What is more reliable collegeboard or the college's actual website?

College Search & Lists
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<p>not a great suggestion to support your point, vossron. :)</p>

<p>But it did add data to support my supposition. One of the hits pointed to a study by Fairfax County (Va) of many colleges to where its students matriculate. They surveyed 100+ plus colleges. Of the 60+ respondents, less than half recalculated gpa’s; they just used what the HS sent them on the transcript. Of course, that would includes several/many publics, instate and neighboring, as well as top privates. (Fairfax is a high achieving suburban district.)</p>

42

<p>From hits:</p>

<p>“Most colleges recalculate your GPA. How they do varies significantly from one college to another. For most colleges, they give more weight to honors courses.”
[AITE</a> University Ready](<a href=“http://www.aitestamford.org/guidance/academic.html]AITE”>http://www.aitestamford.org/guidance/academic.html)</p>

<p>“Most colleges recalculate a student’s GPA based on their formulas so that any weighting for AP or honors classes by a student’s high school is not really meaningful. The fact that a student takes honors and/or AP classes is what is most meaningful to colleges, not the way GPA is calculated or weighted by student’s high school.”
[April</a> School Council Minutes (00000087).DOC](<a href=“http://www.cpsd.us/crls/about/School_Council/SCminutes_052510.html]April”>http://www.cpsd.us/crls/about/School_Council/SCminutes_052510.html)</p>

<p>"Most colleges recalculate your GPA for admission, scholarships, and honors programs using only grades earned in academic courses taken 9-11. Some colleges give extra points for honors, Advanced Placement (AP) and Duel Enrollment (DE); others do not. "
<a href=“http://pch.ccps.k12.fl.us/staff/nicklass/02B65E08-000F70E4.2/GPA%2520calculator.doc[/url]”>http://pch.ccps.k12.fl.us/staff/nicklass/02B65E08-000F70E4.2/GPA%2520calculator.doc&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>“Most colleges recalculate your gpa for admission, scholarships, and honors programs using only grades earned in academic courses taken 9-11. Some colleges give extra points for honors, AP and IB; others do not.”
<a href=“http://www.da-arts.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/recalgpa.pdf[/url]”>http://www.da-arts.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/recalgpa.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>“Most colleges recalculate the student’s high school grade point average to determine admission into their college of choice. Please consider this when submitting your college applications.”
<a href=“http://hvhs.acrsd.net/programofstudies.pdf[/url]”>http://hvhs.acrsd.net/programofstudies.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>It’s not my opinion!</p>

43

<p>You probably forgot the enclosing " around the three search terms. I had an advantage, already knowing the result; I have researched this before.</p>

<p>How can less than half recalculate if it’s prohibitively expensive and time consuming? I didn’t mean to claim that every single college recalculates.</p>

44

<p>Well, none of these cite any reference, they are still just opinions, and 3 of them seem to be the same or related Massachusetts group(s) saying the same thing in 3 different forums. It really sheds no light on anything. Also, a lot of the references say that most colleges recalculate and include only core academic courses. Technically that is not what the CDS asks for either, and is yet another source of differences in reporting.</p>

<p>That is really the point. If the colleges don’t all do the same thing, then what is published in the CDS is worthless to use for comparison purposes. No one ever said that none recalculate or all do, although you rather implied you thought they all did in one post. But even if you didn’t, what’s the point anyway? This entire discussion was started when you said

No matter what you think the system should be, there can be no disputing that when instructed to use a 4.0 scale, then 4.0 is the highest score possible. If you want to say that an A in an AP course is worth 5, then it is a 5 point scale. It is that simple, really. Which schools recalculate and by what methods is all quite irrelevant to that point, and to what the CDS is asking them to report. I would even agree it makes sense to have a standard 5.0 scale, if you aren’t going to go to the 0-110 system I mentioned earlier. But until they all do the same thing, the GPA section of the CDS is quite worthless.</p>

45

<p>One of the largest college systems (the largest?) calculates every applicant’s GPA, and explains exactly how it’s done:</p>

<p>[CaliforniaColleges.edu</a> - Calculating Your GPA](<a href=“http://www.californiacolleges.edu/admissions/california-state-university-csu/gpa_calculator.asp]CaliforniaColleges.edu”>http://www.californiacolleges.edu/admissions/california-state-university-csu/gpa_calculator.asp)</p>

46

<p>Good for them. So what? And LOL, they don’t do it, they instruct the student on how to do it. So they are not putting in the time and effort. What a riot. And they say:</p>

<p>

</p>

47

<p>Your quote says they do it:

The warning is that when students do it on the worksheet, it’s not official; only the campus’es doing it is official.</p>

48

<p>It is possible that no matter how many times it is explained, some won’t believe it (my bolding):

[Educational</a> Consultant and College Planner | Great College Advice | Calculating Your “Real” Grade Point Average (GPA)](<a href=“How Do I Calculate My Real GPA? | Great College Advice”>How Do I Calculate My Real GPA? | Great College Advice)</p>

49

<p>We never said we don’t believe some do it, and I cannot believe you are not understanding the actual point here.</p>

<p>As far as California, I have had this discussion with numerous people from there. Here is the section from the UC application. The only take online applications. So yes, the students are indeed doing all the data entry. Then of course doing calculations is easier.

So it appears that the student does indeed enter the data for the school. When I asked how they keep people from cheating, they said they are spot checked enough that cheating means automatic disqualification, so people don’t do it. I have my doubts, but all what I quoted says is that different campuses may be checking and may use different methods. And how stupid is the latter anyway? But surely, vossron, you understand the meaning of may.</p>

<p>Anyway, this is getting tiresome because, I repeat, it does not in the least address the point that the GPA’s being reported everywhere, including the CDS, are not calculated the same way by many schools, are therefore not comparable, and that these schools are not following the instructions. That was all the real point was. The fact that California schools have the students do the work for them, have no real way of knowing if the data is accurate (although it probably largely is), but then potentially recalculate it differently from school to school just further demonstrates how worthless this is.</p>

50

<p>

</p>

<p>I’d agree if it were for standardizing purposes.</p>

<p>But I think your argument around this quote is that you believe the 0-100 system is more detailed, would show varied gpa/class rank better?</p>

<p>If that were the case, then the 4-point scale can be shown to be 4x’s more detailed.</p>

51

<p>As I hopefully clarified later, it would really be a 110 point system, if done with the bonuses the way I imagine them. But I cannot see exactly how a system that makes a conversion from an 81 or an 89 to the same B=3.0 is more detailed than reporting that 81 or 89. I would be curious what you are thinking there. Also, remember, I was mostly talking about a school that doesn’t do + or - grades, although even then there will be some loss of information, albeit less. And yes, I think I was quite clear in my numerous posts that this only made sense if it were standardized.</p>

52

<p>We have raised multiple GPA points in this discussion; I don’t see one “the actual point here.”</p>

<p>One point was about colleges using the high-school-reported GPA; we seem to agree that some do and some don’t, but disagree about the majority. Resolving would be tedious.</p>

<p>We agree that the UCs calculate the official GPA! :)</p>

<p>We seem to disagree about colleges counting and reporting an AP “A” as five points. I think doing so better identifies stand-out students, colleges should calculate GPA this way, and the CDS should report it this way. We know that some colleges do so; I think they all should, to better standardize the CDS report. I don’t think that AP 5.0 should be changed to 4.0, nor should A+ 4.33 be changed to 4.0, but that’s just one opinion.</p>

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<p>

We agree on no such thing.</p>

<p>

No we agree on this for the most part.</p>

54

<p>

Whoops, I thought you just explained how the UC web site calculates the GPA from the data entered into the online application. I thought it made sense, so what did I miss?</p>

55

<p>as follows, if you believe that a 70=2.0, 80=3.0, 100=4.0:</p>

<p>70 2.00
71 2.10
72 2.20
73 2.30
74 2.40
75 2.50
76 2.60
77 2.70
78 2.80
79 2.90
80 3.00
81 3.05
82 3.10
83 3.15
84 3.20
85 3.25
86 3.30
87 3.35
88 3.40
89 3.45
90 3.50
91 3.55
92 3.60
93 3.65
94 3.70
95 3.75
96 3.80
97 3.85
98 3.90
99 3.95
100 4.00</p>

<p>That is if the person converting isn’t lazy.</p>

<p>This would mean a 90=3.5 in the coversion because >80, each 100-scale point would =.05 gpa points, below, 80, each 100-scale-point =.10 gpa point. So in actuality, gpa points are 5 and 10x’s more detailed than the 100-point scale (or 110).</p>

<p>Most people would consider 90 as an A-, but consider 80 as a solid B, as well as 70 as solid C. I’d consider 3.67 more of an A-, but the conversion wouldn’t be perfect either.</p>

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<p>drax12 - Your logic escapes me. That is a 1-1 mapping of scores, so it is identical in terms of detail, if that is as far as one takes it. For every score in the 0-100 scale, there is an equivalent score in the 4.0 scheme. As far as saying each scale point = 0.05 gpa points, that is just a matter of taking the 0-100 scale to an extra decimal point. Besides, in the real world it usually works the opposite way, as I have pointed out. Most teachers grade tests numerically (“I got a 92 on that test”) and then in the end take the average of all the tests (say a 87.3) and call that a B+, which is then recorded as a 3.33. You actually lose precision in this manner because an 86.5 might also be a B+, so the student that did a little better appears to be the same as the other, but also looks the same as the student that got an 89, which might also be called a B+. So I think you have it exactly backwards. BTW, I certainly always thought an 80 was the lowest B-, and a 70 the lowest C-, if you are doing + and -. But I am sure definitions vary, another problem with converting from the 0-100 scale to letter grades.</p>

<p>vossron - My objection was to your use of the word “official”. Maybe I am misinterpreting how you are using the word.</p>

57

<p>Ah, by “official” I mean the GPAs that the UC campuses calculate and use, rather than GPAs calculated by anyone else.</p>

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<p>drax12 - not that it affects the logic, but as I thought, most people consider 75=2.0, 85=3.0 and 95+=4.0 [GPA</a> Conversion Chart](<a href=“http://inquiry.princetonreview.com/leadgentemplate/GPA_popup.asp]GPA”>Calculate Your GPA With Our GPA Scale | The Princeton Review)</p>

<p>[How</a> to Convert Your GPA to a 4.0 Scale](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>How to Convert (Calculate) Your GPA to a 4.0 Scale – BigFuture)</p>

<p>[Answers.com</a> - How do you convert percentage GPA to 4.0 scale](<a href=“Answers - The Most Trusted Place for Answering Life's Questions”>How do you convert percentage GPA to 4.0 scale? - Answers)</p>

59

<p>You make legitmate points wrt one-to-one mapping. </p>

<p>(And I got up “early” today so I could answer your post, and I knew you would make some valid points…)</p>

<p>But if you think about it, the higher up the grades, the harder attainable towards the magical 4.0. Therefore the spacing of one 100-scale point would mean less of an interval wrt the 4-point scale, which would seem to be a natural occurence.</p>

<p>2.0 is -.01 gpa point of falling into the “D” catagory. 3.0 is -.01 from the “C.”</p>

<p>Most people think of 90 as an A- designation. </p>

<p>THis is the flaw of the 100-point system where the demarcation between B and A is different than C to B. THe 4-point system manifests grades and levels better.</p>

<p>Here would be my “final” adustment, with adjustment to 90 as 3.67, A- designation:</p>

<p>70 2.00
71 2.10
72 2.20
73 2.30
74 2.40
75 2.50
76 2.60
77 2.70
78 2.80
79 2.90
80 3.00
81 3.07
82 3.13
83 3.20
84 3.27
85 3.33
86 3.40
87 3.47
88 3.53
89 3.60
90 3.67
91 3.70
92 3.73
93 3.77
94 3.80
95 3.83
96 3.87
97 3.90
98 3.93
99 3.97
100 4.00</p>

<p>Again, I think the 100-point system is flawed. I look at someone with a 92 gpa and I think “good,” but not “great,” wrt A’s.</p>

<p>I look at someone with a 82, and I think sold “B” student.</p>

<p>“B” student can be various ranges as can be shown in the 4-point scale.</p>

<p>Those who made conversion scales I would say are probably pretty lazy. (I haven’t had a chance to look at them yet.)</p>

<p>And this scale could be adjusted for 2.5 “C,” 3.5 “B,” though I would consider those in the + catagory.</p>

60

<p>

I don’t understand all of what you are saying, but you are confused. Specifically, you are confusing absolute numbers with relative spacing. To make it clear without going into long explanations, I could take someone’s score on a 100 point scale, divide the whole scale by 100, and now claim that it is a 0-1 point scale and the difference between falling from one category to another is 0.01. I could divide by 1,000 to make it a 0-0.1 scale and say the difference is 0.001. It is completely arbitrary. Even using the scales as currently constructed, it depends on how many decimal places you want to take things out.</p>

<p>I honestly have no idea what you mean about the people that made the conversion scales being lazy. It is Princeton Review and College Board, lol. You continue to use 70=2.0, but that is not the convention used by anyone else I know of. 75=2.0 in most peoples “book”.</p>

<p>Let me try a different example. In our system it might be 75 degrees F outside, and then the next day 85 F. A 10 degree difference, right? But not to a European. The temperature went from 23.9 to 29.4, only a 5.5 degree difference. But of course the change was the same. For these two grading scales, it is similar except that you LOSE precision in converting a precise number (87) to a designation that represents a range of possible quantities (83-87 perhaps), so that seeing a B means you don’t know if that person earned an 83 or an 87 or something in between. Now converting that B back to yet another scale, the conventional GPA scale, would be a 3.0. But again, you don’t know if that person averaged an 83 or an 87 to earn that 3.0. If we had left everything as the 0-100 all along, and reported it that way with no conversions, you would know if they got an 83, 84, 85, 86 or 87 rather than just seeing a 3.0.</p>

<p>You don’t need to answer, because this is really fairly basic and I am right. It also doesn’t matter much to most colleges that they lose that bit of precision, because 1) it tends to balance out where you got the benefit of having an 83 be a B versus an 87 being a B; and 2) they don’t need things to be that precise in their decisions. Still, it makes one wonder why we ever moved away from just reporting the simple 0-100 number.</p>