Is your School District’s GPA-Weighting Method as flawed as ours… where straight Cs can possibly still equate to a student being Valedictorian? Let me explain…
So I have to wonder just how do other School Districts around the nation weight GPAs for class rankings? I ask because I have to believe that our local School District has the worst possible methodology for such. I have brought it to the attention of the local School District and their only real reply thus far is to suggest that they may review their policy again soon… but that even if they do change it, it will not be a retroactive change. Any new policy would only apply to those entering the 9th grade. So all those in 9th to 12th grades now will still have to live with the potentially negative impact of this faulty system.
It is my contention that colleges should likely be aware of our School District’s current flawed method for GPA-weighting to determine class rank. The weighting method takes the cumulative unweighted GPA semester-average and then inflates it for each AP (.08 per semester) and honors class (.04 per semester) taken overall 9th-12th. The previous method used to include the weighting into each semester’s GPA before then creating a cumulative weighted semester-average. The emphasis before was on the actual grades received. Weighting was then only meant to differentiate between those with the highest unweighted GPAs.
Apparently to encourage more online schooling, the emphasis is now instead on taking more weighted courses overall. Students can take more weighted courses online and, as long as they get a C, potentially better their ranking. The current weighting method seems to favor quantity over quality.
For example, a recent county graduate had a record-setting weighted GPA of 10.02 on a 4.0 scale. This means that the school district allowed at least 6.02 in inflation to the unweighted GPA semester-average. A 2.0 unweighted GPA student could thus take the same course load and be able to inflate their weighted GPA to 8.02, possibly becoming Valedictorian. In fact, such a student likely would be Valedictorian at nearly every high school in the School District. That of course should never be possible, but it is possible currently. It would have never been possible before, when a high unweighted GPA was still required for ranking success.
The unfortunate result, in my opinion, is that class ranking can now be misleading. Our county previously weighted GPAs on a semester-by-semester average basis. That prior method emphasized grades and seemed to be a fairer approach, as it more accurately differentiated among those with the highest unweighted GPAs.
How does our faulty GPA-weighting methodology compare to yours where you live? To me, without uniformity in weighting methods, colleges should not really emphasize rankings in their admission process.
@billcsho That point may be true by itself. But the point is that weighting of GPAs is used to determine class rank. If you are a student striving to be ranked in the top 10% or top 5%, for example, and your weighting is being artificially affected negatively because other students with lower unweighted GPAs are being ranked higher simply due to such arbitrary weighting factors, it can be critical. Most elite colleges have certain expectations… like that successful applicants being ranked very high in their class, etc. It thus matters a great deal to some… not the weighted # alone, as you point out, but how schools use those #s to then rank their students. Colleges see your unweighted GPA too, but they have to wonder about your rank. And they will naturally assume that those with a lower rank in class will also have better unweighted GPAs. In our county, that is usually not true at all.
That is weird. Check your high school profile. They generally describe the weighting system. Also, if your class rank is a poor reflection of the rigor of your courses and your grades, try to get your GC to clarify things in his/her recommendation.
@WWWard All wGPA are arbitrary. If that is the way they calculate the class rank and is disclosed to students, it is a fair game. However, choose classes solely for a better class rank instead of personal interest or career goal is really sad. Many schools don’t consider class rank anyway. Unweight GPA and course rigor are more important at most schools.
The info above is from the school’s and district’s profile… The weighting method takes the cumulative unweighted GPA semester-average and then inflates it for each AP (.08 per semester) and honors class (.04 per semester). The guidance department is clearly aware of the issue as well, but they also work for the school district… so they cannot really argue against how their own school chooses to rank students. They also represent students who benefit from it.
It has been the subject of news articles, but the emphasis is usually just on the novelty of county grads having GPAs above 8, 9 and 10. They have yet to point out the ranking issue that results from the weighting system.
I may have to choose to explain this all in the Additional Info Section on the Common Application. I do not see the school agreeing to explain away their own ranking method. I just do not see why they ever decided to do away with the prior method of ranking semester by semester and then creating a cumulative average. I get that the math involved is harder as they have to weight 8 semesters vs just one unweighted semester average… and all that may be likely more time consuming, but computer programming should also be able to automatically calculate it once programmed.
To me, any system that potentially allows a 2.0 unweighted student to raise their rank to up to 8.02 is by definition faulty. And no school in the U.S. truly needs that much potential inflation period. 10+ GPAs are just silly. And students should not have to explain away anything that may be viewed as a failing in their college application packet. Oh well… maybe we have no option but to do so…
@billcsho I wish it were so with the more elite schools, but as they all make a point of detailing the percentage of students admitted who rank in the top 5% and top 10%, it is clearly something they both consider and keep track of…
@billcsho Thanks, but I am not even sure that I understand what CDS stands for specifically. I can assume it is some form of class stats.
Here is an example of my concern in terms of impressions via colleges using two real world examples: Student one took 28 courses during high school. (56 semesters) & 7 classes were AP. The student had one B semester average and an overall unweighted GPA average of 3.98. Final class rank: 33 out of 550. 94th percentile. Less than 1/4th of the people ranked lower though had a 4.0 unweighted GPA.
Student two took the same 28 courses (56 semesters) with 7 AP classes and also only had one B semester average, resulting in the same 3.98 unweighted GPA semester average. Class rank: 3rd out of 1070. 99th percentile.
Colleges see these two students and logically assume that 32 other students at student one’s school performed better academically, which is not really true. They may even think that the school may be easy, etc. given the fact that a 3.98 student only ranked 33rd.
In reality, the only difference between these two real examples is that student one’s school adds all weighting for 9th-12th to the unweighted GPA semester average. In example two, that school weights each of the 8 semesters first and then takes an average among all 8 weighted semester averages. That one difference though leads to an entirely different ranking outcome and creates an entirely different impression in the eyes of college admissions officers.
It is also why I was trying to learn how other school districts handle this issue of weighting. I already know how the ranking is affected where I live… and now versus how they used to weight GPAs here. I was eager to see if other school districts handle the matter differently or not. And again, I would just prefer that colleges ignore rankings since the methods are not uniform or that high schools would not rank unless they all do so in the same manner.
CDS is the common data set that each school reports their admission and enrollment data every year. They list out the relative importance of each criteria such as GPA, test score, class rank, etc.