<p>gpa-3.2 but our scale is harder than the usual 90-100=A 80-90=B…our scale is 93-100=A and so on.
ACT-26
private catholic school</p>
<p>cheerleading, track, french club, key club, student government, student ambassador, yearbook, chastity club, earth club, christian leadership committee, prom committee</p>
<p>150 community service hours </p>
<p>AP Brit Lit
AP History
4 years of french
4 years of math
5 years of english
4 years of science</p>
<p>GPA will be recalculated by the school, but they look more at whether or not you got an A or B rather than GPA necessarily.</p>
<p>ACT = 26 is not a bad score, but its not as good as some of their candidates so if you can retake it, you probably should</p>
<p>your extracurriculars are AWESOME! that’ll be a HUGE plus for you!</p>
<p>2 AP classes are pretty good, and you have solid years of each subject, which is alright!</p>
<p>Hope this helps!</p>
<p>There is no such thing as AP British Literature…what are you talking about. </p>
<p>Also your GPA is going to hurt you, they won’t care much if the scale is harder.</p>
<p>Well, this is contrary to what we were told by the admissions counselor on our visit. During his presentation he asked all the prospective students to introduce themselves and name their high school. When my son named his school, the counselor responded by saying that he was very familiar with the school and recognized the rigor and competitiveness of the school and that they factored this into their admissions decision. He signaled out my son’s school 3 times during his presentation to make his point. </p>
<p>Maybe things have changed since then or maybe it was this particular counselor.</p>
<p>Your GPA is recalculated once you apply anyway to only look at math, science, language, foreign language, and history. While you don’t get a boost, the counselors are regionalized so they can get to know the schools. They understand that some schools are especially difficult and a 3.2 at one school may be a 3.6 at another. </p>
<p>I can never predict whether or not someone will get in, but you have incredible involvement and a ton of community service! I’m sure that your letters of recommendation are wonderful and you wrote a great essay… and all of that counts! Good luck!</p>
<p>College1993–you’ve got a great start! Don’t take our friend GOP here too seriously. (apparently AP Brit lit isn’t on his/her transcript)</p>
<p>Of course they’re going to take the rigor of the school into consideration.</p>
<p>My daughter just came out of a private Catholic Dallas HS, and was assured of the same considerations by several of the counselors and admitted w/merit money.</p>
<p>Good luck, keep up the good work!</p>
<p>I’d have to say GOPTexas is very wrong when saying that they don’t care if the scale is harder, when my brother interviewed with schools two years ago admissions counselors commented on the fact that his GPA was very impressive at a school with the caliber as ours. I may be wrong but I remember hearing something about schools being ranked on a 1-6 (I’m not sure of EXACTS) scale, and his 3.5 at a 6 was said to be much better than a 4.0 at a 4.</p>
<p>SO don’t listen to GOP.</p>
<p>On paper your GPA looks low, but I’m sure under the circumstances it is great! Definitely schedule an interview with your admissions counselor at SMU. My stats look somewhat similar to yours and I’m waiting on an EA decision! I’ll</p>
<p>lol at some of these comments. </p>
<p>AP Brittish Lit doesn’t exist, look at the college board website. </p>
<p>And as someone said here, the GPA is recalculated, trust me, when they recalculate it they aren’t thinking about how difficult the scale is.</p>
<p>And what school did you son go to that is sooooo well known?</p>
<p>Unless it’s like Dalton or Philips I doubt anyone knows it.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity, did y’all make it?</p>
<p>GOPtexas, youkinda sound like a jerk. No offense. I doubt this person made up a class…</p>
<p>Actually GOPTexas is right and the rest of you guys sound incredibly dumb. Colleges do not care if you went to a private high school or a public high school. What they are looking for are applicants who put forth a great deal of effort both academically and through extracurricular involvement. At least this is how things are done at highly ranked universities. Do you think that the admisions officers at Harvard and Yale actually take the time to research the high school of every applicant and then assign it a so-called “scale” that is used to determine the competitiveness of the high school? No. They want a diversified student body, not a bunch of private school kids. You are totally mistaking if you think that SMU is going to give an applicant precedence over another applicant because they went to a competitive private high school! What a joke!!</p>
<p>I went to a competitive public high school in a rather affluent suburb of Dallas and I would not want colleges to give me superiority over someone else applying from an underpriviledged inner city high school. That’s not being fair because people don’t have any control over the high school they attend.</p>
<p>In the highly unlikely event that I’m wrong and SMU is taking into account the competitiveness of an applicant’s high school, then I think that says a lot about SMU. They will never be a respected university if they make a deliberate effort to only accept those who attended prestigious secondary schools.</p>
<p>Also, as for the AP British Literature debate, simply go to the College Board website. There is no such class, it’s not rocket science.</p>
<p>Vandydawg - your stuck up attitude is appalling given that you’re Catholic. Perhaps you should actually pay attention in church; God doesn’t like self-centered, stuck up people.</p>
<p>@Andrewt787 Are you applying as a transfer to SMU?</p>
<p>What format does SMU use to recalculate GPA? Do they use your school’s awarded grades or give a certain bump for AP/Honors? Already admitted, but just curious.</p>
<p>@Johnangle, why do you ask?</p>
<p>Andrew- each HS guidance counselor fills out a school report. This describes the type of class offerings and they type of student the applicant is in comparison to the other students. Yes, they do take into account how rigorous a particular school is, it helps the university understand how difficult it may be to earn certain grades. (This is not a public vs private debate but rather a difficulty of academics issue.)</p>
<p>Also please do not talk about whether God likes or dislikes particular people. Vandy never said they were catholic, just that their child attended a catholic school. God loves people, just not certain behaviors.</p>
<p>First of all, please excuse my religious remark. That was uncalled for. How do you know that each guidance counselor fills out a school report though? I’m not saying you’re wrong, I’m just wondering where you found that out.
However, I still stand by my previous comment. I don’t think universities should do that because that puts kids at underprivileged schools at a disadvantage in the admissions process and kids don’t have any control over what high school they attended. That’s just my opinion though.</p>
<p>I know GC’s are required to do this because our school is very upfront about telling us about the school profile. (As are college adcom’s about reading the school profiles.) </p>
<p>I would add that it actually helps kids from all different types of schools. If a student has taken two AP courses during their HS career and another student has taken 12 one might assume that the student that has taken 12 is the better student. However if the two APclass student has taken the most rigorous course of study at their school that helps their application. It shows they are a very serious student possibly in a school with limited high level classes. Does this make sense? Conversely if a student takes two AP’s and the school offers a couple of dozen then the questions arises, why only two?</p>
<p>Andrew the reason I asked is because the processes for transfer students and regular applicants is a bit different. The counselors really do get to know the schools across the nation in their territory (private and public), and each high school submits a school profile to SMU with their students’ transcripts. Mammamocha got it just right: if your school offers 14 APs and you take two that says a lot, and if your school offers 2 APs and you took both of them, that ALSO says a lot about you. SMU takes a diverse student population body seriously and attempts to balance a variety of considerations when selecting the future students here.</p>
<p>Yes mommamocha and johnangle, your comments make sense. I understand what you are saying: if you attend a competitive school you are expected to have completed more AP’s, etc. That makes sense. But vandydawg makes it seem like if you attended a rigorous high school, then you don’t have to have made as good of grades as other applicants from low end schools.</p>
<p>Really, I said that?
Where?</p>
<p>Yea, that’s what I thought.</p>
<p>Just for the record, the terms AP Brit Lit and AP Eng Lit are used interchangeably nationwide, whether you like it or not. I’m glad you can find collegeboard.com on the net too.</p>
<p>Really, I said that?
Where?</p>
<p>Yea, that’s what I thought.</p>
<p>Just for the record, the terms AP Brit Lit and AP Eng Lit are used interchangeably nationwide, whether you like it or not. I’m glad you can find collegeboard.com on the net too.</p>