<p>WHAT!!?? Talk about grade inflation!!! Are there really schools where 60% of the students have a GPA above 3.5? If so, then what’s the GPA measuring? Attendance? </p>
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<p>Both of our local HS’s have this problem. D is an average student A/B honor roll w/ a 3.55 GPA and is just shy of the top 50%. Weighted GPA’s go to 6.0 at our campus - we have several AP classes and you have to take ALL of them and get A’s in ALL of them and you MIGHT make the top 10%. This presents a problem - in our state - you have auto admission if you are in the top 10%. This makes competition high for the ‘average’ student to attend the ‘popular’ state universities.</p>
<p>D is planning on attending out of state.</p>
<p>Her profile -
3.5 GPA
52% class rank
SAT 620/640/590</p>
<p>Auburn (accepted w/ Charter Scholarship)
U of Southern Mississippi (accepted w/ 1/2 tution and OOS waiver)
U of Alabama (accepted)
U of Missouri (accepted)
Oklahoma State University (accepted)</p>
<p>What a difference as gap year has made! DD had 1390 on SAT1’s, and a 3.0 GPA. She is a good student but had a horrid sophomore year that dragged her GPA way down. She deferred college for a year and had now reapplied to several that I never thought would be possible. In at Villanova EA which is a top choice for her! We’ll be waiting till the April decisions come out before making a final decision.</p>
<p>Hardshell, at D’s school if you have below a 3.8 you are in the lower 50th percentile. But in this case it absolutely does not mean grade inflation. They send 98% to college, and have the highest number of national merit finalists per capita in the state. Also first in state for volleyball, track and golf. D took chemistry at public school this summer and laughed at how easy an A was, while summer school health at her school required hours of homework.
The kneejerk “it must be grade inflation” response pushes my buttons- this is just a very competitive group of girls.</p>
<p>If you’ll forgive my playing the Devil’s advocate, is it really a competition if everyone wins? It’s great that they all do so well, but how does one distinguish between the great and the merely very good?</p>
<p>Mantori- “is it really a competition if everyone wins?” In the Olympics is it a competition if the difference between first and last in a race is a tenth of a second rather than a couple of minutes? It all depends on who the competition is.</p>
<p>That’s why standardized tests are part of the equation. The SAT’s, ACT and AP’s. Some schools DO pass out AP A’s like candy, and almost nobody passes the corresponding AP tests. Let’s face it, college admissions people have a tough job.</p>
<p>Oh, I agree! I hate competition for grades and am delighted that my son attends a “competitive” school where the kids actually cooperate more than they compete. I was only addressing the matter of a “competitive” school where everyone’s grades are high, which makes it hard to determine accurately who are really the best students.</p>
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<p>We could argue this endlessly, of course, and I’m not saying you’re wrong, but I do feel that in a race, the runner who was 0.1 second faster was objectively faster and was therefore, for the purposes of that competition, the better runner. However, a student whose GPA is 0.01 better than another’s can not objectively be said to be the better student, since there are so many variables. (What classes did they take? How are grades weighted? Who had the flu more often throughout high school?)</p>
<p>But when it comes down to it, I’m really just saying that I can’t relate to someone who feels compelled to achieve better grades than anyone else. To heck with everyone else, I say. If I’m learning and doing well, and you’re learning and doing well, then I’m perfectly happy. I know not everyone thinks that way, but I wish they did.</p>
<p>I agree with your philosphy mantori- which is why I didn’t push D to achieve 4.0 at the expense of a well rounded life. If only more adcoms felt the same way.</p>
<p>D is a 3.65 UW, much higher weighted due to lots of AP/Honors, 1900 SAT, strong upward grade trend (>4.0 first term senior year), strong EC, strong volunteer exp. So far, accepted at U Colorado, U Wisconsin-Madison. Deferred at Wake Forest, U Miami. Waiting to hear back from many more (CA resident, so applied to the UC’s and others).</p>
<p>Santa Clara is a great school. Just watched Jeopardy (I’m a nerd) the college version, and the SCU kid blew away the Brown kid and the U Penn kid!</p>