University of South Carolina

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know how U-SC maps FCPS grades to their grading rubric for freshman admissions?

Their middle 50% freshman class GPA is listed as 4.1 - 4.7 HS GPA with a corresponding SAT score of 1250-1400 (for non-residents). Highly unlikely that a kid at the 25th percentile of admits has a 4.1 weighted GPA using FCPS standards. Same could be said for the 75th percentile as well. 4.7/1400.

Appreciate feedback from parents who have gone through admissions process at U-SC. I couldn't find the rubric on their website. They have extensive doc. on how to convert a numeric GPA to a 4.0 scale that didn't help.

[Anonymous]

Have you tried looking at Naviance?

[Anonymous]

My kid got deferred and then waitlisted at U of SC this cycle. Not your public school but a regular (non-big 3 or 5) private school with a 3.9 unweighted GPA, and decent other stuff. U of SC was the only school on my DS's list surprised him with their admissions decision - we all thought he would have gotten in and he just did not (despite also demonstrated interest in an in person tour, an in person tour at a specialty major, etc). It's fine and he has committed to another school of course, but I think that school has gotten much more competitive.

[Anonymous]

All the southern schools have become more popular among students from the dc metro area, thus becoming more selective. Naviance is essentially out of date when a school has an influx in applications.

I also think the common app hurts when you are on record applying to a dozen schools.

Auburn and USC used to be sure bets. Not anymore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried looking at Naviance?

It doesn't provide the conversion rubric.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried looking at Naviance?

It doesn't provide the conversion rubric.

It shows you the type of student in your school that’s been accepted in the past, but it might be harder now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried looking at Naviance?

It doesn't provide the conversion rubric.

It shows you the type of student in your school that’s been accepted in the past, but it might be harder now.

Thanks! I get that but that alone won't help me. USC has scholarships based on GPA and the GPA cutoffs are high which would imply that no one from FCPS gets those. My assumption there is a conversion rubric which I'm unable to find.

[Anonymous]

OP-there’s really no point in a parent trying to figure that out or re-calculate the way particular school does it. There’s nothing you can do about it anyway and admissions are too unpredictable for that to really help. All I can say is U of SC is more competitive than it used to be and your kids should have safety they like

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

I also think the common app hurts when you are on record applying to a dozen schools.

Schools don’t have access to see every other school application sent in. Plenty of people apply to 20 schools and get accepted to 17, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid got deferred and then waitlisted at U of SC this cycle. Not your public school but a regular (non-big 3 or 5) private school with a 3.9 unweighted GPA, and decent other stuff. U of SC was the only school on my DS's list surprised him with their admissions decision - we all thought he would have gotten in and he just did not (despite also demonstrated interest in an in person tour, an in person tour at a specialty major, etc). It's fine and he has committed to another school of course, but I think that school has gotten much more competitive.

He had 3.9 on a 4.0 scale or 5?

Did you submit test scores?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid got deferred and then waitlisted at U of SC this cycle. Not your public school but a regular (non-big 3 or 5) private school with a 3.9 unweighted GPA, and decent other stuff. U of SC was the only school on my DS's list surprised him with their admissions decision - we all thought he would have gotten in and he just did not (despite also demonstrated interest in an in person tour, an in person tour at a specialty major, etc). It's fine and he has committed to another school of course, but I think that school has gotten much more competitive.

This shows how random it all is. My DD had a 3.82 uw with no APs (non-big 3 that only offers foreign language APs but not in her language) got in. TO.
Not high rigor but took 4 years of math (pre-calc is highest level), science (2 years of physics), English, history and FL.


Glad your son found somewhere else that makes him happy. My DD is also going elsewhere.

[Anonymous]

OP. I found a convoluted document online that kinda shows how they recalc GPA for OOS kids. My interpretation is that they convert A's to 4.5, B's to 3.5, etc (nothing about A-, A+-, etc.). Add 0.5 for Honors and 1 for AP. (So, an A, Honors would be 5.0). Add it all up, divide by number of classes to derive your U-SC GPA. Not clear if they remove classes taken in Middle School or non-core classes. Didn't have the patience to figure that out.

The above is if the school system assigns letter grades. If the school assigns number grades to each course, then the instruction was to take that grade.

[Anonymous]

Here's the doc - https://ed.sc.gov/tests/tests-files/eocep-files/uniform-grading-policy-february-2018/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got deferred and then waitlisted at U of SC this cycle. Not your public school but a regular (non-big 3 or 5) private school with a 3.9 unweighted GPA, and decent other stuff. U of SC was the only school on my DS's list surprised him with their admissions decision - we all thought he would have gotten in and he just did not (despite also demonstrated interest in an in person tour, an in person tour at a specialty major, etc). It's fine and he has committed to another school of course, but I think that school has gotten much more competitive.

This shows how random it all is. My DD had a 3.82 uw with no APs (non-big 3 that only offers foreign language APs but not in her language) got in. TO.
Not high rigor but took 4 years of math (pre-calc is highest level), science (2 years of physics), English, history and FL.


Glad your son found somewhere else that makes him happy. My DD is also going elsewhere.

Where is your DD going?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid got deferred and then waitlisted at U of SC this cycle. Not your public school but a regular (non-big 3 or 5) private school with a 3.9 unweighted GPA, and decent other stuff. U of SC was the only school on my DS's list surprised him with their admissions decision - we all thought he would have gotten in and he just did not (despite also demonstrated interest in an in person tour, an in person tour at a specialty major, etc). It's fine and he has committed to another school of course, but I think that school has gotten much more competitive.

This shows how random it all is. My DD had a 3.82 uw with no APs (non-big 3 that only offers foreign language APs but not in her language) got in. TO.
Not high rigor but took 4 years of math (pre-calc is highest level), science (2 years of physics), English, history and FL.


Glad your son found somewhere else that makes him happy. My DD is also going elsewhere.

Where is your DD going?

Elon