that those on here are likely to reflect top students, often at top high schools in parts of the country that offer a lot more advanced options and treat college prep much differently than my kids’ schools. I can’t figure out how some of those UW GPAs are even possible for a student that studies all the time, much less has time to compete in various out-of-state competitions, volunteer a ton of hours and take on several leadership roles. I’m not saying that anyone has not earned it – many kudos to those students and their parents – I’m just saying it’s beyond my experience.
Our children went to two separate Iowa high schools, and I didn’t see a lot of grade inflation, although some teachers made it very hard to do poorly. But, when my daughter went to an out of state flagship, we did not believe her when she said that a 90% was the same as a 99% as far as GPA was concerned. We’d never even considered such a thing. If I mention it to other parents, they argue with me thinking I must not understand. When our HS son toured the same college and we visited with an adcom, who was responsible for recruiting from our (nearby) state, I asked about the grading policy. His comment: “I’ve never heard of another way to do that.”
So, while maybe certain elite schools have admissions folks that are carefully weighing HS GPA and determining how accurate it is due to different grading systems, I don’t believe the majority of colleges are doing that. I know my anecdote is limited to one university, but how can a limited admissions staff know how all high schools, even in a particular region of the country, are grading? I’m pretty sure an application to an elite from either of my kids’ high schools is pretty rare. Like maybe 1 every 5 or 10 years rare. I doubt anyone at Yale or Harvard has a clue about my son’s school’s grading system and they would have to rely on class rank and standardized testing scores.