Every year my DC's nova high school. which does not rank its students, gives rising seniors a list of colleges that the past 5 years worth of students applied to, the percentage accepted, the average SAT or ACT score of accepted students and the average GPA of accepted students. The average GPA for students accepted by UVA was a 4.32. A 4.32 at this high school pretty much means the student took a couple AP classes freshman and sophomore years and is taking almost all AP and/or IB classes junior and senior years and is earning As in them. You are fooling yourself if you think 4.32 is not top 10% even if the school doesn't rank. Sure, that leaves room for a student with a lower GPA but not much. |
And from a "better" school maybe you can sneak in from the top 11%. |
My kids just went through the process in the last couple of years (not from VA), and I can tell you that the kids that went to UVA from their school were not in the top 10%, in some cases not even top 25%. There is a huge level of variation across schools and experiences out there .... |
| Why would someone want to go to UVA again? |
this is key. Out of state pays higher rates, fills the coffers. More competitive in-state. |
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The exact opposite is true. Far more difficult of out of state. |
Its not too hard to figure it out when you go to the school and have its naviance. |
Speaking as someone whose Dc is in the 11% -- they rank that as in the top 20%. Big jump downwards. |
The point is that the college says they aren't including schools that don't report rank in their number. |
That's just about irrelevant. Generally, UVA is not going to admit nova kids who are not in the top 10% regardless of whether the school system ranks in light of the fact UVA admissions can pretty well figure it out on its own. |
Agree. I was there when President Teresa Sullivan gave the convocation speech and used the "at least 10%" from the top 10% of their class. Admissions can find this info out in a snap. Are you a member of the honor society? Bing. What's your GPA. Bing. What's your AP load? Bing. ECs? Bing. What awards do you have? What do the counselors say about you? What do your letters of recommendation say? (FCPS won't help you apply if you don't meet their standard for who they think should go to UVA - they have a close relationship with the VA schools and need to protect that). Our DD's school doesn't rank. but the Jefferson Scholarship Committee insisted on it, so our Principal just figured it out and told them. There's really no mystery to it. When the school says it doesn't rank, it certainly does in its head, and that's the role of the college counselor to advise those who can to apply and those for whom he sees the process as expensive and not successful to look at alternatives. BTW, when your kid takes the PSAT, SAT or ACT, they are asked to fill in bubbles about sex, race, zip code, gpa and where they would rank themselves in their own class. That information is purchased by colleges who are seeking certain types of students. |
Yikes. |
d If this is in FCPS, there are no APs in freshman year and only two available in sophomore year. My DC took one AP sophomore year and three junior year and has a GPA above a 4.32 after junior year (as well as one gen Ed class for one of his core classes). However, the GPA's listed on Naviance are after senior year and most kids get better GPAs senior year so those will be higher than what they had at the end of junior year. |
| ^ it's not FCPS. |