<p>(This may be stupid to you guys but just to make sure… :D)</p>
<p>So I just received my first report card in high school…
I got: 4.0 UW, and 4.5714 W.</p>
<p>1) The reason I have a 4.5714 instead of 5.0 W is because I took Marching Band, Guitar, and Spanish 2 which are apparently 4.0 classes. Will this lower (even slightly) my chance into getting into my dream school (Stanford)? If so, I’m thinking about not doing 0 period next year (I was going to do concert band, which is also 4.0 max).</p>
<p>2) Do colleges look at A+'s differently compared to regular A’s? I could have gotten 5 A+'s but 3 of my teachers didn’t give out A+'s so I only got 2…</p>
<p>I would not worry about it. Though spanish is a fairly boring language for an app imo it does help you broaden your learning experience. The same thing goes for marching band a guitar Stanford looks for a challenging course load but also for an interesting person.</p>
<p>Thanks! What did you mean when you said “a challenging course load”?
I have all honors classes (no AP’s in freshman year), and I’m taking Marching Band instead of a sport (cuz I love drumming :D). Also, I’m taking guitar by having 1 extra period (0). When you said a challenging course load, did you mean like sports? or did u mean something instead of guitar? I can’t really take an academic class instead of guitar…</p>
<p>I mean take courses that make you think critically that don’t hand out A’s like candy on halloween. Keep the guitar and marching band if you like them as they help show who you are as a person. Don’t worry you will do fine.</p>
<p>So as I said the max WGPA I can get is 4.5714 even though I took the most challenging classes available. If I don’t take an elective that’s worth 4.0 next year, I can have 4.6666. Is this a good decision, or should I just take the elective class?</p>
<p>P.S: How do people on this forum have 4.8+ GPA’s? Do they not take sports/electives? The highest WGPA I can get even during junior year is 4.7 something… O.o</p>
<p>At least for my school, sports do not count for GPA whatsoever. Also, each school might have different GPA scales. I know for my school, band is considered an honors course - giving it a max of 5.0 GPA, as opposed to 4.0 for something like pottery or drama or CP classes. AP classes give a maximum 5.5 GPA. As for A+'s, our school does not have them in the grading system: A is the highest for us.</p>
<p>Are there not any electives for you to take that can allow you to get a 5.0? If not, you might also want to consider doubling up on some subjects, if allowed. For example, there were a few kids in my school that took Biology and Physics and/or Geometry and Algebra honors courses in the same year, since they didn’t need to have completed the first class to succeed in the second. That will look quite impressive if you use that opportunity to take more AP classes or college courses in your senior or junior years.</p>
<p>It is not worth dropping an elective like marching band to raise your GPA. However, you should avoid taking too many/unnecessary electives, cause the 4.0’s can stack up against you.
Many colleges will recalculate GPA to only include core classes anyway.</p>
<p>It doesn’t really matter what number your WGPA ends up being. Rank is whats important, because it puts your GPA in perspective. A 4.5 at your school could be equal to a 4.8 an an easier school or a 4.1 at a difficult school. Rank accounts for that difference.</p>
<p>People have a 4.8+ GPA because they take a lot of honors (5.0) and AP (6.0) courses. Again, you can see, it just comes down to how your school works. Schools can weight courses however they would like.</p>
<p>Okay, Thanks alot! (I meant concert band btw).
So if someone has the exact same grades/classes as me, but has one less elective class, would he have a higher rank than me becus of the weighted GPA??? He would have 6 classes and I would have 7 classes…</p>
<p>In our district, “zero hour” is the period before first period, at 6:00 a.m. or so. There are only a couple classes offered zero hour, a band and an optional science lab. I assume zero-period is similar.</p>
<p>Yeah I was thinking of not doing zero period (in our school there are alot of classes in zero pd)… I’m pretty sure I’m at least top 5 in my class (cuz I had the highest grade in 6/7 of my classes) but I was thinking a zero would lower my rank… Oh well I just found out our school doesn’t rank so I’ll probably still be in the top 10% :)</p>
<p>I dunno, kid. If your life goal is 4-5 years at Stanford, what do you do after you’re 21-22? You can play music for the rest of your life, and teach it to your future kids.</p>
<p>So, your choices seem to be:
A: Give up the music and MAYBE end up at Stanford, or
B: Keep up with your music and MAYBE go to Stanford.
C: Give up the music and end up at another college
D: Keep up with the music, end up at another college, and have a skill that will last a lifetime and can be enjoyed and passed down to others.
E: A and C
F: B and D</p>
<p>@SpacemanEd: I’m trying to get to med school after undergrad… and I’m not really ‘giving up’ music since: 1. I’ll still be in marching band 2. I’m not taking concert band right now so I’m not ‘giving it up’ 3. I’ll still be taking lessons (btw I play the drums xD). Just some clarification :D</p>