Just wondering if anyone had this issue before and how you resolved it.
On the UCF website, it states that Courses marked as pre-AP, pre-IB, pre-AICE, and honors are given an additional 0.5 quality points. Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), Advanced International Certification of Education (AICE), and Dual Enrollment (DE) courses are given 1 additional quality point.
However, my high school has 4 types of classes. Both AP and GT (gifted and talented) classes receive one extra point with a grading point value of 5. Honors class is lower than AP/GT and receives an extra 0.5 points. Regular class is lower than Honor and has a value of 4 without extra points. My question is how I should report the GT class in SPARK? Should I classify it as an Honors class instead or something else? I feel it is unfair or inaccurate if I report it as a regular class given the heavy workload and difficulty, which is why they carry the same value as AP courses. On the other hand, I can’t seem to find the appropriate category for GT classes in the SPARK system. How did you choose the level in the SPARK? Thank you!
Contact UCF’s admissions office for guidance on reporting GT classes in SPARK. If there’s no direct category for GT classes, you might report them as Honors and include a note explaining their equivalency to AP courses. Consulting your school counselor can also provide additional help.
The admission office asked me to categorize it as a regular class, but FSU said they will consider it as honors. I am so confused as they both belong to Florida public school system, but give different answers. It will negatively affect my GPA and does not reflect my effort put into the GT course if it is categorized as a regular one. I will try to communicate with UCF more to see if they will change their mind. Thanks for your help.
Every school district decides how to award grades…but ALL of the Fla universities use their own weighting scale. That is to ensure fairness. In some states, students can have a GPA higher than 6!
Florida only allows your district to offer specific courses (can be found on the CPALMS website). Only a couple of specific Secondary courses are titled “Gifted” (no “Talented”). You can ask your guidance office what the actual course code is. Most likely UCF will interpret it as “Honors”.
Remember that ONLY CORE classes are considered for the GPA portion. So if the gifted class is an elective, it won’t be used in GPA calculation.
Now, if you are at a private school, you will likely need something written from the school claiming that it is the same level as an AP class - not easy to prove.