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<p>That was his point.</p>
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<p>I believe I have answered your inquiry in a speedy fashion.
I specifed that you have heedlessly and unknowingly used the Socratic method in a spurious manner.</p>
<p>And to answer your question, “if someone from your school has a higher GPA and applies, it will hurt your chances a bit, the logical result is that you must believe that there are situations in which this will not affect or will help a student’s chances. Please describe such a scenario.”</p>
<p>I have repeated that GPA is not a surefire indicator when it comes to admissions.</p>
<p>Imagine you are one of the adcoms.
Student A took 4 courses each year with a 4.0.
Student B (same school) took 8 courses each year with a 3.8.</p>
<p>Top colleges look to see how much you challenged yourself.</p>
<p>Are we on the same boat now?</p>
<p>
I assume this still stands, because if it doesn’t it’s illogical. Having a higher GPA in most cases does lead to higher chances, just not that much once you’re past a certain threshold, I believe.</p>
<p>@silverturtle
I still don’t exactly understand your answer to my question. You stated that a friend with higher GPA applying to the same schools as I am will negatively impact my chances. Aside from the whole “there’s one more applicant in the full applicant pool with a higher GPA” (that lowers my chances like what, 1 in 20,000?) does it impact me? As in, is it his being in my school and his higher GPA what impacts my chances, or just his higher GPA?</p>
<p>Now we are reprobating over infinitesimal details. </p>
<p>^Sheer irony. I have deliberately stated that in such a fashion, since you are nitpicking about little details and thus missing the thesis of this discussion.</p>
<p>Once again, a bit confused. Are you saying that we should accept the fact that 44% of students have a 4.0 in US high schools as a self-evident truth?</p>
<p>I believe I was clear enough. Have you taken AP Stats yet- that is not the dataset of the US- it is simply absurd to think that 44% of the students have a 4.0.
I was talking about a specific college.
Hope that helped.</p>
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<p>You have failed to provide a relevant scenario. How are Student A’s chances improved or unaffected by Student B’s applying? They aren’t, which means that your original characterization is wrong.</p>
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<p>If the student with the higher GPA took a significantly easier courseload, the impact is almost negligible. If, however, the student took a comparable courseload, the fact that he or she is from the same school will reflect unfavorably on your GPA and will, thus, negatively impact your chances in a significant way.</p>
<p>I think silverturtle’s statement is true, yet I don’t want it to be because of my GPA, lol. </p>
<p>From a neutral perspective: </p>
<p>Kingsize is arguing that the original argument was that a student with a higher GPA will negatively impact a student from the SAME HIGH SCHOOL’s chances. Kingsize is absolutely correct. This was the original argument. But then it shifted to what Kingsize identified as a “new insight” - which was that a student with a higher GPA will negatively impact any other applicant’s chances in general.</p>
<p>Let’s be real. I think we all agree that a student with a higher GPA will impact the other applicants’ chances in general. That’s like an axiomatic truth. But can we please go back to the original argument, something I think is very debatable?</p>
<p>Jimmy797- please state your GPA and your friend’s GPA, and your courseload and his/her courseload.</p>
<p>That brings everything into context.</p>
<p>The simple reply that “if someone has a higher GPA from your same school, it will negatively affect your chances” is frivolous.</p>
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<p>Kingsize, have you yet understood that “A-average” is not even close to the same thing as 4.0?</p>
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Not sure what is ironic, but I was confused because of your usage of “reprobating”, which isn’t exactly interchangeable with arguing.
I must have missed a post somewhere, I wasn’t aware that this data referred to one college. If so, I’m not sure how it supports your original statement that “obtaining a 4.0 in US public schools is relatively easy” (Not verbatim). If one was to assess the difficulty of US high schools based off of the grades of the entering class at a school such as Harvard or Princeton, one could falsely conclude that a 4.0 is extremely easy to obtain in high school.</p>
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<p>I think Jersey13 already clarified that as the main point of our discussion.
I have thus replied that I full-heartedly agree with your point.</p>
<p>You were slightly baffled about the discussion- I think we are now clear about the impact of courseload.</p>
<p>I completely agree about the relevance of the difficulty of one’s courseload, as I made very clear in the guide that serves as the initiator of this thread. You must, however, admit that your initial characterization of my statement as incorrect (or more precisely, as a myth) is simply false. You did not carefully read or honestly convey what I wrote; you simply wanted to use my correct statement as a means of broaching this grade deflation topic.</p>
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<p>Yes, I have. I have also tried to point out that this was not the main aspect of our brainstorming session, but oh well.</p>
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<p>You are still missing the main point.
I have indicated thousand times (excuse my hyperbole) that we should stop nitpicking about little details, and discuss how silverturtle answered Jimmy797’s question.</p>
<p>Feel free to ask me more, if you are still befuddled.</p>
<p>
Here’s the thing: Everyone has the same courseload at my school, up until senior year. And even next year my friend and I will have the same courseload. We’re just dropping biology. It’s a completely different system than the States’.
At any rate, my friend does have a higher GPA, but lower SAT scores, and he plans to retake in October, which doesn’t give him much time for the SAT II’s. And in senior year it’s more than likely we’ll have the same GPA (I’ve really been slacking this year.)
Any change in your analysis?</p>
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I can’t. Our grades are on an international scale (mine is 16/20 and his is 18/20) which needs to be translated into regular GPA terms. Based on previous translations for older students and my own guess, his will be close to 100 and mine should be around 95. (4.0, 3.8)</p>
<p>I’d also like to mention that we have 16 subjects and a full schedule - 7 hours/day, 5 days/week. A lot of those subjects can be considered supplementary/elective or whatever (economics, sociology, that stuff.)</p>
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<p>If your friend applies, I believe that it may hurt your chance in a meaningful way, assuming that the gap between your GPA’s is significant.</p>
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Yes, I have thoroughly read your guide. It is wonderful how you even provided statistics for 2400 scorers.</p>
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I stand by my original argument.</p>
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As I have stated above, your statement itself is erroneous. Jersey13 and other posters, however, clarified the missing elements of the equation.</p>
<p>And I have read your guide- it is wonderful. I think it is simply ludicrous to assume that I deliberately disagreed with you as a means to broach the grade deflation topic. My original thesis was: “Having a higher GPA, coming from a same school, does not necessarily yield higher chances”.</p>
<p>I believe my approach was correct.
Seeing that you have the same courseload until senior year, your chance decreases (from the academic component of your application).</p>
<p>Hope this helped.</p>
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<p>You continue to misread my original statement: what you are saying is not contradictory to what I wrote.</p>
<p>Although applicants are not pitted against each other, if someone from your school has a higher GPA and applies, it will hurt your chances a bit.</p>
<p>Am I blind? (this is a rhetorical question by the way- Jersey, no need to nitpick.) :)</p>
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You’re kind of scaring me here 
And having [significantly] higher SAT scores counts for nothing in this case?
EDIT: Better EC’s, as I believe, too, and having done (much) more research on admissions policies, I believe I’ll have better essays and recommendations.
Basically if you still see that he has a better chance you’re telling me that the difference in our GPA is giving him a better chance - despite the rest of the application’s comparison. I don’t believe that would be true.</p>