The Great Gpa

I was speaking to some dear friends the other week.  They have an 8th grader about to go through high school registration and we started a fabulous conversation about what courses she should take to best prepare her for college and college admissions.  Then a few weeks later, I was sitting on the sidelines of my husband’s U14 boys soccer team (he’s the coach y’all), and once again I overheard parents talking about what courses they were looking at for their sons when they start high school in the fall.  They discussed honors, Advance Placements (AP), and International Baccalaureate (IB) programs.  And it made me think- parents seem to be very concerned with the level of courses that their students are taking, but do they understand how those courses can truly help or hurt their child’s overall GPA? And how, their academic records factor into admissions? It’s so much more complicated than having a transcript full of high level courses. 

According to a survey conducted by the National Association for College Admission Counseling (NACAC) 80.9% of colleges rank a students overall GPA (all classes) as “Considerable Importance” when evaluating applicants and 70.8% of schools consider the GPA of core courses.  So what does this mean? It means that GPA is more than just an accumulation of letter grades over a course of four years.  In fact, a student’s GPA is a fairly complex aspect of admissions evaluation.  

Breaking Down GPA

A student’s GPA is based on a 4 point scale determined by the letter grade a student earned in a course (A= 4 points, B= 3 points, C= 2 points, D= 1 point, and F= 0 points) and the amount of credits assigned to the course.  It's important to note, most schools calculate GPA with pluses and minuses adding and subtracting value.  For example, if a student earns an A+ in US History, it would be a 4.25 whereas an A- would be 3.75.  With AP or IB programs, this scale goes up to a 5.0 point scale (weighted) with an A+ earning a 5.0, an A being a 4.75, an A- a 4.25, and so forth. So when talking about weighted GPA we are taking into account the difficulty of the course, letter grade, and credits assigned.  Confusing, I know! Websites such as GPAcalculator.net are helpful tools when trying to figure out weighted vs unweighted GPAs for your student. 

GPA Evaluation By Admissions Offices

Most parents and students believe that students need a high number of advanced courses with outstanding GPAs in order to obtain admission into their dream schools.  However, colleges are very aware that most students are not taking, or even able to take, a full class load of AP and IB programs throughout their high school careers.  In fact, a very small number of students applying each year to school are in that particular pool of students.  So you don’t need to be pushing your child into every elite course unless you are chasing after the most elite schools, and even then, remember, they are only going to take about 10% of that group of students.  It is better to have a sane teenager in your house, than a stressed out one!  

That being said, students shouldn’t coast either.  Two students can have similar overall GPAs, however; students with higher grades in less challenging courses, where more challenging courses were available to them, are not as well received as students who took on more challenging courses but received slightly lesser grades.  Basically, an A in 11th Grade English doesn’t look as good as a B+ in AP US Literature.  Now again, this doesn’t mean take on every advanced course- a string of B’s in all your advanced courses isn’t going to sit well either.  Colleges want to see students who are willing to challenge themselves and rise to that challenge.  If math isn’t your subject, but you start off in college prep, then take honors class, and then take on an AP course and receive a B- will play well because it shows growth.  But taking all AP courses, receiving B’s each course, is not showing improvement.  As one admission officer said “Be reasonable and stay sane.  Take what you can manage and do well in, and what makes sense for you.”  It’s about your journey, remember there are many students who have high GPAs, amazing transcripts, and will still get turned down from schools! And why is that?

Well, not all schools are created equal, and not all schools have qualified staff and resources to offer advanced courses in all subject areas, at all grades levels.  Because of this, when your student’s transcripts are sent into a school, they are sent along with their high school’s school profile. These profiles outline what courses are offered at their school, how many students are taking advanced classes, the grade range for those courses, how many students are passing the AP exams, and students' class ranking, among other aspects about school funding, staff, and overall graduation rate.  This is all taken into account when they evaluate your academic record and overall GPA.  Some admission offices even reassign point values to transcripts, thus establishing a new overall GPA, to account for these discrepancies between schools and level out the playing field.  So even if your student has a 4.67 GPA and is second in their high school class, it doesn’t guarantee them a golden ticket.  So, when evaluating course selection while preparing for high school or while in high school, don’t get hung up on the face value of course names- remember they are just one part of a much larger application. 

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