Anonymous
Post 02/17/2019 01:20     Subject: Where are your kids Getting in?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Please realize to those that aren’t getting into UMD, they only look at weighted GPA’s. This clearly benefits high schools with massive AP offerings, or counties like MCPS that give full whole points increases to honors courses and AP courses. Not to mention their inflated grading scale. For schools that don’t offer a lot of AP’s or don’t curve an A and a B into an automatic A, it is very tough to compete. Don’t take it personally. Every college shows what they are looking for when you look on college confidential. You can see exactly where large schools took the first cuts. What matters to them. It pays to skim thru the forum for sure.

You just REALLY need to do your HW and find the schools that benefit your school’s grading, how much they truly look at all aspects of your application, and rank standardized test scores. Where your kid shines and the school appreciates that, is the schools you apply to.

Same with scholarships, merit, and honors colleges. Look at ALL the details. Is it holistic, is it a scale, do they look at leadership, rigor, etc... Ohio State’s only full tuition scholarships for OOS is the Morell. It has nothing to do with GPA or testing. Only leadership and diversity. So do your HW early. Finding the right matches, not the right names. Time really slips away senior year.

OH and any rolling admissions. Apply in the summer. More likely to get accepted and with a high merit package.


MD does not just look at weighted GPA's. That's just not true.


But a WGPA under 4.0 would not look good coming from an MCPS school.
Anonymous
Post 02/17/2019 00:54     Subject: Where are your kids Getting in?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:That’s just recalculating. It is not the same thing as using the high school’s weighting.



Exactly. They don’t use the high school weighting. They use their own.



Well I have yet to see any student under a 4.0 get into UMCP this year on college confidential unless their weighted was above 4.0. I highly doubt the kids admitted here are smarter than these top schools with lower GPA averages. Something doesn’t add up here.

Looking at average GPA here:

UMCP 4.3

Penn 3.9
Brown 4.0
UC Berkeley 3.8
Harvard 4.1
UMich 3.8
MIT 4.1
Wisc 3.8
Notre Dame 4.0
BU 3.6
Georgetown 4.0
USC 3.7
Williams 4.0
UVA 4.1




If you’re using College Confidential as your data source you’re doing it wrong.
Anonymous
Post 02/17/2019 00:45     Subject: Where are your kids Getting in?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:That’s just recalculating. It is not the same thing as using the high school’s weighting.



Exactly. They don’t use the high school weighting. They use their own.



Well I have yet to see any student under a 4.0 get into UMCP this year on college confidential unless their weighted was above 4.0. I highly doubt the kids admitted here are smarter than these top schools with lower GPA averages. Something doesn’t add up here.

Looking at average GPA here:

UMCP 4.3

Penn 3.9
Brown 4.0
UC Berkeley 3.8
Harvard 4.1
UMich 3.8
MIT 4.1
Wisc 3.8
Notre Dame 4.0
BU 3.6
Georgetown 4.0
USC 3.7
Williams 4.0
UVA 4.1



Anonymous
Post 02/16/2019 22:42     Subject: Where are your kids Getting in?
Anonymous wrote:That’s just recalculating. It is not the same thing as using the high school’s weighting.



Exactly. They don’t use the high school weighting. They use their own.

Anonymous
Post 02/16/2019 22:17     Subject: Where are your kids Getting in?
That’s just recalculating. It is not the same thing as using the high school’s weighting.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2019 22:05     Subject: Where are your kids Getting in?
Anonymous wrote:But not all schools weight transcripts. Typically private do not, nor do they necessarily designate honors courses.


Colleges know this, and typically have their own way of 'recalculating' GPA against their own standards. For example, they know that junior year English at Sidwell is very rigorous even if it isn't called honors or AP, or weighted.

Every application a student sends is accompanied by an information sheet produced by the college counselor that contextualize the applications. These are standard forms that are not customized for certain students.

The school report includes:

-- the courses available and the typical course load of students there (so colleges can tell whether a student is taking an average/more challenging/less challenging course load
-- which, if any, courses are weighted and if so, by how much
-- average GPA of the student's class
-- what extracurriculars are available
-- average SAT/ACT
-- class rank (or if the school doesn't rank)

Trust that UMd and every other college is aware of which high schools weight courses and which do not. And they have a method of normalizing this across its applicant pool.

Anonymous
Post 02/16/2019 20:20     Subject: Where are your kids Getting in?
But not all schools weight transcripts. Typically private do not, nor do they necessarily designate honors courses.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2019 20:11     Subject: Where are your kids Getting in?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Please realize to those that aren’t getting into UMD, they only look at weighted GPA’s. This clearly benefits high schools with massive AP offerings, or counties like MCPS that give full whole points increases to honors courses and AP courses. Not to mention their inflated grading scale. For schools that don’t offer a lot of AP’s or don’t curve an A and a B into an automatic A, it is very tough to compete. Don’t take it personally. Every college shows what they are looking for when you look on college confidential. You can see exactly where large schools took the first cuts. What matters to them. It pays to skim thru the forum for sure.

You just REALLY need to do your HW and find the schools that benefit your school’s grading, how much they truly look at all aspects of your application, and rank standardized test scores. Where your kid shines and the school appreciates that, is the schools you apply to.

Same with scholarships, merit, and honors colleges. Look at ALL the details. Is it holistic, is it a scale, do they look at leadership, rigor, etc... Ohio State’s only full tuition scholarships for OOS is the Morell. It has nothing to do with GPA or testing. Only leadership and diversity. So do your HW early. Finding the right matches, not the right names. Time really slips away senior year.

OH and any rolling admissions. Apply in the summer. More likely to get accepted and with a high merit package.



MD does not just look at weighted GPA's. That's just not true.


I think PP met they don’t look at UW GPA. Only weighted.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2019 20:10     Subject: Re:Where are your kids Getting in?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So if your HE doesn’t weight AP and honors courses, you are screwed for UMD? Most private schools don’t weight these classes.


Yes. We’re at a Catholic HS and admissions to UMCP are terrible.


Doesn’t UMD realize that there is ridiculous grade inflation from MD public schools?


Yes, but they use it to their advantage. They look more prestigious and more OOS will come in and will pay full tuition. But this is leaving many in state kids without an acceptance. Public or private kids. Our state doesn’t mandate in vs out of state % like Ca, NC, Texas, etc... They are slowly moving each year to 50/50% and making a lot more money in the process. Pretty smart
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2019 19:40     Subject: Re:Where are your kids Getting in?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So if your HE doesn’t weight AP and honors courses, you are screwed for UMD? Most private schools don’t weight these classes.


My private school kid just got into UMD-CP Honors College. No weighting.


And what was his GPA and scores?
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2019 18:18     Subject: Where are your kids Getting in?
Anonymous wrote:Please realize to those that aren’t getting into UMD, they only look at weighted GPA’s. This clearly benefits high schools with massive AP offerings, or counties like MCPS that give full whole points increases to honors courses and AP courses. Not to mention their inflated grading scale. For schools that don’t offer a lot of AP’s or don’t curve an A and a B into an automatic A, it is very tough to compete. Don’t take it personally. Every college shows what they are looking for when you look on college confidential. You can see exactly where large schools took the first cuts. What matters to them. It pays to skim thru the forum for sure.

You just REALLY need to do your HW and find the schools that benefit your school’s grading, how much they truly look at all aspects of your application, and rank standardized test scores. Where your kid shines and the school appreciates that, is the schools you apply to.

Same with scholarships, merit, and honors colleges. Look at ALL the details. Is it holistic, is it a scale, do they look at leadership, rigor, etc... Ohio State’s only full tuition scholarships for OOS is the Morell. It has nothing to do with GPA or testing. Only leadership and diversity. So do your HW early. Finding the right matches, not the right names. Time really slips away senior year.

OH and any rolling admissions. Apply in the summer. More likely to get accepted and with a high merit package.


This is simply not true.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2019 18:13     Subject: Re:Where are your kids Getting in?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So if your HE doesn’t weight AP and honors courses, you are screwed for UMD? Most private schools don’t weight these classes.


My private school kid just got into UMD-CP Honors College. No weighting.


^^^18:12 here. Private Catholic school.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2019 18:12     Subject: Re:Where are your kids Getting in?
Anonymous wrote:So if your HE doesn’t weight AP and honors courses, you are screwed for UMD? Most private schools don’t weight these classes.


My private school kid just got into UMD-CP Honors College. No weighting.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2019 18:10     Subject: Where are your kids Getting in?
3.6 weighted 1240 SAT
DC public
Accepted at JMU, Radford, Mt St Mary’s, Longwood, Univ of Louisville honors program.

Looks like UofL will be the spot. Visiting soon. He’s excited. Best price. Like JMU, but being out of state, even with DCTag, it’s still almost $10K more.

Just glad that this process is winding down.
Anonymous
Post 02/16/2019 18:08     Subject: Re:Where are your kids Getting in?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:So if your HE doesn’t weight AP and honors courses, you are screwed for UMD? Most private schools don’t weight these classes.


Yes. We’re at a Catholic HS and admissions to UMCP are terrible.


Doesn’t UMD realize that there is ridiculous grade inflation from MD public schools?