What is a real GPA?

Calculating your real GPA can be tough. Everyone knows the importance of a high school student’s grade point average or GPA. It’s the little number that labels us. It signifies whether we are a geek or slackers, or somewhere in between. The GPA is usually either a point of great pride or great shame. Those students who are proud of their GPA practically have it tattooed on their foreheads, while others skulk about in fear that someone might discover their secret.

In college admission, it serves as a critical litmus test: how does this student perform in the classroom, and will he or she succeed at this college?

No matter how you cut it, the GPA is a source of anxiety and tension for just about every high schooler.

But let’s step back for a minute. Your GPA is not a measure of your worth as a human being. It is not even a measure of your intelligence. Rather, it is the gauge of a young person’s ability to play the game of school. Some tremendously intelligent students completely blow off school (I have several clients of this variety), while some students with ‘grit’ are able, through sheer doggedness and determination, to achieve relatively high GPAs (there are fewer of these, I find).

How Do I Calculate My Real GPA for College?

Calculating one’s GPA is a fairly straightforward process. Except for the fact that many high schools report “weighted” and “unweighted” grade point averages. In a previous post, I detail the differences between a weighted and unweighted GPA. Basically, a weighted GPA takes into account the difficulty of the courses a student is taking, and those who take harder courses such as honors and AP are rewarded with extra “brownie points” in their GPA. Usually, colleges strip these brownie points from an applicant’s GPA in order to fairly compare one student against another.

So, your Real GPA is your GPA in your core classes.

What is your core GPA?

Therefore, to calculate a student’s core GPA, we have to remove the fluff and have to calculate the GPA based solely on the five academic solids that constitute a high school student’s performance:

• Math
• English or Language Arts
• Social Studies/History
• Science
• Foreign Language

Non-core classes won’t count toward your real GPA

But merely stripping away the brownie points is not enough to uncover your real GPA, because in today’s comprehensive high schools, we give grades for just about every class a student takes, including:

• Physical education and sports training
• Fine arts and performing groups (including theater and all sorts of music)
• Health classes, including sexual education
• Student aide or school helper

These courses help pad a high school student’s schedule. But they do not constitute the academic core of high school. Grades in these courses do provide a measure of success. But these grades are not counted as a measure of a student’s academic abilities. The only grades that really count are those in your core GPA.

How do you calculate your core GPA?

Now with that out of the way, let’s look at the nuts and bolts of the GPA calculation for students who have letter grades. For each grade in an academic course, assign the following number values to each grade. Then simply divide the sum of these numbers by the number of courses (a simple average). This will be how we calculate your “Real” GPA.

A  = 4.0

A- = 3.7

B+ = 3.3

B    = 3.0

B-  = 2.7

C+ = 2.3

C   = 2.0

C- = 1.7

D+ = 1.3

D  = 1.0

F = 0

So, to give an example, let’s say that Stan the Student has a B- in Math, a B+ in English, a C+ in social studies, an A in Spanish, and a B in science, we add the following values:  2.7 + 3.3 + 2.3 + 4.0 + 3.0, for a total of 15.3.  Divide by 5 courses, and the GPA is 3.06.

That’s how you calculate your real GPA!

Your Core GPA is Your Real GPA

The core GPA is your “real” GPA: this is the measure of your academic performance in high school. (Again, it’s not a measure of self-worth.) Unless students come to me with a transcript with nothing but grades of A, most students are disappointed to see their 3.5 cumulative, weighted GPA fall to 3.0 or lower. Those gym classes and band classes are not only fun, but they artificially prop up one’s GPA.

And colleges know it. So those with relatively selective admissions processes will strip the fluff right out of the GPA in order to get down to brass tacks: how well does this particular student perform in academic work?

So, while I hate to be the bearer of bad news, I encourage students from middle school onward to be aware of their “real” GPA as they go through school and to not be blinded by the number on their year-end transcript. They need to be aware that some courses, whether required (health, gym) or not (jazz band, sports conditioning) may artificially inflate their cumulative GPA.

The lesson: don’t let yourself be deluded by the numbers on the page. College admissions officers, who must compare one student against another in deciding whom to admit, will strip your GPA of all non-academic fluff. Don’t wait until the fall of your senior year to come to the realization that your GPA may be artificially inflated.

Does your student need help with the college admissions process? 

The team at Great College Advice has years of experience working with thousands of students as they navigate the college admissions process.  We can help you prepare, select, and apply to colleges to give you the best chance of being accepted to your top choices.  Of course we can help with demonstrating interest, but we will also help you with every other aspect of this process. Want to learn more?  Please contact us and we’ll set up a no-cost, no-obligation meeting so we can learn more about you and discuss how we can help make the college admissions process more successful and less stressful. 

Since 2007, the expert team of college admissions consultants at Great College Advice has provided comprehensive guidance to thousands of students from across the United States and over 45 countries across the world. Great College Advice has offices in Colorado, New Jersey, Chicago, North Carolina and Massachusetts.

In addition to our one-on-one counseling, Great College Advice extends its support through one of the most active and resource-rich Facebook Groups for college-bound students and their families: College Admissions Experts. With nearly 100,000 members—students, parents, and experienced counselors—this vibrant forum offers peer support and expert advice like no other.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in July 2023 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.

The post Calculating Your Real Grade Point Average (GPA) first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

What do you do when you are deferred?

Let’s just be honest. Being deferred in the early round of college admissions really stinks. It’s a kind of purgatory. It’s disappointing, especially if the college in question was your first choice. A deferral feels like a rejection, even if it is not a final decision:  you COULD still be accepted in the regular round. Nevertheless, a deferral feels lousy.

You do have some options about what to do, though not all of them are very good.

Option 1:  Sit around and mope when you are deferred

This might be tempting. But it’s obviously self-defeating. There is no denying that deferrals are filled with negative emotions, and you must honor those feelings and understand that you really and truly feel down-in-the-dumps about a it. But wallowing in self-pity is not going to help make things different. You need to recognize and deal with the emotions, but then get up out of that chair and make some decisions and take some action.

Option 2:  Do nothing

On its face, this sounds like a bad option, too.  I mean, you’ve gotta something, right? Actually, in some cases doing nothing is just the right thing to do. But it implies that you already have a plan in place in the case of such a possibility. As educational planners, we help our students have a Plan B (and C and D) in place, just in case Plan A does not materialize. And in some cases, students find that Plan B is just about as desirable as Plan A, so they can just ignore the deferral and execute on their subsequent strategy without a whole lot of hand-wringing and teeth-gnashing.  Let Plan A go and turn to the other desirable options in front of you.

Option 3:  Apply to a bunch more schools

This is a possibility, but probably not advisable. First, it will just make a whole lot more work for yourself in trying to get new applications out the door. Second, these schools may be added to your list without full consideration of whether you even want to attend. Good decisions are seldom made in a panic.  Again, if you have taken the time to fully consider your options before you even submitted those Early Decision (or Early Action) applications, then stick with your original plan.  Just because Plan A did not pan out does not mean that the other elements of your overall strategy should be thrown out.  The deferral was always a risk–assuming you planned for that possibility in the first place.  Don’t let the emotional turmoil of a deferral push you into making silly decisions that don’t make sense when you’re in a more rational, calm state.

Option 4: When you are deferred, write a letter of continuing interest (LOCI) to the school(s) that deferred you

This is the best option by far. It allows you to do what is necessary to keep Plan A open as a possibility, but also lets you execute on the rest of your strategy.

So what’s needed? It depends on the school in question. When you receive your deferral letter, the university will have explicit instructions about what you do in the case of a deferral.  We recommend that you follow those directions faithfully. Some will advocate that you try to go above and beyond those instructions. But our belief is that you can easily go overboard and risk annoying admissions officers for not following their instructions.  They are giving you these instructions for a reason.

For example, some might advocate sending something that will help you stand out, like a box of cookies or a singing telegram. This would surely help the admissions officers to remember your name–only because you were over the top in desperation to be accepted. You might become memorable for all the wrong reasons and thereby tank your chances of admission. So please:  follow directions.

When you are deferred, how should you write your letter of continuing interest?

Again, the university will tell you exactly what you should do if you are deferred. Sometimes the instructions will be very simple: “please check this box on this form to indicate that you would like to be considered in the regular admissions round, or check this box if you would like us to chuck your application in the bin and take a flying leap.” (Most likely you’ll want to check that first box).

Sometimes they will ask you for any updates that you would like to add to your application that would be considered in the second review of your application in the regular decision round.  Most often, you will be asked to deliver these updates through the university admissions portal. You simply complete a text box on the portal with your updates and press “send.”  These updates will then be automatically added to your file.

Depending on the school, you may also be invited to submit a “letter of continuing interest” or LOCI.  This letter is what it sounds like:  it’s a proclamation of your continuing desire to attend the school if admitted.  You simply are reiterating what they already know:  that you submitted your application early in hopes of being accepted and those feelings of desire have not dissipated, and that despite your disappointment in the deferral, you still really, really, really want to go there.

What should I say in my letter of continuing interest?

A lot of ink (okay, maybe not ink…but a lot of pixels?) has been spilled explaining what these LOCI should like. Our take is that these should be very simple statements of fact and intent.

The facts

What have you done since you sent in your application that admissions officers should know and consider as they review your application for a second time? In most cases, the reality is that you have done very little in the six weeks between the early application submission and your receipt of the deferral.  But there are things you might want to share, depending on how seminal those six weeks have been.

Here are some examples:

• Your first semester grades in your senior courses were a triumph.
• Your SAT or ACT score took a great leap upward.
• You won a major sports award.
• You won a major academic award.
• You were accepted into a very competitive summer program.
• You were won a concerto competition with a local orchestra or band.
• You completed a major service project that you were preparing while you were preparing those early applications.
• You completed your Girl Scouts Gold Award.
• You had a poem published in a literary journal.

You get the idea:  what have you accomplished since the application was originally submitted that make a material differences in how you might be evaluated by the admissions office?

Again, our experience is that the vast majority of students do not have a lot of facts to add to their application.  But if there are facts to share, share them!

The continuing interest

In this part of the letter you should express–very briefly–your continued hope that the admissions office will select you. With this short paragraph of the letter, you really need to be concise. You also must not whine. You must not become a sycophant–complimenting the college (or worse, the admissions office) on the many positive traits this college possesses. You can reiterate that the school remains your top choice, that you remain eager to attend, and that you appreciate that your application will receive a second, serious review.

Some students have an impulse to go on and on about how wonderful the school is, about how they can imagine having coffee in this little cafe or they hope to be able to study in this or that library or take a course with Professor Longbottom.

Please spare your overworked admissions officers this schmaltz. All they want to know–really–is that you cared enough to send them a note and that you remain committed to attend if accepted.  Just make your point and close your letter with a “Sincerely yours” or “Yours truly” and be done.

So, in summary, what should you do when you are deferred?

The three-part answer is fairly simple.

First, feel the pain. It stings. Deferrals are no fun. You applied to a school in hopes that you’d be accepted. You weren’t–at least not yet. And the feeling you are feeling is real. So let it wash over you. But don’t let it debilitate you. There are things to do.

Second, execute on your backup plans that you put in place precisely for this possibility. You need to complete all the rest of your applications (if you haven’t already–which you should have done long before you received this deferral), and send them off.

Third, do whatever the college asks you to do to keep your application in consideration for the regular decision admissions round. Follow their instructions faithfully.

And if you are asked or invited to write a letter of continuing interest, do it. But keep it short, sweet, and to the point.  Share any new information that needs to be included in your application in the second review during the regular round. And simply restate that you would likely attend–or certainly would attend–if admitted.

Do you need help when you are deferred from your first choice college?

The counselors at Great College Advice are experts in helping students to pick up the piece after a deferral. Most of our clients have created clear alternative strategies in the event that their early choices do not come through as planned.

But if you find yourself at the end of your rope, not knowing what to do, feeling lost and without a strategy, we can help.  We can assist in getting you back on track. We can help you create that last-minute plan that will ensure that at the end of the regular admissions round that you have solid choices for your college education.

If you need help when you are deferred, contact us and we’ll show you how we can help.

The post What to do when you are deferred from your first choice college first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

The question that parents and students most often ask me is, “Which is better: getting a high GPA or hard classes?”

The humorous, accurate, but not always helpful response is: “Take the hardest course you can and get an ‘A’ in it.”

Here’s the scoop: this is not an easy question to answer categorically. In truth, it all depends on the student. Every student should take the most challenging courses he or she can perform well in. Colleges seek students who push themselves. They want students to delve into their intellectual interests and who love to learn. Honors courses are an indicator of intellectual drive and curiosity.

After all, both high school and college are about getting the best education you possibly can. So take advantage of the opportunities in front of you to learn the most you can.

Don’t Get Bad Grades — Especially in Easy Classes

But it does no good to take a slew of AP courses and get a “C” or “D” in each. Further, anyone who takes an AP course should set his or her sights on taking the AP exam. You need to pass the exam–not the teacher’s tests–to get the true credit for taking a high-quality AP course.

Parents also ask about how GPAs are then calculated for honors, AP, and IB courses. Generally, grades are weighted to give “extra credit” in the GPA for these tougher courses. But that does not mean that a “B” in an honors course is the equivalent of an “A” in a regular college prep course. (For more on weighted vs. unweighted GPAs, see my post here). The fact is that an “A” is an “A” and indicates exemplary work, while a “B” is a “B” and indicates good work.

Which is Better, a High GPA or Hard Classes?

So how to answer a question? It depends on your child. If he or she is capable of honors-level work, by all means, enroll in those courses.

And isn’t often the answer to all things college:  “It depends.” Not very cut and dried. But it’s the true answer.  

The general rule is clear from a conceptual point of view. But how can you apply this general rule to a specific student in a specific situation? Well, to be honest, that’s where a good educational consultant can help clarify the variables. It all comes down to the details, the trade-offs, the ambitions, the individual circumstances. A good consultant can help you wade through those things and come up with an educational plan that contains just the right amount or rigor without risking low grades.

Don’t Ease Up On Rigor Just to Get Top Grades

One of the worst things a student can do is to be enrolled in honors courses through sophomore or junior year, and then take easier courses in order to boost a GPA. This always backfires, as admissions officers want to see upward trends in both the GPA and the rigor of the academic program.

The fact is, you cannot hoodwink an admissions officer into seeing only a higher GPA. Admissions professionals are well-trained to identify the story behind the transcript. They follow the sequencing of your choices. If they see you were in honors courses and did reasonably well, but then pulled back in junior year to boost the GPA. They are unlikely to congratulate you for being such a serious and diligent student who puts academic inquiry and curiosity before some silly statistic. You’re not going to fool anyone with this sort of choice.

Don’t Push Yourself So Hard You Flounder

The reverse can also be true, however. Sometimes students think they should push themselves harder just because they can. But then get themselves into a bind when they are unable to handle the level of difficulty of the course. 

Good students with a history of doing well in school can be particularly at risk if they don’t see the signs of trouble before things really begin to wonky. If the student has never, ever received a bad grade–even on a test–they may have a lot of negative emotions about that failure that can prevent them to taking immediate action to get back on track.  

If you find yourself in a challenging course but your performance is not what you expected. You need to reach out to the teacher right away to figure out the problem. It may be that it’s simply a matter of reinforcing certain content that you just never mastered earlier in your educational career–and once you get that hole filled, you’re off and running again. Occasionally, however, you may be in over your head, and you may have to take more drastic action to prevent an academic disaster.

High GPA or Hard Classes: The Example of Math

Math is a subject in which this can happen. In this country. We tend to think of math as a race of some sort:  whoever gets to calculus first, wins. However, math is not a race. It’s a set of concepts and skills that help us make sense of the world using numbers and figures. It’s a powerful tool that requires us to master certain skills before we take on new ones.  

However, since colleges seem to value calculus as the highest possible mathematical achievement for entry to college–especially into some majors–students and parents may feel pressure to push into higher levels of math before the student is really ready to do so.  

Therefore, if you have any questions about advancing into higher levels of math, talk to your school counselor and your math teachers. What are the risks, if any? What can you do if you find the material challenging? What resources does the school provide to help students struggling with advanced material? 

Don’t be afraid to take on a challenge. Also don’t be afraid to seek out help if and when you need it. Not only do you want to take those hard classes, but you want to excel in them.

The Bottom Line: High GPA or Hard Classes

As we agreed in the beginning, the general rule here is to take the hardest classes possible and get the highest possible grades in those classes.  

However accurate this guidance might be, it really doesn’t provide granular advice to the individual student trying to register for next year’s courses. 

So what can you do? Here are some questions to get your mind going.

Are you aiming for the most selective colleges in the country? Then you need to push yourself into higher levels of rigor at every opportunity. However, remember that not every student can push themselves in this way, do be careful here. 

Are you particularly good at particular subjects? If so, push yourself further. You can likely handle greater rigor. And you’re pushing yourself in a subject you enjoy, then the subject might become all the more enjoyable as the pace picks up and the difficult of the course increases. 

Are there subjects in which you struggle? Is there a subject that seems to suck up all your homework time, when the gain in your grade is not all that great? This is a sign that you may be pushing too hard and it might be worth pulling back in a subject. 

High GPA or Hard Classes: Get Professional Help to Decide

If you really can’t figure out for yourself–using all the resources at your disposal–to make a clear decision about whether to go for the rigor or pull back a bit. You might want to consider hiring a professional educational consultant like the team at Great College Advice. We help our students make these difficult judgment calls all the time. We help them understand that there is no simple answer to this simple question. You have to figure out the right balance for yourself, and we can help you do just that.

The post High GPA or Hard Classes? Which Is Better? first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

The post Weighted GPA or Unweighted GPA? first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Thanks to the miracle of social media, I read an article today that goes a long way to explain–from a teacher’s perspective–how silly it is that we make a huge deal of the difference between a B+ (measured at 89% in some grading systems) and an A- (measured at a 90%). Can this single percentage point–which marks the difference between admission and rejection and top universities, between winning scads of scholarship dollars and taking on loads of debt–really mean so much when it comes to a the amount a student has LEARNED?

The article entitled “It’s Time to Stop Averaging Grades,” is written by Rick Wormeli and published on the Association for Middle Level Education (AMLE) website, makes these primary points.

1. School grading systems based on percentages are arithmetically handy, but they do not measure knowledge or skills.

2. Teachers’ assignments and internal grading systems may not be consistent within the school.

3.  Differences of tenths or even hundredths of a point can mean the world of difference to students seeking admissions–and scholarships.

4.  Teachers and schools are being dishonest if they stand on arithmetic, rather than educational, principles.

I highly recommend the article to all educators…and to parents who anticipate an argument with a teacher over a few hundredths of a point on  a test.

Grades and GPA ≠ Learning

The fact is that too many students (and their parents) obsess about the GPA and the grades students are receiving. But they pay too little attention to what students are actually learning. They pay too little attention to whether the student is actually academically prepared for college. It’s important to separate the mathematical expression of academic performance (i.e, your GPA) from the learning that is taking place in the classroom.

Mark Montgomery
Independent Educational Consultant

The post Grades and GPA Don’t Necessarily Reflect Knowledge first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

A Deeper Look into Your College Application

The Transcript

The most important part of your story is your transcript. And, understanding how your transcript is used in the college admissions process is critical. Your transcript is a record of your academic performance throughout high school. When examining your transcript, most colleges, especially those that are selective and highly selective, will look at more than your cumulative GPA. They also will look for trends in your grades. For example, was your GPA solid throughout high school; did it start out low and then improve? Did it start out high and then decline? Colleges prefer students with one of the first two trends over the last one.

High School Classes

Colleges also consider the kinds of classes you took in the context of what was available at your school. You might be wondering how a college would know what classes your school offered. When high schools send students’ transcripts to colleges, most schools also send something called a school profile. Usually, the profile includes a list of courses the school offers. That way colleges can see if your school offers advanced courses, whether in the form of honors, college prep, AP, or IB.

Once colleges have that information, they can look at your transcript to find out which, if any, of those courses you took. Colleges would rather see that you took a more challenging class and got a B than to see you took an easier class and got an A. (Of course, if you took a more challenging course and got an A, that definitely works in your favor.)

What Your Transcript Says About You

Freshman Year to Senior Year Grades

Now that you understand what colleges look for on a transcript. It’s important to consider the kind of story you want your transcript to tell. Contrary to popular belief, colleges do care about the grades you earn freshman year. In fact, those grades generally are a good indication of how you’ll do throughout the rest of high school. However, if you don’t do well in ninth grade, that does not mean you won’t be able to get into college. Colleges tend to be somewhat forgiving of a mediocre freshman year. They understand that the transition to high school can be difficult. The important thing is to improve your grades in the following three years.

Statistically, it becomes harder to raise your GPA as you progress through high school. Your courses are likely to become more difficult. The more courses and grades you factor in, the less your GPA can move in either direction. So starting out strong in ninth grade and staying strong throughout high school is in your best interest.

Are You Challenging Yourself?

You also need to think about where you want to challenge yourself. While colleges like to see that you took higher level classes, you do not need to take the most advanced courses in every subject. Rather, you should pick 2-3 of your best subjects and take higher level courses in those areas.

So, freshmen, as you begin your high school career, spend some time thinking about what kind of story you want your transcript to tell. And seniors, if you’re not happy with your story, you’ve got one more semester (depending on when you apply to college) to revise it.

The post The Story of Your College Application: Transcripts first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

First, taking college credits while still in high school can greatly reduce the cost of a college education. Especially because students with PSEO credits can transfer them directly to the flagship university in their home state.

Second, they can help prepare kids for the rigors of a college education. Students who take and complete college-level courses are going to be more desirable to colleges. Universities want to admit people that they believe have a high probability of successfully completing their degree. Students who have a record of college success as high school students clearly have an edge in the admissions process.

An article from last year’s Denver Post illustrates that more Colorado high schoolers are taking college courses.  Some of them are even landing at places like Harvard. Because Harvard recognizes and rewards students who take their education seriously.

This trend is continuing, and state policies are changing to reflect this reality.  As of this past week, the University of Colorado will now guarantee admission to any student in the state who has 30 hours of credit from a community college and a GPA of 2.7 on a 4.0 scale.

The post Community College and PSEO Classes Can Lead to University Success first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

It’s time to declare a moratorium on class ranking.

One of my most popular post is on the difference between weighted and unweighted GPA, and the phenomenon of class rank.  I get scads of comment on that post, and on other similar ones.

Today I received one from a distraught parents whose daughter was being “demoted” from the rank of #1 in her class because of a change in policy at the girl’s school.  I responded at length, and I decided to reprint it as a post in hopes of helping to calm other parents who obsess about class rank.

Here’s the question:

I may be a bit late to find your site, but my daughter (a senior) finds herself frustrated by a recent “mishap” in due diligence at her school. Historically, the school used unweighted grading, yet uses class rank (which also determines valedictorian). Evidently, the school decided to assign a 4.3 to A+. My daughter has several on her transcript and they are all in either core subjects or language (which is an elective at this school), all As and one A- in an AP course (of which she has several). We were sent her transcript with GPA (4.15) and rank (1). “Several parents”, seeing these values printed in the school handbook, and seeing their children’s rank drop complained to administration who then decided to “reverse” their newly published policy. If there has been a re-calculation (and she was told by her guidance counselor there has been), we have not been notified. I am furious at this convoluted “process” and lack of communication and have an appointment to speak with the principal. College apps are due, and I want the school to send her transcript/GPA/Class rank that we have in hand that was valid on Sept 2 (but apparently not now!). Is it worth it to ask them to send both? Is it worth it to ask them to calculate a weighted GPA as well (I wouldn’t even know the values! and would think that they do even if they don’t use weighted).

Also, is there a correlation between an unweighted grading system and use of class rank? In other words, could it be suggested that a school that uses unweighted grading ought to NOT rank?

Thanks in advance.

Here is my response:

The post Class Rank, Weighted and Unweighted GPA, and the "Education Race" first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

We didn’t get into a discussion about how one really measures high vs. low performance at different high schools. But our assumption seemed to be related to performance on state tests mandated by No Child Left Behind.

The answer to the question is “it depends.” If we are talking about a public institution, then depending on the state, the context of a students’ GPA gets very little attention.  So for some state institutions it may make no difference in the admissions process whether a student was in a high or low performing school. Keep in mind, however, that not all state-financed institutions are the same (admissions standards and practices at William and Mary are very different from those at Christopher Newport, for example).

How Do Colleges Compare GPAs?

However, when a college or university has a “holistic” admissions process, they will look at the student in the context of where that student went to school.  Admissions staff will take into account the strength of the student’s curriculum, the profile of the school that he attended (the percentage of students attend college, for example), and other tangibles and intangibles.

Admissions is not a scientific process.  I try to counsel my clients to stay focused on getting a good education. Learn as much as possible, and find subjects and ideas that excite them.  If a student can dwell on the learning and not the GPA, everything else will fall into place.

Educational Consultant

The post Comparing GPAs at Between High Schools first appeared on College Admission Counseling.

Picture this. Two geometry teachers in the same school.  Each uses a different grading scale.  In one class, you need an average of 90% to get an A, while another requires a 94%.  My reader’s daughter struggles in her geometry class, and has a 70% average.  In her class with the tough grader, a 70% is a D.  In the class next door, her 70% would be a C-

“Unfair!” cries my reader.  Shouldn’t there be a law against such discrepancies?

My response:  welcome to the American educational system.  50 states.  14,000 school districts.  Chaos.

I haven’t looked up the California laws or the district policies in question.  But with my two decades as a high school teacher, professor, and teacher of teachers while I was at the University of Denver, I can tell that these discrepancies are all too common.

I  made two points in my response to my reader’s question.

First, grading is not a science.  Ever.  Never has been.  Never will be.  So while you’re looking at a difference between a 70% and 73%, my question is—70% of what?  Of course, the answer is, “70% of points possible.”  But what does the “points possible” have to do with the amount of geometry learned?  The dirty little secret is that while all teachers (myself included) try to establish a fair, scientific, transparent grading scale, the fact is we mess with the numbers all the time.  Or, if we don’t, we are just deluding ourselves about the unscientific nature of the grading process.

Second, the standards movement is a step toward standardizing learning expectations across the nation.  No Child Left Behind (NCLB) is very controversial, but for those who want to be able to compare apples to apples, it’s at least an attempt to be able to measure learning across schools–and perhaps eventually from one classroom to the other.  Some schools and districts are trying to implement “standards-based report cards” that clearly define the learning outcomes required, and then measure a student’s performance (with a grade) based on whether they have mastered the concepts and skills.

An awful lot of people oppose these attempts at standardization as an intellectual straight jacket that ignores the fact that all students are different, and that teachers need lots of leeway in how they teach these diverse students.

Maybe.  Maybe not.

No matter whether you’re for or against the standards movement, a full implementation of a standards-based education would cause a revolution in America’s high schools.

Think about that 70% that my reader’s daughter is getting in chemistry.  Chances are she does her homework.  Perhaps homework counts as 50% of her overall course grade.  Let’s assume that she also gets a “participation grade” linked to attendance:  she gets points for just showing up.  But if she fails the tests, she can still pass the course–even if she hasn’t learned one darned thing in chemistry.

If students were suddenly graded solely on whether they learned something–and whether they could demonstrate those new skills and new bits of knowledge on a standards-based performance assessment, more kids would fail out of high school than is the case right now.   However, kids would understand that school is not just about showing up–it’s about learning.  And teachers would be held more accountable to  how well they were able to ensure their students learned  what was required on the assessments.  What a different world it would be.  But at least that 70% my reader’s daughter received in chemistry would really mean something.

[Also it’s interesting to remember that in college, students generally get no points for homework or for just showing up.  They have to perform on tests and on term papers and in labs.  It’s quite common–more common than we’d like to admit–for college students to never attend a single lecture and still pass the exam.  Even I did this:  when pursuing my teaching degree in French, I told the professor straight up that I would not be coming to class–that I would be taking the final only.  The teacher was fine with that:  I got an A in every one of the three classes I took from her–and I never spent a minute in her classroom.  All she (or I) cared about was whether I could speak and write the language.]

The fact is, we cannot compare apples to apples in our high schools.  Offices of admission at colleges and universities try their best to make sense of this, and they are actually  pretty good at making decent comparisons, in part because most of them try to get to know the schools and districts from which their applicants come.  They know that a 70% in chemistry from Philips Andover does not mean the same thing as a 70% from an inner city high school in Baltimore.  And while they try their best, the admissions business is more art than science.

But if you’re looking for “fairness” in American education, or if you believe that we can somehow compare apples to apples across classrooms, across schools, across districts, across states…well, dream on. Fifty states and 14,000 school districts?  We have apples…and kumquats…and endive…and radishes…and tater tots.

In the meantime, all we can say the 70% our chemistry student has received is an impressionistic measure of how well she stacks up against her peers in the same geometry class.  No  matter what numbers the different teachers in this young woman’s school are using, if they use different tests, assign different homework, and teach differently, there is absolutely no way to ascertain whether she would be getting a C or a D under a different numerical grading system.

All this said, I did tell my reader that I thought she might be better of to focus more on her daughter’s learning and less on the perceived iniquities of grading systems.   Whether a 70% counts as a C or a D, this chemistry student seems to be learning a lot less than the students with a 95%.    How could she be learning more?

And in fairness, my reader wrote in again to say that she agrees with this focus on learning.  It’s just that she finds the system is so frustrating.  And she’s right.  It is frustrating.

I wish more parents would take their frustrations to their elected school boards and demand greater standardization of grading, harmonization of curriculum, and teacher accountability.  I’m glad that people are writing to me to ask questions.  But perhaps we could channel that collective frustration and bring about some much needed change?

The post Grades, Your GPA, Education, and Learning: How Do We Compare Apples to Apples? first appeared on College Admission Counseling.